Sighting the moon
Mu' meneen Brothers
and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Brother Burhan,
Assalamo-Alaikum,
The moon sighting issue has always intrigued me. I have raised my
questions even at ISNA conferences but did not get a convincing response.
here too you have quoted conflicting quotes. e.g.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 10 Surah Yunus verse 5:
It is He (Allah) Who gave the sun his brightness and the moon her light, and
ordained the moon's phases precisely so that you may calculate years and dates
from this.
If I am understanding right from this Ayah, Allah knows
that we can calculate dates and years from the knowledge he gave us on Sun and
moon. With the advances in the astronomy, we are able to calculate the exact
position of sun and moon at any given instance. Then why there is
objection on relying on the computations as against the tradition of sighting
moon. The tradition is not demanded by Allah in Quran but that was the need of
the times and recorded by Sahabas for guidance. Should we take the
traditions as mandatory or the guidance from Quran as mandatory. We all
know the answer. But if some people choose to stay with tradition, I don't see
that is the only right way. You have to use the knowledge and Akl Allah
has given us. The traditions in my opinion is time based. A tradition of
one era may not be practical or valid in another era. Traditions do change with
time. The time I am talking here is in terms of Centuries. The tradition
of moon sighting is more relevant in times when the astronomy advances were not
made. When there was no mechanical time clock. The time tracking was
purely done through what could be seen - in terms of day and night. Why don't
we ride camels as means of transportation? After all our prophets and Sahabas
used to ride camel. The camel riding is not practical in this era.
The cars are innovations. Why is innovation evil? I have hard time
following this. Any innovation will change a tradition here and
there. If we had electronics, websites, emails in Prophet's (saws)
era, would it not be reflected in the traditions at that time. The only
thing that does not change with time is the guidance of Allah in the Al
Quran. All other things are time dependant.
Also how did we come up with the exact up to the second time for salat 5 times
a day? We all have fixed time for fajr, Zohor, Asar, maghrib and
Isha. These fixed times have come from the calculations - position of Sun
- knowledge of Astronomy, computers. How come we use calculations in this
instance but do not believe calculations for lunar calendar? Do we
believe only in Sun and not moon? Allah has fixed path for both of them
as revealed in Surah Yaseen. (Wash shamso tajri limustaqirin laha Zalika
taqdeerul aleem....Wal qamarah qaddernaho munazilah hatta aadakul urjoonil
qadeem...)
I would appreciate your views on this. I do not know much of the haqeeqi
claim, but that is not the issue I am interested. Hope to see a convincing
response from you as always.
Jazakullah Khair!
(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Sighting the moon
In the name of Allah, We praise
Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can
misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We
bear witness that there is no one (no idol,
no person, no grave, no
prophet, no imam, no dai,
nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that
Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 189: They ask you (O Prophet) about the
phases of the moon. Tell them, “These
are signs for the people to reckon dates,
and fix the periods for Hajj”.
In the above aayah of the Holy
Quran, Allah declares that the phases of the moon are signs for the people to
determine or reckon the dates of the months.
It was indeed the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws) and the early
muslims, that they would determine the days and months by sighting the
moon. It is also true that in those
days, they did not have access to the modern technological devices, and thus
used to sight the moon with the naked eye.
There is absolutely no harm, if today, the muslims use and take
advantage of these modern instruments to sight or determine the advent of the
moon (just as they use the watch to determine the prayer times) to start and
date their calendar months. What is
important is that muslims should with or without the use of instruments, sights
the moon to start the months.
In Islam, the moon is used to
determine the number of days in a calendar month; and the sun is used to
determine the time for the obligatory ‘fard’ prayers. Just as the prayer times are different in the various
geographical locations of the world, it is only natural that the advent of the
lunar months will also be different, depending on the various geographical
locations. The times and dates are
linked to the sun and the moon, and not through the various sects in Islam!
Just imagine, if someone was to
say that all the people of one sect must pray the ‘fajr’ prayers at the very
same time, no matter where they reside in the world! Now that is something that would not make sense!
Similarly, if one sect announces
that, irrespective of the advent of the new moon, they must all start and end
the month on the very same day, no matter where they reside in the world; that
would not make scientific or logical sense, if indeed they determine their days
of the month through the advent of the moon as commanded by Allah Subhanah in
the Glorious Quran.
It is also a scientific fact,
that some months in the lunar calendar have 29 days and some have 30 days. Thus it would be incorrect to always
determine the month of Ramadan (or any particular month) as 30 days, without
referring to the moon.
If all
the muslims everywhere in the world were to celebrate the Holy Month of Ramadan
and Eid on the very same day, it does not make scientific or logical
sense! It makes as much sense to
start and end a lunar month on the very same day all over the world, as it
would make if everyone prays their
‘fajr’ (or any) prayers at the exact same times all over the world, without
referring to the sun! That would mean
that although it might be time for ‘fajr’ in
Thus, there is absolutely no
harm is one uses modern tools to determine the advent of the moon, and no
sensible scholar will call that an innovation.
Whatever written of Truth and
benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error
is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He
is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in
Islam,
Burhan
Wister