a radiance and the latter a light has no bearing on knowing the number of years and the reckoning; rather, what matters for this is movement from one zodiacal sign to another. Moreover, our reckoning of months and years has not been tied to the sun, but to the crescent, as that verse indicates. He has also said:

“Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve months, in Allah’s decree on the day He created the heavens and the earth; four of them are sacred.”

He thus states that the months number twelve, and it is self-evident that a month is lunar. It follows that each is known by the crescent. I have also been informed that the religious laws preceding ours likewise tied their rulings to the crescents. Changes were introduced only by those among their followers who altered them. This is what the Jews do in using the conjunction of the solar and lunar discs and in fixing some of their festivals by the reckoning of the solar year. Likewise, in determining their fast, the Christians take account of the conjunction near the beginning of the solar year, while making their other festivals follow the solar year according to the events in the life of the Messiah.

The Sabians, Magians and other polytheists likewise follow conventions of their own. Some reckon solely by the solar year and have their own conventions concerning the number of its months; for although the year itself is natural, its division into months is numerical and conventional. Others reckon by the lunar year, but use the conjunction of the two discs.

What the Sacred Law has prescribed is the most complete, the best, the clearest, the soundest and the least susceptible to inconsistency.