Controversies over sighting the crescent spoiling the joy of Eid

Controversies over the crescent spoil the festive occasion

I like young English speaking Imams, I don't care too much for their strand, I believe that they provide an essential service in English speaking countries.

Having said that, it is incredibly disappointing to see some of our young imams setting aside reason and the intent of our great faith in order to find justification for an extremely narrow interpretation of one Hadith and through that, set aside the most important aspects of our faith.

I am not an accredited Islamic scholar, I am a simple humble Muslim who has been honoured to serve our faith for a few years, six of which working as a personal assistant to the former Mufti of Australia. I have also been blessed to have been allowed to translate several books for the current head of ANIC NSW. In addition, I have been immensely humbled to make corrections to the Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation of the meaning of the Holy Qur'an (which has been printed twice and endorsed by the World Islamic Call).

Other than that, I am really the average ordinary Muslim struggling to make sense of the conflict we have in Australia amongst different strands of our faith over an essentially simple matter.

The Eid (festival) is meant to be an occasion of joy and celebration in unity, the start of Ramadan is meant to be an opportunity to gain a spiritual boost; but, it would seem, not in countries where Muslims are a minority. We have strands fighting with the mainstream over the simplest of issues.

The purpose of this article is not to add to the debate, but rather to appeal for a "sensible" resolution.

I appeal to your proclaimed faith in Allah Subhanah and to your "reason" to reflect and contemplate.

Ramadan is the month of fasting, Allah Subhanah says: Whoever amongst you witnesses (shahida), the month should fast it. (2:185)

Our prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, in order to assist us, says: fast to its (the crescent's) sighting and break the fast to its sighting, but if it is obscured form you then complete the month to 30 days.

I submit to the words of Allah Subhanah and His messenger, peace and blessings upon him. I pray to Allah to make His words and those of His messenger, the guidance for every aspect of my life.

Is the sighting the goal for our important ritual of worship or is it the means to establish when the fast commences?

Does the sighting signify the birth of the new moon, or is it only one of the means to establishing that the new moon is born?

The fasting is described by Allah Subhanah as a countable or calculable period (Ayyaman Ma'dudat) lit. "days that can be counted" (2:184). He, in His infinite Wisdom also tells us with respect to the moon "We predetermined its stations" (Waqqadarnahu Manazila) and adds, very interestingly, until it returned like the (bent) old palm branch ('aada kal 'urjunil kadeem) (36:39). In another verse where Allah Subhanah mentions both the sun and the moon, He distinguishes between them by saying that the moon has been given predetermined stations and He gives us a reason for that: He determined its stations so that you may know the number of years and "calculation". (10:5) Then He, Subhanah, clarifies in the same verse that the creation of all this is the reality (Huqq) and "We elaborated in detail these signs for people with knowledge."

The moon has predetermined stations and positions and that when it returns, it returns like the old branch of a date-palm leads to the interpretation and conclusion that the moon, its positions and the crescent (old palm branch) moves in accordance with an exact calculated destiny (Taqdeer). This Taqdeer means that it has already been established, it is already set and determined, it will not deviate from its predetermined course and how can it, for it is a creature that fully submits to the Will of our Creator. It cannot and has not been given any power to change its course. Unlike the sun which seeks the permission of its Lord before rising until one day, it will rise from the West (as per the hadith) that is, it will retrograde in its motion. In contrast, the moon will follow a predetermined orbit that cannot be changed, it is an orbit set by Allah Subhanah as He refers the Taqdeer to Himself (Qaddarnahu).

Unlike human discourse, no word in the Holy Qur'an is there for the simple purpose of completing a sentence. Every single word in the Holy Qur'an is guidance for living things, every single word has meaning, wisdom and purpose.

To answer the first question, the goal is the fasting, this is one of the five core pillars or duties of every Muslim, the means to the fast are: the intention and a healthy body and a healthy mind. Without the intention, the fast is meaningless and without the sound mind and good health, one may not be able to fast. The means to fast is what enables you to fast. So the sighting is neither the direct means nor the objective, the sighting is merely a tool to use to assist us in establishing the start of the month.

As for the second question, the birth and the sightability are not the same, there are many hours in between them, for example, the new moon of the month of Shawwal is born at 1:05PM (Sydney time) on Monday 29th August but it is not sightable until 7:25PM (Libyan time corresponding to 3:25 am Sydney time) this is many hours later. This is not fortune-telling, this is not divination, this is based on an understanding of the "Taqdeer" or predetermination that Allah Subhanah has made (as per the verses I cited). It is not based on a human-being performing witchcraft or speaking to demons, it is based on an exact "science", a science that was brought to life by Muslim scientists like Al Khawarizmi and others. This is what the knowledge of "Alhisaab" or calculation cited in verse 10:5.

The birth of the moon is not particular to one location like the sightability, the new moon is born at 1:05, this birth is with respect to planet Earth around which the moon orbits. The first possible sightability is in Tripoli, Libya, we thank Allah for liberating Tripoli from the blood-thirsty dictator Qaddafi just a few days before the Eid, Alhamdulillah. It is not a coincidence that Tripoli will be the first city in the world to sight the new crescent of the festival of breaking the fast. But will we believe our brothers, who just sacrificed their lives for their faith and for their freedom when they tell us that they have sighted the new crescent?

I do understand that each region can have its own sighting, in an age where we did not have mass communication, that was the only way to do it, but today, when we can communicate instantaneously, and we claim to be one global Ummah, surely the sighting of any credible Muslim in any part of this globe that shares a part of the night with us is good enough for us! Are we one Islam, or a divided Islam? So this begs the question as to why some are sending invitations to look for the moon on the 30th with reference to their fellow Muslims in Tripoli? There is something wrong.

The sighting is not the act of worship, it is the advice from the prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, who sought to give us a tool to assist us. He did not say: We will fast to its sighting. He issued advice to his followers: "You" fast to its sighting (Soomoo, not Nasoomoo). He did not specify that this sighting must be with the naked eye. He did not mention instruments because such instruments were not known in those days, he also, much more importantly, did not rule out the use of instruments. But if he was with us today, would he say that the proven part of science that God had ordained as a law for this universe is to be discounted and we can only rely on the fallible human eye? Would he? I will not insult our community with an answer to that, because you all know the answer.

I don't like to name and shame, that is not my style and it certainly is not the way of our messenger, peace and blessings upon him, who would normally set his criticism to the unknown third person as in "ma balu Qawmen" (why do some people). I know some Imams are naming, and in doing so, trying to shame other Imams and Muslim organisations. They are attacking others for acknowledging the important role of science to an educated Muslim community. This conflict betrays a war waging between a strand of our faith that is squatting in disproportionate numbers in some of our groupings and using "democracy of numbers" to implement their views over others and the mainstream Imams who are perhaps not fully cognisant of the scale of the challenge facing them at present and who have turned away from fringe groupings.

This strand thinks that it is reviving a Sunna of naked eye sighting. This boggles my humble mind, a Sunna? Where are the recorded instances of the prophet Muhammad himself, peace and blessings upon him, in person sighting the crescent or sending individuals to monitor its emergence from the horizon? When did he go or take a group to a mountain top to wait the appearance of a hair-strand-resembling crescent? He, peace and blessings upon him made sighting a simple tool, any credible Muslim can make the report during his blessed time.

I do understand why our ancient scholars were guarded with respect to calculations, that was a time long after the passing of our great prophet, peace and blessings upon him, when the science was still in its inception and the means and tools were not as accurate as those of today. They lived in a time where some people practiced forms of deception claiming to know the unknown, that is not the case today. The calculation of sightability of the new crescent is not a knowledge of the "unknown", it is not the hidden or shadowy domain of "diviners" or fortune tellers, it is a science that any person with a computer can verify. If these scholars were with us today, would they insist on that narrow interpretation?

It is strange that we are not arguing about the act of worship itself, the fasting which is obligatory on us as Muslims, but, rather, we are arguing about the day to start and the day to finish. And none of us has bothered to do the simple exercise, to check in hindsight, were the calculations for the past ten years wrong or right?

The command in the holy Qur'an is to fast the month if you are alive when the month arrives, the Hadith tells us that we know when the month comes through the sighting of the crescent. How could it be any simpler, if our prophet, the Mercy for all living things, Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, had instead narrowly interpreted the verse as a requirement to fast based on the birth of the moon, he would have been asking for an impossibility because there were no means to do so back then, no one would know, no human could see when the new moon is born, the indicant to the birth is the sighting of the crescent. That statement was a permit, it was a reprieve, it was to give us humans a means to establish the start of Ramadan, even if this was to be a few hours after the birth of the new moon. In majority Muslim countries, there is an official who tells us, someone from the Awqaf makes a decision, we don't know and certainly have no authority to challenge the basis of the announcement, was it based on calculation or sighting? It matters little, we are bound by it, it is official. But where we are a minority, we tend to intoxicate ourselves with freedom to the extent that it leads us to become divided, each crowing over his own "roost".

We tend to forget the Qur'an again, where Allah, Subhanah, makes unity an obligation, we set aside that obligation for a very narrow understanding of "one" and only "one" Hadith! To whose benefit is that?

It certainly does not endear our educated professional children to our faith, those who need to apply for a day's leave in advance, it makes us a laughing stock in front of non-Muslims, in the age that they have landed on the moon, we still cannot see eye to eye with respect to the methodology of its sighting.

We cannot blame others for this one, we are putting ourselves in this precarious position that cannot be explained. We have allowed a means to an end to become the cause of much disputation, far more disputation than it warrants and this means to an end has become the battle ground of a new generation of Imams, who, rather than working with their elders, are vying to snatch the power from their elders, to take that for themselves, all in the name of our blessed Sunna. May Allah Subhanah forgive us if we are worthy of redemption and those beyond it, may He save us from their folly.

I pray for a blessed Eid for all, despite the division and confusion.

Keysar Trad