‘Ismaili Lunar Calendar’: An ideal base to unite the ‘Ummah’ – Part I [Archives:2008/1192/Culture]

Dr. Qazi Shaikh Abbas Borhany
PhD (USA), NDI, Shahadat al A'alamiyyah (Najaf, Iraq), M.A., LLM (Shariah)
Member, Ulama Council of Pakistan
The purpose of the following dialogue is to promote tolerance and intellectual understanding among the Muslim community of the global village. The Modern World humiliates the Muslims with the fact that while astronauts have landed the Moon, and other scientists are busy in discoveries of the universe, majority of the Muslims are still following the directions of the clergy, regarding the sighting of the Moon, instead of following the scientific course, upon which religion of Islam is based.

Origin of the Lunar Calendar: Base of the 'Ismaili Lunar Calendar' is Qur'an: “The Sun and the Moon follow exactly computed courses.””[1]

This Ayat lays the foundation on which it is permissible to calculate the emergence of new crescent from a Shariah standpoint