Issue of Moon Sighting

8/9/2019 Issue of Moon Sighting

1/5


2/5

Out of all the symbols that Muslims could have chosen to symbolize the unity of Islam, it is indeed ironic

that they chose the crescent, which for many signifies the greatest manifestation of division amongst

Muslims, at least in Western lands!

Yes, its that time of the year again when brothers and sisters frantically begin calling family and friends,

asking, What did Shaykh so-and-so say? andDid they see the moon yet? and, the single most

effective question that seals the fate of ones own fast, What areYOUgoing to do? In this post, I dont

want to go into a detailed tangent regarding which opinion is correct or not, but rather lay out some of

the issues surrounding the controversy, and offer some practical advice.

The precise conditions required to sight a credible hilaalis just one of the many hundreds and thousands

of issues offiqh that our scholars have differed over, since the time of the Companions. And, in the

multi-madhab milieu ofNorth America, we are exposed to many suchfiqh differences on a regular basis,

to the extent that most of us have come to live with and accept the rich diversity of opinion present in

our traditional legal schools of thought. However, what makes the issue of the moon-sighting stand out

from the usual run-of-the millfiqh issues is that it affects a joint and communal festival of the Ummah.

Other issues, such as whether zakat should be given on jewelry, or whether the qunutbe prayed

in witror Fajr, or the finer details of how one prays, do not affect the Ummah as a whole. Typically,

these other differences can be left to ones individual preference with little or no detrimental effect on

fellow Muslims. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the date of the two Eids and the beginning

of the month of Ramadan, as this difference will affect entire communities, and form fault lines between

two neighboring masjids, or even within the worshippers of the same masjid.

But why is there such a controversy in the first place? Well, as is typical with such controversies, there

are two primary reasons why such differences exist. Firstly, of the few hadeeths that we have regardingmoon-sighting, various scholars have understood them in different manners, leading to a difference of

understanding that manifests itself in contradictory opinions. Secondly, issues arose in later generations

that the earliest Muslims were not exposed to, hence no explicit, unequivocal ruling exists regarding

them.

The classical scholars of Islam were only concerned with a few issues, and their modern counterparts

have added even more issues, apparently just to spice up the whole debate! To elaborate: classical

jurists were primarily (but not exclusively) concerned with two issues. Firstly, what is the minimum

requirement for the number of witnesses needed for verifying the beginning and end of Ramadhan?

One for the beginning, and two for the end? Or vice versa? Or one for both? Or two for both? Or a large,unspecified quantity? Or, was it different for a clear day versus a cloudy one? Plenty of opinions within

this issue, and even within one madhab it is common to find variant opinions. With regards to this issue,

a number of authentic hadeeths appeared to give different rulings, hence scholars had to use their

respective usoolin formulating answers to this question.

The second issue that was of major concern to them was: should the Muslims of one province take into

account sightings from a different province? Once again, a wide selection of opinions to choose from:


3/5

each province should follow its sighting only; or only the sightings of the provinces neighboring it; or the

sightings of all provinces within one matla (i.e., on the same longitudinal plane); or the sightings of all

provinces as long as the news arrived in time. However, unlike the first issue, there exists no clear,

unequivocal hadeeth dealing with the subject (albeit some narrations from the Companions exist).

Hence scholars had to use analogy (qiyas) and other general principles to formulate their respective

opinions. And once again, we find that even within madhabs there is a significant difference of opinion

in the finer details of this issue.

These two issues are discussed in practically every book offiqh. Other issues were not as pressing to the

people of those times as these two, hence references to them are typically only found in the larger and

more cumbersome commentaries. Such issues include: must one see the crescent from ground level,

or is it permissible to climb, say, a tall mountain to see the crescent? Or, what if an instrument, such a

telescope (yes, later Muslims had telescopes), is used, does this count as an acceptable sighting? Or,

what if it is a cloudy night, can one refer to astronomical calculations and, based solely on such

calculations, declare the beginning and end of the month? And more issues besides these, some of

which are more relevant to our times than others.

In our times, even more issues have surfaced, the most important being: what if someone claims to see

a crescent, yet astronomical data clearly tells us that the crescent was not born at that time, and hence

could not have been seen? Should we give precedence to a visual sighting, or claim that such a person is

mistaken? Another issue is the determination of the exact degree of the arc of elongation to claim that a

new crescent has been born: 9 degrees, or 12, or more, or less?

As can be seen, putting all of the various issues together and calculating out all the possible scenarios, it

is easy to extrapolate these differences into hundreds of opinions. The point that I wish to stress here is

that many Muslims simply do not realize the level of complexity surrounding issues of fiqh, including this

one, and woefully bemoan, Why cant our scholars just unite on one opinion and save us from the

hassle of disunity?! As can be seen, its not as simple as that, and indeed it is of the wisdom of Allah

that such a rich diversity exists in fiqh.

Thankfully, on a practical level, the issue of moon-sighting never reached a level of complication

involving all of the above factors. Rather, a few years ago, the single major issue that split the

community was that of local versus international sighting (or, to be more precise, local versus Saudi

sighting). Of recent, however, another major opinion has been added to the stew: that of completely

ignoring sightings in the first place, and basing the beginning and end of the month solelyon

astronomical data.

As far as I know, no reputable Sunni scholar in our classical (i.e., pre-modern) history has claimed that a

community could completely ignore visual sighting, and rely unconditionally on astronomical data. The

fiqh details have been hashed out in enough articles, and it is not my intent to repeat them here (for

those who are interested, see some of these articles below in particular the article by Imam Hamza

Yusuf, and the one by Shaykh Haytham al-Haddad).


4/5

In any case, the decision to follow calculations has been taken by a very large and reputable national

body, and the decision to follow a national, visual sighting has been taken by other reputable

institutions. Added to this, there are still communities who wish to follow an international (i.e,. Saudi)

sighting, and there are even those who will only follow a sighting that occurs within their own city.

Facing a myriad of options, it is the average Muslim who is left with the confusion of having to make up

his or her mind and figure out what exactly to do.

Some words of advice:

Firstly, just for the record, in my humble opinion the strongest fiqh position, independent of other

factors (see below), seems to be that we should follow a visual sighting within North America. If one

trustworthy Muslim physically sees the moon, and it was seen at a time when we know from

astronomical data that it was born and possible to see, then such a sighting should be accepted for all

Muslims of this continent.

Secondly, this opinion is just at a theoretical level. At a practical level, it is essential that one looks at the

situation of the community, and keep the best interests of the community in mind. So, if one is in a

position of authority and respect, and his decision will have an impact on the community, then and only

then should he research the various opinions and come to a conclusion that he will feel comfortable

with asking others to follow, whatever that position may be. However, if one is not in a position of

authority, and is just a regular Muslim following others, then in this case it is not the role of the average

Muslim to perform ijtihad on such fine matters. Rather, one should follow the local masjid that he or

she typically refers to for other issues, and that one feels a sense of affiliation with. A Muslim must

realize that this issue, along with all other fiqh differences of opinion, are issues that should not cause

disunity and hatred amongst the Muslims. Trusting an authority and following one opinion over

another is a matter completely permissible, or even obligatory, in the Sharee`ah, but fighting and

bickering and disputing with other Muslims is completely prohibited by the unanimous consensus of

all scholars of Islam. In other words, even if two masjids are celebrating Eid on two different days, this

should not lead to one masjid looking down at another, or feeling superior to them, or arguing with

them.

Thirdly, if someone feels that he or she would prefer to follow an opinion that their local masjid

is notfollowing, based upon theirfiqh preference, then even though this would not be sinful in and of

itself (as there is no consensus in N. America regarding this issue, unlike in most Muslim countries),

there is no reason to announce such a decision publically, or debate or convince others of the merits of

ones own opinion. Rather, let the people do what they are doing, and this particular brother or sister

may follow another opinion in private. This would be better to preserve the unity of the Muslims.

Additionally, regardless of the actual day that one celebrates Eid, it is completely permissible, rather I

would say encouraged, that one attends the Eid celebrations of the community on other days as well.

Even if this means that one is fasting that Eid day, there is no problem in attending the prayer, but of

course the one who is fasting will intend it to be a voluntary (nafl) prayer, and not his own Eid. This

would give the impression of Muslim unity, and increase the number of Muslims at all Eid festivals. (And

hey, you get to enjoy the benefits of Eid twice!!)


5/5

Lastly, out of all of the hadeeths that should be emphasized regarding the issue of moon-sighting, I

believe the following one is the most important, yet oft neglected as well.

Abu Hurayrah narrated, as reported in theJamiof al-Tirmidhi (2/37), that the beloved Prophet (salla

Allah alayhi wa sallam) said, The fast *starts] on the day that you all are fasting, and the [Eid] al-Fitr is

the day that you all break the fast (i.e., stop fasting).

Imam al-Tirmidhi commented on this hadeeth and said, This has been interpreted to mean that one

fasts and celebrates the Eid with the group of Muslims and their majority. The famous Yemeni scholar

al-San`ani wrote in his Subul al-Salaam, This hadeeth proves that what counts for claiming that it is Eid

is that the people agree to the fact that it is Eid. And so, if a single person sees the crescent (but is not

followed for some reason), he still must still follow the community (and not his sighting). And the great

student of Ibn Taymiyyah, one of the finest ulamaathat our history has seen, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah,

wrote regarding this hadeeth, This is a refutation of those who claim that someone who knows when

the moon is born by astronomical calculations should follow it in starting and finishing the fast, ignoring

the rest of the people. Another interpretation of this tradition is that one who witnesses the crescent

and whose sighting is subsequently rejected by the judge should not fast, just like the people are not

fasting (Tahdheeb al-Sunan 3/214).

In other words, what this hadeeth tells us is that whats important regarding the beginning and end of

Ramadhan is not when the moon is sighted or not, but rather following the community of Muslims and

keeping the local Ummah unified.Therefore, even if the crescent was born and could have been

sighted, if the community does not fast on a particular day, for whatever reason, then it is not

permissible for an individual to break away from the community and fast or break his fast separate from

them.

Of course, in our times, even Muslims of one city are typically following different opinions, but if there isa clear and apparent majority, then this hadeeth should be followed and the individual should stick with

that majority, regardless of the fiqh opinion that they are following.

Brothers and sisters, the beginning of Ramadhan is upon us, either tonight or tomorrow night. Surely

this is notthe time to bicker amongst ourselves, fighting over an issue offiqh that will not be resolved

for decades to come. Whatever opinion you follow, alhamdulillahgood for you, just dont make an issue

of it in the community.

This Ramadhan, lets permanently bid farewell to moon-fighting, and concentrate on having our sins

forgiven and our fasts accepted.

May Allah bless us all in this Ramadhan, whenever it starts and finishes!!!

Documents

Issue of Moon Sighting