The ongoing moon-war in the world of shows no sign of ending soon. Most recently, the battle between those who believe that a new crescent must be seen in person, and those who believe that scientific calculations are valid to begin and end Islamic months has been centred in Pakistan.
The Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary has earned the ire of many, for his attempts to sideline the Moonsighting commitee led by Mufti Muneeb Ur Rahman and encourage Muslims to observe lunar months with predetermined dates.
The Moonsighting commitee ignored the scientific data that the cresent moon for the Zil Hijjah (leading to Eid ul Adha) was present as cloud obscured its visibility. However there was some red faces when the following night when the moon clearly was too big for a first night moon:
It is disappointing that Muslims seem to find it so difficult to find a solution to this issue. It is not after all, rocket science. The Messenger of Allah (saw) is reported as indicating that any method that most people agree on to determine the moon for Islamic festivals, should be accepted by all:
Moreover, he is reported as saying that if the moon is obscured by clouds, estimation could be used:
Indeed, the Qur’an explicitly refers to the phases of the moon as means of determining time i.e calculating:
There is a barely discussed hadith that explains that the need of sighting the moon was a practical not a doctrinal matter, due to the lack of astronomical knowledge of the nation, especially an inability to calculate. One can thus infer that if reliable calculations can be arrived at there is no reason NOT to use them:
Finally, there have been respected Imams of Fiqh who have accepted the validity of calaculation for determining Islamic dates and thus this is by no means an original or unattested position in Islamic discourse. The following reference is from this excellent article http://fiqhcouncil.org/an-analysis-of-moon-sighting-arguments/:
…righteous people like Mutarrif bin Abdillah Ibn al-Shikhir, Imam Ibn Surayj (d. 306 AH), Ibn Qutaybah, Imam Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 683- 756 AH) and others have actually deployed mathematical calculations either in confirming or negating the month of Ramadan. These pious individuals have considered the obscurities as a legal cause to determine Ramadan by mere calculations.
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