Moon Sighting and Islamic Unity [Archives:2000/48/Culture]

Ismail Al Ghabiri
Yemen Times
There is certainly a standard and criterion to apply in order to determine the date of fasting and other Islamic dates. But people read these differently, often missing the purpose of these criteria and putting themselves in unnecessary difficulties. For example, the Prophet says: Ww are an unlettered community, which does not write nor calculate. Therefore, fast when you sight it (i.e. the moon) and end your fasting when you sight it. Should you be prevented from sighing it by clouds, then complete the month (to 30 days). In a different version, the Prophet instructs us in the case of an overcast sky to make an enlightened estimation.
This is the criterion which is simple and applicable in all situations. It is clear that the sighting of the moon is intended only as a mark which is available to all people, in all ages, regardless of their standard of learning of advancement. There is no special virtue given to the new moon, or to its sighting. It is only a convenient marking. When Muslims were uneducated and had little learning, they had to rely on the actual sighting with the naked eye. Hence the need for a back-up measure in the case of an overcast sky. If we consider the hadith carefully, we do not find in it anything that gives any virtue of the state of unlettered community or any wish to make it permanent. Nor does it give the sighting with the naked eye any sanctity to make it applicable in all situations, regardless of the availability of more accurate methods.
Hence, when the Muslim community has attained a standard of learning which enables it to calculate and rely on accurate scientific methods, it must resort to these. In fact we do this everyday, in all communities when we determine the timing of prayers throughout the year. We have timetables which tell us the exact time of each prayer for the whole year, and the same timetable could be used for many years to come. In Ramadan we rely on these calculations to begin the day of fasting and to finish our fast. None of us tries to sight the markings on the horizon for beginning and ending the fast. Why should we not rely on the same methods for determining whether the new moon is born and can be sighted or not? The sighting of the new moon is not a part of the worship of fasting. It is only a mark signaling its beginning and end. We seem to give it a much greater position than that.
Scholars have ruled over four centuries ago that the calculation of the timing of the birth of the new moon and its presence in the sky after sunset on the night before Ramadan starts is a more accurate and solid evidence that relying on its sighting with the naked eye.
The latter is considered a probable evidence, while the calculation according to the rules of astronomy is a firm evidence. That is the procedure we should adopt. Because we refuse to adopt this accurate method, we are immersed in disputes over something which should be very easy to deal with and settle. This is a sad state of affairs, and we hope that our top scholars will find a way to agree on a formula to bring all such disputes to an end. It is their duty to do so. Islam is a religion which unites, and does not cause divisions. It is Muslims who have been causing such divisions. May God guide us all to settle their problem without difficulty.

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