Hidayah227 :"First of all we need to understand that Dr Tahir ul Qadri is not at all refuting those who sight the new moon with the naked eyes. In this video clip they are only proving the legality of using Astronomical Calculation to determine the birth of the new moon when it comes to fasting and Eid."
Interestingly my dear brother Hidayah227, we understood Prof. Qadri’s speech quite differently. I felt that he started his talk by directly attacking those who sight the new moon with their naked eyes by saying;
“Those who celebrated Eid on the first day, I congratulate them because they celebrated Eid along with 95% of the whole Ummah” [1:20]
He is implying that they were correct in celebrating Eid, hence an individual with little knowledge of Shari’ah is aware that fasting on Eid is prohibited. He indirectly implies that the 5% of people who did not celebrate Eid were incorrect; committed severe sin by fasting on a day considered being Eid.
The attacks on the eye-sighting community continue and do not stop from the very beginning. Prof. Qadri says;
“The problem is that some people are still hung up with their own ethnic background, they don’t want to come out of their own back country; Pakistan or India. And Islam was not promulgated in Pakistan or India, Islam is for the whole world. So we have to see what the whole Muslim Ummah or overwhelming majority of the Muslim Ummah is doing, so we have to be with the majority of the Muslim Ummah” [3:34]
Unfortunately implying that the Sunnah of eye-sighting is an action that indicates backward mentality [“hung up”].
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Yet Shaykh Hamza Yusuf while describing the importance of keeping this tradition of ‘naked eye-sighting’ alive writes;
“For more than a thousand years, Jews followed a calendar based upon naked-eye
observation of new moons. However, during the reign of the Roman Emperor
Constantius (337-361 CE), persecution of the colonized Jews intensified, preventing them from communicating news of a sighted moon to one another. It was Rabbi Hillel II who first introduced to Judaism a new moon based upon calculation and not actual physical sighting, in order to facilitate the observance of holidays for the oppressed Jews. The calendar was introduced in 358. “Its computations were designed to simulate the practical constraints of the observed calendar (including postponements and intercalations) as closely as possible,” according to the Active Bible Church of God, which continues:
Suggestions have been made that the computations should be changed, or that observation should again be used. It is clear that adjustments need to be made to the computed calendar in order to keep it synchronized with the sun and moon. But there is no consensus as to how this should be done, and, in the modern world, this needs to be done years in advance. Returning to observation is idyllic, but totally impractical. The modern world requires plans for religious observances to be made months, or even years, in advance. Only a computed calendar permits this. It is clear that just as “the Sabbath was made for man,” so also “the Calendar was made for man.” It is a tool to help us worship God. And an essential feature of a tool is that it must be useful and practical.
One can see from this the compromises the rabbis made in the Jewish community. Arguably, the Jews’ initial abandonment of eyewitness sighting was due to undue hardship at a specific period in their history, and the result of one of their great rabbis’ own human efforts to serve his community. Having said that, according to the principles of Islamic law, when the hardship that allowed the facilitating dispensation (rukh|ah) in the first place is no longer present, the license is no longer valid, and the original ruling must be restored. The Jews never returned to their original tradition of following a purely lunar calendar determined by eyewitnesses; instead, they continue to determine the new moon calculation. Our Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] clearly warned us not to follow the Jews and the Christians in their abandonment of their own prophetic practices, and to be especially vigilant about this. Lamentably, he also informed us that many Muslims would not heed this advice and would follow their errors anyway. Predetermining our lunar months through calculation is a fulfillment of his prediction:
The Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] said, “You will follow the [erroneous] ways of those before you hand span by hand span, arm’s breadth-by-arm’s breadth, to such a degree that if they went down a lizard’s hole, you would also go down the hole.” His companions exclaimed in response, “The Jews and the Christians, O Messenger of God?” “If not them, then who?” he replied.
Going from sighting to calculation is like following the Jewish abandonment of their original tradition of having to actually sight the crescent moon with naked-eye observers. The Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] also said, according to a sound hadith narrated by Imam al-TirmidhÏ, “What happened to the Children of Israel will also happen to my community, step-by-step….”
No disrespect is intended toward the Jewish or Christian communities, but this matter of strict adherence to our respective prophetic practices is a crucial point of divergence in our three Abrahamic traditions. The Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] saw himself as a restorer of the true Abrahamic practices that had fallen into dereliction among the Jews and Christians of his time. Among these practices is following a purely lunar calendar for devotional purposes and the determination of its months by the physical appearance and sighting of the moon.”{pg’s 9, 10 – Cesarean Moon Births; Part 1}
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Also it can be argued, yet unfortunately, that the “majority of the Ummah’s” next generation in about 10 years will not be virgins by the time they get married….or maybe in less than 20 years the “majority of the Ummah” would have at least tried an alcohol drink once in their life – hence will we be changing rules for the actions of these majorities within the Ummah? {God-forbid - and if it does happen, then may Allaah protect us all and our offspring}.
Prof. Qadri here attacks 1400 years of scholarship when he says;
“As far as the real problem is concerned about the moon sighting, there is a big misunderstanding because of lack of knowledge and this Hadith of Holy Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] is wrongly understood – again I say, because of lack of knowledge and it is wrongly interpreted. That’s why some people create some problems within community” [4:06]
Prof. Qadri than reads the few Hadith in Arabic – the ones including the word Ru’ya – ‘Su Moo Li Ru’yati-he waftiru li Ru’yati-he’ ………………..
“I have never seen a single Hadith that the Holy Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] has said these words; Ru’ya bil ain or Ru’ya bil basr” {he says this after telling the audience that he has read over 400,000 Hadith in his life}[6:49]
“Naked eye-sighting, this word has never been used by the Holy Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam]”[7:20]
“Now we have to try to understand what does Ru’ya mean - the problem is that we have very little knowledge and the people who insist on these kind of things {ie. that Ru’ya means eye-sighting}, they neither go into the details of the meanings used, of the words used in Hadith, they don’t want to try and they don’t want to apply principles of the modern world – neither the principles of the modern world or the principles of ancient classical principles in order to understand the meanings of the words.” [7:43]
I learned from multiple scholars that NasirUddin Albani’s claim that he had the authority to rewrite the Sahih ul Bukhari and Muslim because they contained errors within them, over a thousand years after they had been written - and then rename them ‘Sahih, Sahih ul Bukhari’ and ‘Sahih, Sahih ul Muslim’ was laughable and lacked reasoning. Prof. Qadri used the words ‘had very little knowledge’, ‘neither go into details of meanings used in Hadith’, ‘they don’t want to apply the principles’- expressing his views about the individuals who translate the word Ru’ya when it is referred within the sentences pertaining to entering/exiting Ramadhan and entering/exiting lunar months. Regarding these specific Hadiths; every single Muffassir, Muhaddith, or person for that matter - whether Scholar, scientist or astronomer – in over 1400 years has always translated and/or described the word Ru’ya [within these Hadiths] as ‘eye-sighting aka naked eye-sighting’.
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Furthermore in regards to how one should interpret words Shaykh Hamza Yusuf writes;
“Another important axiom is that both the Qur’an and the Sunnah were revealed in Arabic, and any interpretation must be in accordance with the accepted linguistic meaning of those texts that correspond with their use during the period of revelation, between 610 and 632 CE. It is proscribed to interpret the Qur’an in the Arabic of any other period. One may refer to authentic pre-Islamic poetry to determine the meanings of words because linguistic usages of that period were accepted at the time of the Qur’anic revelation. An immense amount of human effort has been exerted in order to preserve the meanings of the Arabic language of the Prophet’s time, and no other religious community on earth has the level of certainty about their sacred scriptures’ historical authenticity and lexical signification that Muslims have, due first to God’s promise of scriptural preservation, and then to efforts of those scholars who codified the Qur’an and preserved the Arabic language in the voluminous lexicons of the first centuries of Islam {Pg. 2, Cesarean Moon Births – Part 1}.
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Prof. Qadri himself after attacking the ones who translate Ru’ya as eye-sighting, appears to flip-flop on the issue himself a few times in the lecture: once at 8:20 by saying “Ru’ya does not necessarily mean eye-sighting”….again at 8:53 he says “the question is what is the meaning of Ru’ya? We unfortunately just understand one meaning; Ru’ya means sighting…this is one meaning”. Earlier it was courageously said that never in 400,000 Hadith did ‘eye-sighting’ come up but then in between the lecture it is acknowledged that one meaning of Ru’ya is ‘eye-sighting’. It would logically than be inappropriate to say Ru’ya bil ain or bil basr when Ru’ya already means ‘eye-sighting’ hence Prof Qadri’s repeated argument at 6:49, 8:20, 8:53, 11:40, 14:05 that the Holy Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] never said the word Ru’ya bi lain or bil basr’ is inaccurate in the sense that 1400 years of Scholars simply agree that the word Ru’ya here includes ‘bil ain and bil basr’.
Prof. Qadri continues drilling the scholars who translate the word Ru’ya as ‘eye-sighting’ even though he had acknowledged that one meaning of Ru’ya is eye-sighting – this is with anger;
“He [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] never said that start your fasting with the eye-sighting, He never said this, He just said Ru’ya” [14:18] and then Prof. Qadri again questions 1400 years of Scholarship by asking “So why Ru’ya is taken as eye-sighting and why this Ru’ya is not taken as scientific calculation. Here he is referring to various references he gives from multiple dictionaries in regards to the different meanings of the word Ru’ya and its derivatives. Regretfully after 15:12, while reading these different meanings Prof. Qadri wrongfully gives the impression that these authors implied that the Hadiths being discussed could have these alternate meanings other than their very first meaning of Ru’ya, eye-sighting. When in reality he was just reading the dictionary, not a commentary on the Hadiths being discussed.
Prof. Qadri illustrated a vision within this lecture that calculations are a new modern phenomenon that surpasses the naked eye-sighting practice. He says at 22:31;
In the days of Holy Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] there was no other way of knowledge. There was no other way or means of gaining the knowledge that the crescent is existent, the birth of the new moon and the crescent except the naked eye-sighting. There was no astronomy, there was no telescope, no other scientific development. So there was no other way except eye-sighting. This way was used in that time. Now many other more direct and durable and correct and accurate ways of knowledge of existence of crescent has been established, by the development of science”
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Shaykh Hamza Yusuf paints a completely opposite picture in this regards;
“Another extremely crucial point that Shaykh Muhammad Shakir made was that people are obliged to fast if they can arrive at the same certainty of, or at “a greater certainty” than an actual sighting. First of all, what can give one “greater certainty” than actually seeing the crescent with one’s own eyes? Perhaps what he meant was that modern science provides greater certainty than our own senses (sometimes true, but a dangerous premise). However, in the case of visibility of the crescent, it is simply not true. Perhaps this conclusion is arrived at based upon a lack of knowledge of modern astronomy. It appears that many modern scholars who have written advocating calculation are under the assumption that astronomers can now predict visibility with one hundred percent accuracy. While that may be true if they use as a criterion a conjunction separation of greater than twenty-four hours somewhere on the earth, it is not the case if it is less than twenty-four hours. It is simply unproven and thus not scientific. Only recently, due to unrelenting yearly inquiries by Muslims, visibility prediction has elicited some scientific interest at the British Greenwich and the U.S. Naval Observatories. In fact, on the U.S. Naval Observatory’s website, the following is written in a section designed for Muslims:
The visibility of the lunar crescent as a function of the Moon’s “age”—the time counted from New Moon—is obviously of great importance to Muslims. The date and time of each New Moon can be computed exactly (see, for example, Phases of the Moon in “Data Services”) but the time that the Moon first becomes visible after the New Moon depends on many factors and cannot be predicted with certainty. In the first two days after New Moon, the young crescent Moon appears very low in the western sky after sunset, and must be viewed through bright twilight. It sets shortly after sunset. The sighting of the lunar crescent within one day of New Moon is usually difficult. The crescent at this time is quite thin, has a low surface brightness, and can easily be lost in the twilight. Generally, the lunar crescent will become visible to suitably-located, experienced observers with good sky conditions about one day after New Moon. However, the time that the crescent actually becomes visible varies quite a bit from one month to another. The record for an early sighting of a lunar crescent, with a telescope, is 12.1 hours after New Moon; for naked-eye sightings, the record is 15.5 hours from New Moon. These are exceptional observations and crescent sightings this early in the lunar month should not be expected as the norm. For Islamic calendar purposes, the sighting must be made with the unaided eye.
Many regard this source as representing the most advanced level of scientific knowledge on our planet, and yet its own scientists admit they cannot predict with any certainty that the crescent will be sighted on the first day of its astronomical birth anywhere on the planet with a naked eye. Most new moons cannot be seen before they are twenty hours old. After countless nights observing and following the crescents month after month, year after year, in the service of Islam, using highly sophisticated instruments to determine exact degrees of elongation based upon countless eyewitness observations, our premodern Muslim astronomers concluded that the crescent moon must be at least twelve degrees above the horizon after sunset, which allows for a setting time on average of almost fifty minutes. This is the visibility criteria that our traditional masters of astronomy provided on accurate visibility arcs produced in the periods of Muslim renaissance.
George Saliba, a leading expert on Islamic astronomy, says, “Although there was a religious prohibition on beginning the lunar month of fasting according to the computed time, a zÏj text [computed astronomical tables] often included tables of lunar visibility to answer that problem specifically.” He also notes that Muslim scholars clearly distinguished betweens astrologers and astronomers and that, after the thirteenth common era century, astronomers held public offices in all of the Muslim states. Their offices determined prayer times, and lunar and solar eclipses, and produced lunar visibility charts that helped people know when the new moon would most likely appear and where best to look for it. Saliba states, “As a consequence, all problems that had any religious bearing were incorporated into mathematical astronomy and treated in those texts irrespective of the religious injunctions.” Thus, scholars of sacred astronomy predicted the birth and probable appearance of the new moons with great precision, regardless of the injunction against using those predictions to start the month. The foremost authority on Islamic science, specifically astronomy, Dr. David King remarks that the Muslim astronomers predetermined lunar visibility by calculating the “difference in setting times over the local horizon. If the latter was forty-eight minutes or more, the crescent would be seen, if it was less, the crescent would not be seen. Using this condition and computing specifically for the latitude of Baghdad, the astronomer al-Khawarizmi, in the early ninth century, compiled a table showing the minimum distances between the sun and moon (measured on the ecliptic) to ensure crescent visibility throughout the year.” David King continues:
During the following centuries Muslim astronomers not only derived far more complicated conditions for the visibility determination but also compiled highly sophisticated tables to facilitate their computations. Some of the leading Muslim astronomers proposed conditions involving three different quantities, such as the apparent angular separation of the sun and moon, the difference in their setting times over the local horizon, and the apparent lunar velocity. Annual ephemerides or almanacs gave information about the possibility of sighting at the beginning of each month. In brief, the achievements of the Muslim astronomers in this area were impressive.
From this, it should be quite clear that the Muslim scholars were not backward or scientifically-challenged, unable to understand that determining probable moon visibility was an exact science, even in their day, as many of them acknowledged. On the contrary, the great ones who wrote on the subject understood both the science of the problem and the entailing juristic considerations far better than any of us writing on the subject today. About that, I have no doubt. They were scholars of the highest caliber, and we do them a great disservice to believe that they did not calculate because “they had not yet distinguished between astronomy and astrology,” or that they were incapable of calculating the moon’s birth with any accuracy.” [Pg’s 10, 11, 12 – Cesarean Moon Births, Part 2]
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Prof. Qadri discusses a Hadith referring to calculations, he says at 30:53;
“Since in the days there were not in use of calculating the things, they were just using the method of eye-sighting and the Holy Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] indicated that, He indicated, He said in Sahih Bukhari, Hadith # 1913 “We are a nation, Arab people are nation, illiterate nation, we can’t neither write not calculate astronomically”. These are the words of Sahih ul Bukhari”
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Shaykh Hamza Yusuf argues this theory and explanation of the Hadith;
“In rejecting calculation, our scholars were not denying the validity of astronomy. They understood it as a decisive and exact science used to predict the positions of the planets, stars, and moon. In fact, many of them were well-versed in astronomy. Imam alQarafi, who was a master of the mathematical and mechanical sciences, built a robot that, according to him, “could do everything but talk.” He unequivocally knew that the position of the moon was known with precision at any given time of the month. He says;
If a Muslim leader believes that the crescent was born based upon calculation, he is not followed, because of the consensus of the early scholars (ijma’ al-salaf) against that position. This is in spite of the fact that ability to calculate crescent moons as well as solar and lunar eclipses is discharged with certitude. Indeed, God has set a standard that the movement of the heavenly bodies and the orbit of the seven [visible] planets is on one system for all time by the determination of the Precious, Omniscient. God has said, “The sun and the moon are on fixed courses” (55:5). In other words, they are calculable and that will never change, ever. This includes the four seasons; they too never change. And anything that is unalterable gives us certain knowledge.”
Ibn al Arabi describes in his autobiography that he had mastered many subjects at an early age:
“By the age of sixteen, I had read from the mathematical sciences, surveying, algebra, inheritance, the books of Euclid as well as what followed of trigonometry, plane and spherical, and I had studied the positions of the planets, sun and moon and how to calculate them, and I had become proficient in the use of an astrolabe.”
Hence, when he says, “I do not deny the foundation of the science of calculation,” he is speaking from theoretical and practical knowledge. Furthermore, the argument that the early community was unlettered, and once Muslims achieved literacy they can abandon the primitive practices of that period, is false and, in my estimation, degrading to that community.
Indeed, Ibn Hajar and others understood the hadith “We are an unlettered community—we neither read nor calculate” to mean something entirely different. They did not interpret the Prophet’s preface as an operative cause but rather as a descriptive statement, an important and necessary distinction in jurisprudence. Ibn Hajar provides the following explanation of the hadith: “Calculate,” here, refers to astronomy and to the orbits of the planets because only a handful of them knew such things at that time. Thus the Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] has made the legal obligation of fasting contingent upon actual sighting in order to remove any burdens from his community, i.e., of having to struggle with computations of celestial orbits. This ruling continues even should later people be able to do that. Indeed, the apparent meaning of the hadith rejects any association of calculation with the legal ruling…. Nowhere did he say, “If it is obscured then ask the people of calculation.”
Ibn Hajar recognizes that only a small number of people knew much about astronomy at the time, which is not dissimilar to our current situation, given the vast numbers of illiterate Muslims alive today. But there were, indeed, among the first generation of Muslims some who knew how to calculate astronomical phenomena given that some were capable of producing an intercalated lunisolar calendar. Moreover, Ibn Hajar understood that the ruling was a permanent one and not, as some have said, one that is contingent upon the innumeracy of his community, and thus falsely concluded that if some people learned such things later, they could switch to determining their months by calculation. Even some well-known modern scholars seem to have missed this point. Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, who is used as a proof for calculation today, said;
“The interpretation, “This ruling continues even should later people be able to do that,” is wrong because the command to depend on sighting is explained in the hadith with an unequivocal legal rationale (‘illah mansusah), which is that the community is “unlettered—we neither read nor calculate.” And, it is known that a ratio legis (‘illah) exists alongside the ruling: if the first is present, the second is also present; and if the first is absent, the second is also absent (al-‘illatu taduru ma’a l-ma’luli wujudan wa ‘adaman). Thus, if the community removes itself from the state of innumeracy—that is, among them are those who can read and calculate; and the people are able as a group and individuals to arrive at certainty and a definitive judgment through calculation of the start of the month; and they can be certain of this calculation with the same certainty of actual sighting or of greater certainty; and they have removed the ratio legis of innumeracy—then they are obliged to have recourse to this substantiated certainty. They should then resort to establishing the crescent moons with only calculation and not resort to sighting the moon unless they do not have recourse to such knowledge, such as Bedouin people or villagers, whom sound news has not reached from the scholars of calculation.”
There are several egregious mistakes in the above remarks that might lead people astray. The first mistake is that the shaykh uses one of the most subtle legal principles without any qualification. His statement that legal rationales and the rulings associated with them are inextricably bound and that the latter is contingent upon the former in its application and suspension, while largely an accepted principle, is far from absolute in its application. In fact, the principle’s application is much debated, as shown in its explication here by Sadiq al-Ghiryani:
“If the legal rationale is clearly defined [he means a nass m’aqul] by theLawgiver…, or it is agreed upon by consensus such as the prohibition of wine due to intoxication, and there is nothing in the matter that is devotional (ta’abbudi)[he means ghayr m’aqul], then in such casethe ruling is contingent upon the rationale and is suspended when the rationale is absent and applied when it is present. However, if it is devotional, then should the rationale be removed, the ruling nonetheless remains, as in the case of the Sunnah of jogging during circumambulation of the Ka’bah…[even though its rationale, showing strength in the presence of the idolaters, no longer exists.] If the rationale is textually determinable or agreed upon by consensus, then the suspension of the ruling based upon the absence of the rationale is a point of ijtihad.”
Imam al-Ghazzali and others have also explained that many rulings may have only one apparent ratio legis, but others are hidden from us, and, for that reason, “If the rationales are multiplied, then the ruling is not necessarily suspended, due to an absence of one of the rationales.” If this principle is understood, then what follows should reveal the fallacy in such reasoning. Few scholars understood the remark of the Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] to be an ‘illah in the ruling; rather, they understood it to be a description of the nature of his legal system, namely that God does not demand specialized knowledge for anything that He makes binding upon all of His adult servants. Thus, in the hadith, the Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] describes his community, essentially explaining that we are an unlettered community by nature, and makes it known to his community that his law is understandable in its general pronouncements to the simplest of people, so anyone can adhere to it. Thus, sighting the moon is an uncomplicated method that God has provided for us to determine our devotional obligations, such as for fasting in Ramadan and performing the hajj in Dhu al- Hijjah. Imam al-Shatibi states the following about this principle in a chapter he entitled, “Principles Based upon the Unlettered Aspects of the Shariah”:
“It is essential that in order to understand the shariah, we must follow the understanding of the Arabs upon whom the revelation descended in their tongue. Hence, since the Arabs used certain words to connote specific things, we cannot abandon their connotations. Furthermore, if [one contends] they had no common usage of certain words, then it would be impermissible to apply a meaning to the words that they did not have….”
The Prophet [Sal-Lal-Laahu Ta’aalaa Alayhe wa Aalihe wa Sal’lam] did not ask of us computation of the sun and moon’s courses in their respective ecliptics, because this was not common knowledge among the Arabs, nor was it from their sciences, and because of the precision demanded and the difficulties inherent in such a course of action. Rather, he has given us the preponderance of evidence in our rulings for the position of certainty. He has excused the ignorant, removed from them blame, and overlooked our mistakes; and this applies to many other aspects of matters in the [sacred law] in which we all participate. Thus, it is not permitted to abandon what the shariah has prescribed and go beyond this intended purpose; for, indeed, it is a dubious place and a slippery slope.” [Pg’s 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 – Cesarean Moon Births, Part 2]
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Finally Prof. Qadri concludes his arguments at 37:00 by saying:
“The proper answer in only to confirm the existence of the hilal on the horizon after sunset. The moonset should be after sunset. That’s it. No condition of 40 minutes, no of 30 minutes, even if it is just for 5 minutes. If it is established that the moonset took place after sunset, and the moon remained on the horizon even for 5 minutes after sunset took place that would be the crescent, the Ru’ya. You can start your Ramadhaan, you could start your Eid and this would be according to the Quran and Sunnah”
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Interestingly this conclusion is against the Ijma of the Ummah ruling, including the Shia population, as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf quotes the 5 major schools of thought on their ruling;
“While many modern Muslims have abandoned following any particular school of law, the overwhelming majority still do so at least nominally. In the United States, the Hanafi and Ja’fari schools are widespread, with many people adhering to the other canonical schools as well. This section will simply summarize the positions of the five schools of jurisprudence that al-Azhar University recognizes as valid.
In the excellent text, Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence, produced by Kuwait’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, the following opinions are presented:
The relied upon opinion of the Hanafi school is that sighting the moon is a condition for the obligation of Ramadan and no consideration is given to the astronomers even if they were trustworthy. Moreover, whoever relies on their opinion has violated the sacred law (khalafa al shar’)…. Imam Malik prohibited reliance upon calculation in ascertaining the crescent moon’s birth and said, “Any imam who relies on calculation is neither to be imitated nor followed.” Imam al-Baji says, “If anyone did rely on calculation, I opine that he should not consider his fasting sound based upon calculation, and return to sighting or the completion of thirty days. If that results in him having to make up any days, he should….”
As for the Shafi’i scholars, Imam al-Nawawi says, “Fasting is not an obligation unless the month has arrived. Furthermore, its commencement is ascertained through sighting the crescent. If, however, it is clouded over, then people are obliged to complete thirty days of Sha¢b¥n. They should then commence their fast irrespective of whether the next day is clear, or more or less cloudy. Thus, the means by which the month is determined are contained in either sighting or completing thirty days. There is no room for reliance upon calculation….”
The Hanbalis do not depend on astronomical calculation, even if it was repeatedly proven to be accurate.
In fact, this is the agreed upon position of the four schools, as recorded by al-Wazir b. Hubayrah (d. 560 AH) in his book on the consensus of the four Sunni imams: “The four schools agreed that no consideration is given to knowledge of calculation and the lunar phases in order to determine the start of fasting, whether the people had knowledge of such things or did not; Ibn Surayj of the Shafi’i school dissented.”
Commenting on the legal text, Shara’I’ al-Islam, the eleventh-century scholar Sayyid Muhammad b. ‘Ali al-Musawi al’Amili explains the dominant position in the Ja’fari school on this matter. He says, “No consideration is given to predetermined schedules [for Ramadan].” His usage of “predetermined schedules” refers to the calculation of the new moon based upon determining the elongation immediately after conjunction. He continues:
Undoubtedly, no consideration should be given to this method due to the multiply-transmitted narrations that establish that the months’ onset is to be determined by one of two methods: either a physical sighting of the crescent (ru’yah), or the completion of thirty days of the previous month. Indeed, had recourse to an astronomer been a proof, the scholars would have guided us to that position…. The astronomers admit that its sighting (ru’yatuh) is only possible [and not certain], whereas the Lawgiver has made the rulings [that relate to fasting] contingent upon the actual sighting, and not the aforementioned arc of visibility].
The shaykh goes on to remark that while there is a weak opinion that calculation may be used if the crescent is obscured, it is negligible.
I think we can conclude from the above two sections that each of the schools, with the exception of the Hanbali school, have weak positions supporting calculation, but none allow calculation in lieu of actual sighting; all of them stipulate that one can resort to calculation only if, on the thirtieth night, there is a cloud-cover that prevents seeing the crescent and astronomers have indicated that the moon would be visible. It was also shown that they stipulated that the arc of elongation after sunset must be at least twelve degrees, and that would mean at least forty-eight minutes would have passed before the crescent set. [Pg’s 12, 13, 14,- Cesarean Moon Births, Part 2]
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I have left out the footmarks when quoting ‘Cesarean Moon Births’ above – please refer to the pages quoted for complete references
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As for brother Revival-of-Islam:
I reiterate - Perhaps a scholarly look at this topic may help one understand the discussion. Every single argument presented by Prof. Qadri in the link you provided, whether his lecture/video or the Urdu article written below, is intellectually proved to be baseless according to the overwhelming majority of Traditional Islamic Scholars of the past – their view is presented by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in his work ‘Cesarean Moon Births’.
'Cesarean Moon Births' - Part 1
http://www.masud.co....Births_Pt_1.pdf
'Cesarean Moon Births' - Part 2
http://www.masud.co....Births_Pt_2.pdf
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