on anything readily observable, as noted above; rather, they must resort to calculation and counting. Likewise, those who define the month by a natural cycle but rely on conjunction must resort to counting and calculation. Moreover, what they calculate is something obscure, known only to a few people, and involves effort, hardship, and the risk of error.

What our revealed Law has brought is therefore the most perfect arrangement: it determines the month by a natural, readily observable phenomenon, visible to everyone. Thus, no one goes astray from his religion, nor does attending to it distract him from anything beneficial, involve him in matters that do not concern him, or become a means of introducing confusion into Allah’s religion, as some scholars of other faiths do with their own religions.

As for the year, it has no readily observable boundary in the sky, so calculation and counting are unavoidable. Counting lunar months was therefore clearer and more accessible to everyone than reckoning by the sun’s course, while also making the year correspond to the months. Moreover, when years accumulate, all nations customarily have to count them, since a succession of years has no celestial boundary by which their number can be known. The number of months was thus made to correspond to the number of zodiacal signs: the year was set at twelve months, matching the number of signs through which the sun completes its circuit in one solar year. When the moon has circulated through them, it has completed its annual circuit.

All this makes clear the meaning of His words:

“and determined for it phases, so that you may know the number of years