Islam adopts lunisolar calendar

[acgoldis]

What would have happened if at some point Islam adopts a lunisolar calendar (possibly taking it from Judaism) so that it had leap years and the holidays stayed put? I can see two immediate consequences.

1. A culture which wishes to adopt an agricultural festival to Islam can repurpose the festival as an Islamic holiday (think Saturnalia and Christmas).

2, possibly more important: Ramadan stops precessing when the calendar gets updated. Depending on when Ramadan falls, conversion to Islam may become more difficult. When would you prefer to have your fast: a 10 hour day when it's in the 40's or a 14 hour day when it's in the 80's? Also, how would the faith spread into the Southern Hemisphere?

 

[Pralaya]

What would have happened if at some point Islam adopts a lunisolar calendar (possibly taking it from Judaism) so that it had leap years and the holidays stayed put? I can see two immediate consequences.

1. A culture which wishes to adopt an agricultural festival to Islam can repurpose the festival as an Islamic holiday (think Saturnalia and Christmas).

2, possibly more important: Ramadan stops precessing when the calendar gets updated. Depending on when Ramadan falls, conversion to Islam may become more difficult. When would you prefer to have your fast: a 10 hour day when it's in the 40's or a 14 hour day when it's in the 80's? Also, how would the faith spread into the Southern Hemisphere?

Assuming that Muharram takes the place of January and that the literal description such as Rabi al-Thani (the second spring) at least somewhat correlate with the seasons, Ramadan would take place between September and October. Assuming you live on the Northern hemisphere, you can see that fasting during that period of time is not long of a time to fill, considering the sun sets before 8 pm at times. Also, in Europe at least, it's not too cold that would force someone to take in energy in form of food or drinks, unlike the scorching heat in the summer which would definitely set up some in the position to pass out if they drink enough water. Therefore, I'd say that this would actually improve Ramadan for most muslims.
Muslims on the Southern hemisphere would be forced to deal with the opposite, but that's already happening IRL, while those on the equator have nothing to gain or lose. And even outside of that, Muslims never established a strong religious presence south of the equator (the Swahili Coast could count, but outside of that...)