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On Nov. 9-10, 2006 the
Moroccan Astronomical Association and the Islamic
Educational & Cultural Organization (ISESCO) organized a
conference on the global Islamic calendar. The naïveté
of the participants in the conference was amazing. Like the
ISNA Fiqh Council ,they tried to solve the Islamic dates by
the “Conjunction
before 12:00noon GMT” without taking into
consideration the two basic issues of every calendar:
1. When to start the Islamic
date? (Noon, Conjunction, Sunset, midnight, etc.)
2. From where to start the lunar date? (London, Makka, New
York, IDL, etc.)
By the established Shariah
rule a Hijri day/date starts from the sunset, and the month
starts westward from where the crescent moon becomes visible
first at sunset. ISNA proposed rule (Conjunction before
12:00Noon GMT) fails both tests.
The earth is a globe, not a
flat field. The solar date starts from the International
Dateline (180E, and not from 0 longitude at London) at 12:00
midnight (not at 12:00Noon GMT). The solar date moves
westward from 180E to cover the entire globe to 180W in 24
hours.
If the Islamic date begins
from the sunset, westward after the earliest visibility of
the crescent moon and it takes the crescent moon 3-5 days
(48-72+ hours) to cover the entire globe then what is the
most appropriate way to fix the beginning of an Islamic
month and its length?
At present Muslims around the world use two methods to fix
Ramadan and Eidain dates.
a. Calculated dates based on
the conjunction (invisible moon)
b. Lunar visibility of the crescent moon.
The result is that Islamic
months begin on 3-4 solar dates depending on who uses what
criterion. ISNA Fiqh Council since 2006 has fixed Hijri
dates for the USA calculated by the "Conjunction before
12:00Noon GMT" but did not tell the Muslims at what time and
from where its lunar date would start every month? Will
ISNA lunar date start from New Delhi where the sun would be
setting at 12:00Noon GMT or from Makka (3:30 pm) where the
sun has yet to set or Greenwich (Noon) or New York, Los
Angeles, International dateline (at 12 mid-night)? ISNA,
like Saudi Arabia and Egypt etc. has already discarded the
lunar "visibility" of the Quran and the Sunnah for
calculating Islamic dates.
If ISNA calculated date
starts from the sunset around New Delhi (Makka, London, New
York, Los Angeles, etc.) then the areas east of New Delhi
(Makka, etc.) would be a lunar day/date
behind and
in the previous Islamic month. Only areas west of New Delhi
(or Makka, etc.) will share the new date and the new Islamic
month from their sunset.
Rabat Conference, like many
before it, failed to look into the vital calendar-making
issues and as usual gathered around the idea of a united
Islamic calendar at the conjunction date. OIC Sec. General
during his recent US tour has also endorsed Rabat/ISNA
proposal.
What
can the world expect when Muslim astronomical experts and
political leadership are so naïve? |
Moon
Sighting
