Estimate from Pew Research Center — The Future of World Religions↗ (opens in a new tab).
Overview
The Amman Message, issued in Jordan, sought to declare what Islam is and what it is not, and what actions represent it and what actions do not.1 Its stated goal was to clarify to the modern world the true nature of Islam and the nature of true Islam.2
Theology and its schools
By the late eleventh century Sunni theology had passed through its consolidation and entered a period of intense challenges from Shiite Ismāʿīlite theology and from the Arabic tradition of Aristotelian philosophy, falsafa.3 That followed a long appropriation of the Greek sciences through the translation movement from Greek into Arabic, after which philosophy and the Greek sciences were naturalised into the discourse of kalām and Muslim theology.4
The translations blossomed under the ʿAbbasids, who ruled from 750 to 1258, and particularly in the first two centuries of their caliphate.5 A living interplay took place, especially in the formative period of falsafa, between the doctrines of the philosophers writing in Arabic and the Greek sources being made available to them.6
Al-Ghazālī’s critique of twenty positions of falsafa, in his Incoherence of the Philosophers, is described as a significant landmark in the history of philosophy, advancing the nominalist critique of Aristotelian science developed later in fourteenth-century Europe.7 He understood the importance of falsafa and developed a complex response that rejected and condemned some of its teachings while allowing him to accept and apply others.8
Religious authority today
Three questions were sent to twenty-four of the most senior religious scholars from around the world, representing all the branches and schools of Islam: who is a Muslim, whether it is permissible to declare someone an apostate, and who has the right to issue fatwas.9 On the basis of the answers given, an international Islamic conference of two hundred of the world’s leading Islamic scholars from fifty countries was convened in July 2005.10 Those scholars forbade takfir, the declaration of apostasy, between Muslims.11 Drawing on the recognised schools of law, they set out the subjective and objective preconditions for issuing fatwas, so exposing ignorant and illegitimate edicts made in the name of Islam.12
The resulting points were unanimously adopted by the Islamic world’s political and temporal leaderships at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit at Mecca in December 2005.13
References
- “It sought to declare what Islam is and what it is not, and what actions represent it and what actions do not.” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “Its goal was to clarify to the modern world the true nature of Islam and the nature of true Islam.” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “Sunni theology had just passed through its consolidation and entered a period of intense challenges from Shiite Ismāʿīlite theology and the Arabic tradition of Aristotelian philosophy” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: al-Ghazālī, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “philosophy and the Greek sciences were “naturalized” into the discourse of kalām and Muslim theology” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: al-Ghazālī, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “it was under the ʿAbbasids (750–1258), and in particular in the first two centuries of their caliphate, that the translations blossomed” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “a living interplay took place, especially in the formative period of falsafa , between the doctrines of the philosophers writing in Arabic and the Greek sources made available” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “is a significant landmark in the history of philosophy as it advances the nominalist critique of Aristotelian science developed later in 14th century Europe” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: al-Ghazālī, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “developed a complex response that rejected and condemned some of its teachings, while it also allowed him to accept and apply others” — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: al-Ghazālī, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “three questions to 24 of the most senior religious scholars from all around the world representing all the branches and schools of Islam” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “convened an international Islamic conference of 200 of the world’s leading Islamic scholars” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “they forbade takfir (declarations of apostasy) between Muslims” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “they set forth the subjective and objective preconditions for the issuing of fatwas, thereby exposing ignorant and illegitimate edicts in the name of Islam” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
- “unanimously adopted by the Islamic World’s political and temporal leaderships at the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit at Mecca in December 2005” — The Amman Message, source page↗ (opens in a new tab)
Individual sourced statements
Statements recorded one at a time, each shown with the words it rests on. They sit alongside the account above rather than beneath it.
The Amman Message states that it sought to declare what Islam is and what it is not, and which actions represent it and which do not.
“It sought to declare what Islam is and what it is not, and what actions represent it and what actions do not.”
The Amman Message records that King Abdullah II put three questions to 24 senior religious scholars from around the world, representing all the branches and schools of Islam.
“King Abdullah II then sent the following three questions to 24 of the most senior religious scholars from all around the world representing all the branches and schools of Islam”
Dar al-Ifta al-Missriyyah states that Dr Nazir Mohammed Ayyad has served as Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt since 12 August 2024.
“Currently serving as the Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt since August 12, 2024.”
Every quotation above was checked against its source on 5 September 2026.
Authority
Islam has no central authority.
There is no clerical hierarchy speaking for all Muslims and no single authority that fixes dates worldwide. Observance is announced nationally or regionally, which is why calendar output is region-scoped.
Branches
Sufism is a dimension of practice found within Sunni and Shia Islam, not a separate branch. It is documented on its own page and linked from both, never listed as a peer of Sunni and Shia.
How these dates are worked out
This is the part that decides whether a date in your rota is right. Every observance below is computed from a published rule rather than copied from anyone’s list, and the rule is what explains why a date moves, why two calendars can disagree, and how far ahead you can safely plan.
A lunar or lunisolar calendar
- What sets the date
- The date is fixed in the tradition's own calendar and converted into the Gregorian one. Where that calendar is lunar, its year is about eleven days shorter than the solar year.
- Why it falls where it does
- A purely lunar year drifts backwards through the seasons, which is why an Islamic observance falls earlier each Gregorian year and works its way round the seasons over about thirty-three years. A lunisolar calendar such as the Hebrew one inserts a leap month to stop that drift, which is why its festivals stay in roughly the same season while still moving by weeks.
- What that means for planning
- Where the start of a month depends on a sighting rather than a table, the date can differ by a day between countries and is not certain until an authority announces it. The site marks those dates estimated and resolves them per country.
Observances in 2026
Sources
No expert review. Accuracy here rests on continuous machine verification of every quotation against its source. Spotted an error? Corrections are answered within five working days.