Posted by Abd Al Mustafa on Saturday 11th August, 2012
It will not be surprising to hear that, the bright eyed person who sighted the new hilal for ramadan on the 19th of july will once again step forward and claim the sighting of the new hilal for shawwal on the 18th of August. For hanafis living in the UK/USA, it will be very interesting to note the rule of “jamee ghafeer”. Which is, when the skies are clear with no obstruction, the sighting must be confirmed by a large number of people. According to Imam Abu Yusuf (RA), a minimum of 50 people must have reported the sighting.
Firstly, the sighting in saudi on the 19th of july 2012 was claimed by one unknown individual despite the fact that the officials assigned to the task (almost 60 in total thru out saudi) with hi-tech equipment were unable to make any positive sightings.
without doubt, saudis will be asked to attempt to sight the moon on the 17th of august. it will be impossible to make a sighting in saudi on that date, so it will be confirmed that ramadan will complete 30 days and nobody will bother to check whether the moon is visible on the following day. however, according to hanafi fiqh if the moon is not sighted on the 30th of ramadan, then without doubt the sighting of 19th july was false or a mistake. In this situation, what does hanafi fiqh advise..?
If the people begin Ramadan based on the testimony of a single person, and then they complete THIRTY DAYS of fasting and thereafter no one sees the moon of EID AL-FITR even though the sky is clear, it is not permitted for them to cease fasting (which is the view agreed upon in the Madhhab. This means that the person who first witnessed the moon of Ramadan was mistaken, and that it was not Ramadan. hence, they are to fast this day also. ie. their 1st ramadan does not count as a fast of ramadan).
Scholars however differed on, if Ramadan was established on the testimony of two upright persons (and then thirty days are completed and yet no one sees the moon for Eid al-Fitr even though the sky is clear); do they fast another day? Or do they celebrate Eid al- Fitr?
Many experts held that they are to fast another day, because the fact that the moon is not observed on a clear day is proof of their mistake.
what will our hanafi brothers and sisters living in the UK/USA say on this.? we all shout and scream about adhering to the hanafi madhaab, but on such issues all we hear is silence.
Posted in awliya allah, bangla, bangladesh, bengali, deoband, deobandi, eid, events, fiqh, forums, fultali, fultholi, general, hadith, hajj, hilaal, hilal, islam, madina, makkah, masjid, moonsighting, mosque, muslim, news, polemics, quran, ramadhan, religion, scholars, signs of allah, sufi, sufism, sylhet, sylheti, tabligh, tablighi, the prophet, ummah, unity, wahabi | Tagged: 1433ah, barelwi, brelvi, conferences and seminars, crescent moon, deoband, deobandi, eid, eid al fitr, fitna, following saudi, hilaal, hilal, ibn taymiyyah, islam, moon, moon sighting, moonsighting, muslim, muslims in the uk, najdi, ramadan, ramadhan, religion, saudi, saudi moon, scholars, sighting of the new moon, sunni, wahabi, yusuf qardawi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Abd Al Mustafa on Wednesday 1st August, 2012
Allah (SWT) gave me a chance to work and stay in Saudi Arabia for about 5 years (1416-1421H / 1995-2000). I wanted to use my stay to find out about the system for Hilaal sighting there, and to check my personal sighting attempts there. I also wanted to find more about the “UmmUlQura Calendar”. First, as was perhaps expected, I found that most local people had no idea of any mistakes in the Saudi announcements for Hilaal, and an extremely small percentage of my local Saudi practicing Muslim friends had ever attempted to sight the Hilaal in their life. Then Alhamduilillaah I was able to meet some Astronomers and also find that the UmmUlQura Calendar is designed in KACST – the prestigious King Abdul Aziz University for Science and Technology in Riyadh. UmmUlQura Calendar.
The local Astronomers brothers I met were very warm and welcoming. I found that there has been a major change in the UmmUlQura Calendar computation criteria starting 1420H. Before that year, the UmmUlQura calendar was based on Greenwich and not Makkah. Also it was based on the dark invisible Astronomical new moon being born. Thus it was totally different from the actual Hilaal observation. Starting about 1420H, the new criterion is that the Moonset be after Sunset in Makkah (even by one second). Starting 1423H Insha’Allaah it will again change slightly to directly take the astronomical new moon (conjunction) also into account. But the main input I got was that the UmmUlQura calendar was for CIVIL use only, and NOT for predicting the Hilaal for religious dates. The Astronomers were well aware that the moonset needs to be after sunset by a long time, and not just one second (along with other factors) for the Hilaal to be visible. But the point was that the UmmUlQura calendar neither attempts nor claims to predict the Hilaal. It is merely used for the official dates in the Ministries, schools, Saudia Airlines, and indeed all over the country Alhamdulillaah. Also, the local Astronomers were very well aware that there were a LOT of errors in the Saudi announced dates.
Official Saudi Hilaal Sighting Committees
Further, I was found that due to the Saudi Government becoming aware of the complaints of errors in the announced dates, around 1419H, the ruling council ordered the formation of Hilaal sighting committees.
Each such committee includes:
one member of Qada (Islamic Scholar/Justice department),
one member of KACST/Astronomer,
one member of Imarah (ruling council of the city), and
volunteers.
As of 1421H / 2000 there were six such committees in Saudi Arabia – near Makkah, Riyadh, Qassim, Hail, Tabuk and Asir. While they may carry a telescope with them, the official sighting of the committee is with naked eye only. Saudi scholars like Sheikh AlOthaimeen (RH) are against use of telescopes. Sheikh AlOthaimeen (RH) for example indicated that using telescopes increases the “Takalluf” (Burden) on Muslims, which Allaah (SWT) does not want. These official committees seemed to be a wonderful news and excellent solution Alhamdulillaah. So why should there still be a problem ?
Well, the answer is as follows:
The problem is because even though these 6 official Hilaal sighting committees exist, the Justice department still accepts the witness of “any” Muslim and not just the 6 official committees mentioned above. Thus, often the new month is declared while NONE of these 6 official Hilaal sighting committees saw the Hilaal. In fact, most people, including scholars are unaware of the existence of these official committees.
In the case of EidUlFitr 1420H, I myself went with the Makkah committee to a sighting point on a hilltop of Shamesi outside the city of Makkah Mukarramah on Thursday evening. Neither we, nor the other 5 committees sighted the Hilaal. But we came back to the Haram Shareef and were astounded to hear the announcement that EidUlFitr was next day (Friday). In fact moonset was before sunset in Makkah for Thursday evening. In this case the error was quite brazen. Later I learned that Sheikh Yusuf AlQaradawi issued a Fatwa indicating that Muslims who celebrated Eid 1420H on Friday following the Saudi announcement should make up one missed Ramadaan fast………………………….Dr Salman Shaikh
Posted in aqida, awliya allah, bangla, bangladesh, bengali, deoband, deobandi, eid, events, fiqh, fultali, fultholi, general, hadith, hajj, hilaal, hilal, islam, madina, makkah, masjid, moonsighting, mosque, muslim, polemics, quran, ramadhan, religion, signs of allah, sylheti, tabligh, tablighi, the prophet, ummah, unity, wahabi | Tagged: crescent moon, deoband, deobandi, eid, fitna, following saudi, hilaal, hilal, islam, madinah, makkah, moon, moonsighting, muslims in the uk, najdi, ramadan, ramadhan, religion, saudi moon, scholars, sighting of the new moon, taraweeh, tarawih, wahabi, yusuf qardawi | 1 Comment »
Posted by Abd Al Mustafa on Thursday 12th July, 2012
mufti yusuf danka, imam of croydon mosque states,
In 2006, I (Muhammad Yusuf Danka) attended a meeting with the Director General of London Central Masjid Dr Ahmed Dubiyan. This meeting was attended by 20 management members of the West London Masajid and Shaykhul Hadith Molana Samirud-Deen Qasmi حفظه الله from Manchester. In this meeting, Dr Dubiyan stated: ‘In our own Masjid here, there was a meeting and we in UK agreed to unite on the moon sighting announcements and criteria for this country, however, the Jamiatul Ulama Britain & Hizbul Ulama UK changed their minds the very next year, from this, our own attendees complained to us why we were not following Saudi when others who were not Arab did so, this made matters very difficult for us, even after being from a Saudi background, we (London Central Mosque) have no objection in not following the Saudi announcement.
If today, the Scholars of this country agree to unite on the specific criteria, we are ready to adopt that also.
A little history on the the whole matter
In 1984, there was an international conference held in London Central Masjid & Cultural Centre (Regents Park) for the purpose of discussing the Moon Sighting criteria of the UK:
This meeting was attended by approximately 350 Scholars from various Countries around the World, among the participants were: The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Scholars from Europe and also numerous Scholars from the UK who were specifically chosen from their association or work within a certain group of the Muslims (Da’wah Tabligh, Brelvi, Salafi etc), from the side of Jamiatul Ulama Britain, Mufti Aslam was invited, the foundation for sighting of the crescent moon to establish the new Islamic month in the UK was that the moon had to be sighted with the naked eye (Muhaqaq Ru’yat Basari). The outcome of the conference was that all the Scholars present unanimously agreed to abide by the agreed criteria. There were 30 senior Scholars from the UK present, all of whom confirmed their agreement to adopting the criteria by signing their names to it. The agreed criteria was then sent to the Grand Mufti of India, Hadhrat Mufti Abdur Raheem Lajpuri رحمه الله . The acceptance and confirmation of the criteria of 1984 is mentioned in the book Fatawa Raheemiya by Hadhrat Mufti Abdur Raheem Lajpuri رحمه الله
However, even after the conference, the unanimous agreement and all the following events, the very next year, Jamiatul Ulama Britain & Hizbul Ulama UK broke their oath and unanimous agreement to the United Moon Sighting Criteria which was written at the Regents Park Masjid conference. [source]
Posted in aqida, awliya allah, bangla, bangladesh, bengali, deoband, deobandi, eid, events, fiqh, fultali, fultholi, general, hadith, hajj, hilaal, hilal, islam, madina, makkah, masjid, moonsighting, mosque, muslim, news, polemics, quran, ramadhan, religion, scholars, shaban, signs of allah, sylhet, sylheti, tabligh, tablighi, the prophet, umrah, unity, wahabi | Tagged: barelwi, brelvi, deobandi, eid, islam, moon, moon sighting, moonsighting, muslims in the uk, ramadan, ramadhan, religion, saudi, sunni, tablighi, wahabi | Leave a Comment »
