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The Muslim society (Ummah) is divided on the issue of replacing the Islamic criteria of authenticating the beginning of the new month by sighting the Hilal on the eve of 30th night (Islamic month starts from the Sunset) locally, with a method of calculation based on the conjugation calculations for the global declaration. The reason for the divide is the lack of understanding of the issue by the masses and the confusion between religious scholars and scientists. If it was not for preserving the sacredness of Allah’s months, following His prescribed plan, mankind would have had the liberty to make any choice to fix the duration of the month, year, and count of the time. However, Allah did not allow this liberty to the mankind, at least in religious matters, and associated his sacred time count with the Lunar cycle (a complete rotation of the Earth around the Sun in its orbit). Here are the relevant Quranic references. “It is He who made the sun to be a shining glory and the Moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for it; that you may know the number of years and the count (of time). Allah has not created this but in truth. (Thus) does He explain His signs in detail, for those who may understand. (10:5)”
“Surely the months with Allah are twelve in the book of Allah since the day He created the heavens and the Earth; four of them are sacred” (9:36).
From the above it is clear that Allah has been guiding to the mankind, right from the beginning to follow the Lunar count and many societies of the world have been using the Lunar calendar in some form. Allah associated religious functions like Haj, Ramadan, and Eids with the Lunar count. Religious rituals of Jews, ancient Arabs, and others also have been associated with the Lunar calendar. In the time of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) Jews were using a calculated Lunar calendar and were making intercalations to match it with the Solar calendar and Arabs were using other intercalations to change the Haj dates according to their own desires. Allah disliked their actions, and equated it to the disbelief in him. Here is what Allah mentioned in this context in the Quran: “Verily intercalation (nasi’) is an increase in disbelief: the disbelievers are led to wrong thereby: for they make it lawful one year, and forbidden it another year, in order to adjust the number of months forbidden by Allah and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their course seems pleasing to them. But Allah guides not those who reject Faith. (9:37)”
Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) did not use the calculated Lunar calendar. The Jews of medina used to taunt him for not knowing and using calculations for ascertaining the month. If calculations were the preferred method, Allah would have taught Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) and his companions the method of calculation, as it is easy for Him. If Allah wanted, he could have fixed the days of the month to 29 or 30 or any combination of them, just as he had fixed the 12 months in a year and such calculations would have been easy for everyone. For example, alternating the month with 29 days and 30 days would make the Lunar year 354 days which is the closest number of days for the 12 Lunar cycles (354 days + fraction). However, Allah and his messenger (peace be upon him) did not do so. If Allah did not require us to use such a simple method of calculation (counting to 29 and 30 for alternate months), would he require us to make complicated astronomical calculations for this purpose? Allah guided Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) to teach us that the month is sometimes 29 days and sometimes 30 days, and we need to confirm it by witnessing the Hilal through the sighting it with eyes on the 30th night (on the completion of the 29th day) whether the month will end on 29th day or will it be of 30 days. It is a more universal approach and is easy for everyone, illiterate, or learned, whether living in the city, in a forest, in a desert, or on a mountain or on the sea, and it includes Allah’s wisdom and conforms to his natural plan. Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) talked against intercalations to the Lunar calendar and remarked in his Last Sermon as follows, “Today, certainly the time has returned to its original form as Allah had created it to be at the time of creation of the Heavens and the Earth.” Imam Fakhar ud Din Razi states that by doing so the Prophet (PBUH) brought the sacred months back to their original timings. Muslims of the later generations have preserved this sacred order by sighting the Hilal locally every month and ascertaining each month based on this sighting and no altercations have been made since then. Authentication of the new Moon on the completion of the 29th day (30th evening) of the month is a religious necessity. All scholars agree on this aspect. For confirmation purposes one, two, or more, eye witnesses are required depending on the weather conditions and the following of a particular Fiqhi school. Islamic states form official committees comprising of scholars and astronomers to witness the Hilal, and examine any individual Hilal sighting reports, and confirm or negate the Hilal sighting on the 30th evening of a Lunar month.
Scholars in the past have differed over the issue of local Moon sighting and global Moon sighting. While discussing the issue that a Moon sighting report from how far may be accepted, some early Hanfi scholars proposed that the first sighting anywhere in the world would be valid for the whole world. It was an academic possibility and an extreme case of extending the range of validity of the local Moon sighting. Islam is not the religion of extremes, and those who proposed the concept were not aware of the fact that Earth is not a flat field that it generally appears to us but is nearly spherical and Sun sets at different regions of the Earth at different times. The concept of global Moon sighting remained an extreme academic possibility and was never practiced, even by those who proposed it. The local Moon sighting has been applicable in all practical cases in the past and present. None of the classical scholars, including those who advocated for the global Moon sighting possibility, have entertained the possibility of bypassing the need for eye witnessing to ascertain the Hilal sighting on the eve of 30th of the month.
The Proponents of calculations are applying a new form of global Moon sighting by arbitrarily fixing it with the local sighting at Mecca. This is a different approach from global sighting as first sighting from anywhere else other than Mecca is not considered in this case. There is no religious injunction (nuss) from Quran and Sunnah available for doing so. Previous Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Bin Baz is reported to have ruled: “As for those who say that it is necessary to follow the sighting of Makkah, then let it be known to them, that there is no proof or basis for this in the Quran and Hadith”. (Sheikh Abdullah bin Baz AlBa’ath ul Islaaami Zil Hijjah 1399 Hijri). Therefore, one may consider it a modern innovation (Biddah). As far as Astronomy is concerned, the flaw here is that such a fixation of time and space is not in accordance with the celestial data. The new Moon is neither seen first in Macca, nor is seen at a fixed time and space after conjugation. Therefore, any such fixation with a particular space on the Earth is against celestial data and would not work for the intended purposes. For example, USA and Saudi Arabia have a time differential of 10-13 hours, and a Moon that may not be seen in Saudi Arabia, has up to 45% probability of being seen in the USA. In Saudi Arabia local Moon sighting is practiced and they declare the Eid, Ramadan, and Haj dates according to their local sighting. If the Muslim Community from USA follows the Saudi Arabian announcements and declares the Eid and Ramdan dates according to the Saudi announcement, then what would happen when Moon becomes visible on the same evening in the USA? Any pre-announcement, based on Umul Qura criteria or Saudi Arabian announcements, may not be valid in America and rest of the World. That is why many of the previous announcements by ISNA were not compatible with the local Moon sighting. Any calculations or global criteria must conform to all local Moon sightings for its validity and acceptance. Muslims in any locality are required to fast if the Ramdan Moon has been sighted in the community, and any global declaration that does not conform to the local sighting would be erroneous.
Apart from the above complications, the fundamental question from Islamic perspective is whether such a global declaration for the whole world is in conformity with Allah’s sacred order or it violates it? If it violates it, it must be rejected according to the Quranic injunctions. Most of the Muslims and religious scholars are not aware of the astronomical reality that each month is of 29 days in some part of the world and of 30 days in the remaining part of the world and these regions keep on changing every month. The knowledge of which regions will have the month of 29 days and which regions will have the month of 30 days is with Allah only and Astronomers may not predict it precisely, but they may confirm it after it happens. One may observe that the calculated parabolic shape visibility curves available at www.moonsighting.com, www.hilalsighting.org, and other websites exhibit that the visibility of the moon on the 30th evening of the month is limited to a smaller (less than 50% portion of the Earth) and remaining portion of the Earth is in the region of invisibility. The regions of Earth which are in the regions of invisibility on 30th evening will mostly be included in the regions of visibility in calculations for the next evening, indicating that the month will be 29 days in some part of the Earth and 30 days in the remaining part of the Earth. The local sighting preserves the sacredness of Allah’s months, according to his celestial plan. However, any global declaration using Um ul Qura criteria used by Saudi Arabia and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or any other criteria that forces the month to be of the same number of days for the whole world violates the celestial plan of Allah and does not preserve the sacredness of Allah’s months and tempers with the Abadah of Muslims. Therefore, it amounts to making altercations in Allah’s sacred months and must be rejected on the baisis of clear Quranic injunctions mentioned above.
Shahid A. Shaheen
Source: Global Moon Sighting Declarations Temper With Allah’s Sacred Months?
“Surely the months with Allah are twelve in the book of Allah since the day He created the heavens and the Earth; four of them are sacred” (9:36).
From the above it is clear that Allah has been guiding to the mankind, right from the beginning to follow the Lunar count and many societies of the world have been using the Lunar calendar in some form. Allah associated religious functions like Haj, Ramadan, and Eids with the Lunar count. Religious rituals of Jews, ancient Arabs, and others also have been associated with the Lunar calendar. In the time of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) Jews were using a calculated Lunar calendar and were making intercalations to match it with the Solar calendar and Arabs were using other intercalations to change the Haj dates according to their own desires. Allah disliked their actions, and equated it to the disbelief in him. Here is what Allah mentioned in this context in the Quran: “Verily intercalation (nasi’) is an increase in disbelief: the disbelievers are led to wrong thereby: for they make it lawful one year, and forbidden it another year, in order to adjust the number of months forbidden by Allah and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their course seems pleasing to them. But Allah guides not those who reject Faith. (9:37)”
Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) did not use the calculated Lunar calendar. The Jews of medina used to taunt him for not knowing and using calculations for ascertaining the month. If calculations were the preferred method, Allah would have taught Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) and his companions the method of calculation, as it is easy for Him. If Allah wanted, he could have fixed the days of the month to 29 or 30 or any combination of them, just as he had fixed the 12 months in a year and such calculations would have been easy for everyone. For example, alternating the month with 29 days and 30 days would make the Lunar year 354 days which is the closest number of days for the 12 Lunar cycles (354 days + fraction). However, Allah and his messenger (peace be upon him) did not do so. If Allah did not require us to use such a simple method of calculation (counting to 29 and 30 for alternate months), would he require us to make complicated astronomical calculations for this purpose? Allah guided Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) to teach us that the month is sometimes 29 days and sometimes 30 days, and we need to confirm it by witnessing the Hilal through the sighting it with eyes on the 30th night (on the completion of the 29th day) whether the month will end on 29th day or will it be of 30 days. It is a more universal approach and is easy for everyone, illiterate, or learned, whether living in the city, in a forest, in a desert, or on a mountain or on the sea, and it includes Allah’s wisdom and conforms to his natural plan. Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) talked against intercalations to the Lunar calendar and remarked in his Last Sermon as follows, “Today, certainly the time has returned to its original form as Allah had created it to be at the time of creation of the Heavens and the Earth.” Imam Fakhar ud Din Razi states that by doing so the Prophet (PBUH) brought the sacred months back to their original timings. Muslims of the later generations have preserved this sacred order by sighting the Hilal locally every month and ascertaining each month based on this sighting and no altercations have been made since then. Authentication of the new Moon on the completion of the 29th day (30th evening) of the month is a religious necessity. All scholars agree on this aspect. For confirmation purposes one, two, or more, eye witnesses are required depending on the weather conditions and the following of a particular Fiqhi school. Islamic states form official committees comprising of scholars and astronomers to witness the Hilal, and examine any individual Hilal sighting reports, and confirm or negate the Hilal sighting on the 30th evening of a Lunar month.
Scholars in the past have differed over the issue of local Moon sighting and global Moon sighting. While discussing the issue that a Moon sighting report from how far may be accepted, some early Hanfi scholars proposed that the first sighting anywhere in the world would be valid for the whole world. It was an academic possibility and an extreme case of extending the range of validity of the local Moon sighting. Islam is not the religion of extremes, and those who proposed the concept were not aware of the fact that Earth is not a flat field that it generally appears to us but is nearly spherical and Sun sets at different regions of the Earth at different times. The concept of global Moon sighting remained an extreme academic possibility and was never practiced, even by those who proposed it. The local Moon sighting has been applicable in all practical cases in the past and present. None of the classical scholars, including those who advocated for the global Moon sighting possibility, have entertained the possibility of bypassing the need for eye witnessing to ascertain the Hilal sighting on the eve of 30th of the month.
The Proponents of calculations are applying a new form of global Moon sighting by arbitrarily fixing it with the local sighting at Mecca. This is a different approach from global sighting as first sighting from anywhere else other than Mecca is not considered in this case. There is no religious injunction (nuss) from Quran and Sunnah available for doing so. Previous Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Bin Baz is reported to have ruled: “As for those who say that it is necessary to follow the sighting of Makkah, then let it be known to them, that there is no proof or basis for this in the Quran and Hadith”. (Sheikh Abdullah bin Baz AlBa’ath ul Islaaami Zil Hijjah 1399 Hijri). Therefore, one may consider it a modern innovation (Biddah). As far as Astronomy is concerned, the flaw here is that such a fixation of time and space is not in accordance with the celestial data. The new Moon is neither seen first in Macca, nor is seen at a fixed time and space after conjugation. Therefore, any such fixation with a particular space on the Earth is against celestial data and would not work for the intended purposes. For example, USA and Saudi Arabia have a time differential of 10-13 hours, and a Moon that may not be seen in Saudi Arabia, has up to 45% probability of being seen in the USA. In Saudi Arabia local Moon sighting is practiced and they declare the Eid, Ramadan, and Haj dates according to their local sighting. If the Muslim Community from USA follows the Saudi Arabian announcements and declares the Eid and Ramdan dates according to the Saudi announcement, then what would happen when Moon becomes visible on the same evening in the USA? Any pre-announcement, based on Umul Qura criteria or Saudi Arabian announcements, may not be valid in America and rest of the World. That is why many of the previous announcements by ISNA were not compatible with the local Moon sighting. Any calculations or global criteria must conform to all local Moon sightings for its validity and acceptance. Muslims in any locality are required to fast if the Ramdan Moon has been sighted in the community, and any global declaration that does not conform to the local sighting would be erroneous.
Apart from the above complications, the fundamental question from Islamic perspective is whether such a global declaration for the whole world is in conformity with Allah’s sacred order or it violates it? If it violates it, it must be rejected according to the Quranic injunctions. Most of the Muslims and religious scholars are not aware of the astronomical reality that each month is of 29 days in some part of the world and of 30 days in the remaining part of the world and these regions keep on changing every month. The knowledge of which regions will have the month of 29 days and which regions will have the month of 30 days is with Allah only and Astronomers may not predict it precisely, but they may confirm it after it happens. One may observe that the calculated parabolic shape visibility curves available at www.moonsighting.com, www.hilalsighting.org, and other websites exhibit that the visibility of the moon on the 30th evening of the month is limited to a smaller (less than 50% portion of the Earth) and remaining portion of the Earth is in the region of invisibility. The regions of Earth which are in the regions of invisibility on 30th evening will mostly be included in the regions of visibility in calculations for the next evening, indicating that the month will be 29 days in some part of the Earth and 30 days in the remaining part of the Earth. The local sighting preserves the sacredness of Allah’s months, according to his celestial plan. However, any global declaration using Um ul Qura criteria used by Saudi Arabia and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or any other criteria that forces the month to be of the same number of days for the whole world violates the celestial plan of Allah and does not preserve the sacredness of Allah’s months and tempers with the Abadah of Muslims. Therefore, it amounts to making altercations in Allah’s sacred months and must be rejected on the baisis of clear Quranic injunctions mentioned above.
Shahid A. Shaheen
Source: Global Moon Sighting Declarations Temper With Allah’s Sacred Months?
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From: Global Moon Sighting Declarations Temper With Allah’s Sacred Months?on Aug 25 2012 08:54 AM