Rule 1: 1. The modern date: ordinal day, month, cardinal year
The day of the month is an ordinal agreeing with the masculine يَوْمٌ (understood): اَلْأَوَّلُ، اَلثَّانِي … اَلْعَاشِرُ، اَلْحَادِي عَشَرَ، اَلْخَامِسَ عَشَرَ، اَلْحَادِي وَالْعِشْرُونَ، اَلثَّلَاثُونَ. It is followed by مِنْ + the month, and the date as a whole is an adverb of time in the accusative (يَوْمَ) or after فِي. The year is a cardinal in the genitive after سَنَةَ or عَامَ; since سَنَةٌ is feminine it is usually not repeated, and the units take the masculine form if they refer to it (سَنَةَ سِتٍّ وَخَمْسِينَ). In practice dates are often written in figures and read aloud.
يَوْمَ الْأَحَدِ، الثَّالِثِ مِنْ شَهْرِ أَبْرِيلَ
yawma l-aḥadi, th-thālithi min shahri abrīla
on Sunday, the third of April
اَلثَّالِثِ in apposition to the genitive الْأَحَدِ.
فِي الْخَامِسَ عَشَرَ مِنْ رَمَضَانَ
fī l-khāmisa ʿashara min ramaḍāna
on the fifteenth of Ramaḍān
Compound ordinals 11th–19th are indeclinable.
فِي الْحَادِي وَالْعِشْرِينَ مِنْ مَارِسَ
fī l-ḥādī wa-l-ʿishrīna min mārisa
on the twenty-first of March
أَوَّلُ مُحَرَّمٍ سَنَةَ ١ هـ الْمُوَافِقُ ١٦ يُولِيُو سَنَةَ ٦٢٢ م
awwalu muḥarramin sanata 1 h al-muwāfiqu 16 yūliyū sanata 622 m
1 Muḥarram 1 AH, corresponding to 16 July 622 CE
The conventional starting point of the Hijrī calendar.
سَنَةَ أَلْفٍ وَتِسْعِمِئَةٍ وَسَبْعٍ وَأَرْبَعِينَ
sanata alfin wa-tisʿimiʾatin wa-sabʿin wa-arbaʿīna
in the year 1947
Read from the largest unit in modern usage; classical texts begin with the units: سَبْعٍ وَأَرْبَعِينَ وَتِسْعِمِئَةٍ وَأَلْفٍ.