Rare Event: The Sun Will Be Directly Over the Kaaba as Eid al-Adha Takbir and Zuhur Adhan Resound

In a very rare astronomical phenomenon that occurs only over long-run time cycles, the Muslim world in 2026 will witness a special event that couples the sanctity of time with the precision of the cosmos. At that moment, calculations of the Hijri lunar calendar and the solar calendar appear to meet at a single point, illustrating the grandeur of cosmic order and its connection to Islam’s major acts of worship.

On Wednesday, 27 May 2026, the world will not merely enter a regular day. That day will be a moment when the Sun is directly overhead in the sky above the Holy City of Mecca at the time of zuhur, coinciding with the takbir of Eid al-Adha at 10 Dzulhijjah 1447 Hijri and the adhan for Zuhur at Masjid al-Haram.

Reported by Al Jazeera on Wednesday (20/5/2026), the uniqueness of this phenomenon lies in the fundamental difference between the solar year of about 365.24 days and the Hijri lunar year of about 354.36 days.

The roughly 10.8-day difference each year is what causes Islamic holy days to move across seasons. Therefore, Ramadan sometimes arrives in summer and at other times in winter.

A Hijri year takes around 32.58 years to return to the same point in the solar calendar, precisely about 32.58 years. This is what makes certain moments in the Islamic calendar occasionally coincide with specific astronomical times.