When is Isra and Mi’raj?
In 2026, Isra and Mi’raj falls on Friday, January 16, 2026. It is an observance rather than a federal holiday, so federal offices and most businesses follow their normal schedules.
History of Isra and Mi’raj
Isra and Mi’raj commemorates the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque and his Ascension, narratives rooted in the Quran and later Islamic tradition. Muslims may connect the night with prayer and reflection on faith and the five daily prayers, but devotional forms and views on a special public celebration differ.
The holiday belongs to Somaliland's separate statutory calendar: Article 15 of its 2026 Labour Law names Israa and Mi’raj as one paid day. It is not among the religious leave days enumerated in the current federal civil-service regulation, so the guide must not call it a uniform Federal Republic public holiday.
Somaliland's 2026 working calendar placed the holiday on Friday, January 16. The religious date follows Rajab and is not generated for later years here. Somaliland's law guarantees paid rest or holiday-work overtime, but an employer or authority must confirm any compensating date when it overlaps the weekly Friday rest.
This is a Somaliland-calendar entry, not a uniform Federal Republic closure. Somaliland administers its own institutions and holiday law, while Somalia's federal government rejects its separation; territorial authority and political identification are especially contested in parts of Sool and Sanaag. Readers should follow the authority that actually governs their workplace and location.
How Isra and Mi’raj is observed
Somaliland-only paid holiday shown for Friday, January 16, 2026; federal closure is not inferred, and any replacement rest date requires local confirmation.
Traditions of Isra and Mi’raj
Household and community practice
Worshippers may pray, read Quran, hear the account of the Night Journey or reflect privately; no single additional ritual is compulsory. Practice varies by family resources, locality, religious outlook and displacement or diaspora circumstances.
Organised observance
Mosques and religious teachers may arrange evening recitation or lectures according to their own scholarly approach. Organisers and local authorities set the programme, access rules and security arrangements for each place and year.
Practical planning
Confirm whether a Somaliland workplace applied another rest day after the Friday overlap and do not carry that answer into federal institutions. Check current federal, state, Somaliland, municipal, congregation and employer notices instead of assuming a uniform national shutdown.
Dates and observance rules are checked against the official Somalia cultural, civic or religious guidance. Government, regional, school and employer schedules in Somalia may differ; check the linked official source and current local notices before making time-sensitive plans.
History sources: Villa Somalia: Federal Republic of Somalia national-holiday list, Federal Ministry of Labour: Civil Service Law No. 11 and Friday substitution, Federal Ministry of Labour: civil-service leave and religious-holiday regulations, Somali Embassy in Belgium: 2026 federal-office closure notices, Somaliland government: 2026 Labour Law and paid public holidays, Somaliland government: public-holiday profile and durations, SONNA: Somalia's official 2026 Ramadan crescent confirmation, SONNA: federal president attends Eid al-Fitr prayer on March 20, 2026, SONNA: Eid al-Adha prayer in Mogadishu and Baidoa on May 27, 2026, Federal Ministry of Labour: Somalia's 2026 Labour Day programme, International Labour Organization: Somalia's 2026 May Day conference, SONNA: 2026 Somali Youth Day and 83rd SYL anniversary, SONNA: history of the Somali Youth League and May 15, United Nations: chronology of Somalia's June and July 1960 independence, Somalia National Bureau of Statistics: political and independence history, SONNA: Republic Day gatherings in Somalia and the diaspora in 2026, SONNA: adoption and history of the Somali flag, Somaliland government: official 35th-anniversary May 18 coverage, United Nations: Somaliland's 1991 declaration and separate institutions, Somali Magazine: Mogadishu Mawlid observance on August 25, 2026, Religions journal: Somali Sufi orders, poetry, dhikr and Mawlid, Associated Press: contemporary Somali Mawlid practice and religious disagreement.
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