WHEN EXACTLY WILL THE FIRST MOON THAT HERALD THE BEGINNING OF RAMADAN BE SIGHTED? Growing up as a child, one of the most exciting things was the euphoria that characterized the anticipation of the holy month of Ramadan. Usually, a day was set for the sighting of the moon. At twilight on this day, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak all raise their eyes skywards to catch a glimpse of the first moon. One observation I made then was that while some could actually see the moon others would look, look and look but would not see anything. This difficulty of some seeing and others not seeing did not start in my community. It did not start in this age either. It started in the era of the Holy Prophet Muhamad. If muslims the world over were to follow the example of the Holy Prophet this whole issue of disparity in the beginning and ending Ramadan would have actually been a non-issue. Unfortunately, there are some muslim clerics who by their actions portray themselves as more Islamic than the Holy Prophet. They usually will want to be the ones to sight the moon before they and their jamaats will fast. This never was the attitude of the Holy Prophet as evidenced by the narration of Abdullah Ibn Abass that “A Bedouin came to the Prophet(PBUH) and said: I have sighted the moon. Al-Hasan added in his version: that is, of Ramadan. He asked, do you testify that there is no god but Allah? He replied: Yes and testified that he had sighted the moon. He said: Bilal, announce to the people that they must fast tomorrow”. The holy prophet fasted and announced that all should fast even though he did not sight the moon himself. Who then are you to insist on seeing the moon yourself before fasting? In this day of technological advancement and several decades after the first man landed on the moon, as in the words of Shaukat, some muslims are still avoiding the use of scientific knowledge for making an Islamic calendar and get over with feuds of having to wait till midnight for a confirmation of moon sighting. The Quran being the best book on science one would have thought that this primitive issue would have been read about only in history books but here we are year on year being ridiculed for this needless lack of unity. It is clear from many verses of the Quran that the course of the moon is pre-determined and therefore their appearance can be predicted accurately based on scientific data. Couple this with the fact that people today can determine the time difference between places using their longitudinal differences, the solution to our problem today is made easier. Simply put, once a fellow muslim in Saudi Arabia sights the moon, muslims in Ghana are assured that in the next 3 hours the moon will certainly appear in Ghana. It cannot be the case that it will take up to even 10 hours for the moon to be sighted in Ghana after it was sighted in Saudi Arabia. Let us follow the example of the Holy Prophet in order to avoid this whole controversy. I wish you all a Ramadan full of blessings.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 16:40:30 +0000
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