بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله
In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful
Salutations and Peace be upon You, My Master, Apostle of Allah
This year the Muslims will be celebrating Eid al-Fitr on three different days.
The governments of Afghanistan, Niger and Mali announced confirmation of crescent moon sightings in their respective countries on Wednesday night, therefore, Eid is on Thursday, March 19. Based on the method of global moon sighting, many Muslims in the West will observe Eid on Thursday.
The Saudi government announced that in their country there was no sighting of the crescent moon, therefore they will complete thirty days of Ramadan and observe Eid on Friday, March 20.
However, the Salafis and some other Muslims in the West, who are inconsistent, and had begun Ramadan according to the Saudi announcement despite no local moon sightings, are not following the announcement of Afghanistan, Niger and Mali and will complete thirty days of Ramadan in their blind following of the Saudis.
Other Muslim countries which did not accept the Saudi announcement for the beginning of Ramadan, doubting the scientific possibility of a moon sighting at that time, will also complete thirty days and observe Eid on Saturday, March 21.
It should be kept in mind that if one follows the method of global moon sighting (which many Muslims do) then that means one should accept the reliable testimony of Muslims of a crescent moon sighting anywhere in the world; it cannot be restricted to Arabia alone. So it makes no sense for Muslims in the West to begin Ramadan despite a lack of local moon sighting based on a Saudi announcement, but then to disregard an announcement from a country other than Saudi Arabia (like Afghanistan) that announces a crescent moon sighting for the beginning of Shawwal.
While we should respect the diversity of opinion and method with regard to moon sighting confirmation—local versus global—(but not the innovated method of astronomical calculation without visibly sighting the crescent), even if it results in the Ummah beginning and ending Ramadan on different days, we are right to call out the Salafis and other Muslims who blindly follow the Saudi government’s announcement while being outside of Arabia because they are inconsistent and apparently reject the announcement of other Muslim governments when they announce a crescent moon sighting.
The Salafi Masjid on Wright St., Small Heath (UK), considered the main Salafi center in the Anglosphere, had the first fast of Ramadan on Wednesday, February 18, despite no local moon sighting because they accepted the Saudi announcement of a moon sighting in Arabia. If they were consistent they should have said the last day of fasting in Ramadan would be Wednesday, March 18, since a sighting of the crescent moon for Shawwal was announced by the governments of Afghanistan, Niger and Mali. But because the Saudi government did not announce a moon sighting they observed Thursday, March 19 as the last day of fasting in Ramadan and will observe Eid tomorrow on Friday, March 20!
This is all part of a pattern from the Salafis in spreading fitnah among the Muslims, especially Muslim minority communities here in the West.
Jews originally determined the beginning of lunar months through witnessing the crescent moon, with witnesses brought to a special court of the Sanhedrin. Then in the 4th century CE, Hillel II introduced a fixed calendar based on calculations that the Jews have followed ever since.
Some Muslims today who likewise follow a fixed lunar calendar based on astronomical calculations are following the innovation of the Jews.
The Holy Prophet صلي الله عليه وسلم warned against this when he said:
لَتَتَّبِعُنَّ سَنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ شِبْرًا بِشِبْرٍ وَذِرَاعًا بِذِرَاعٍ حَتَّى لَوْ دَخَلُوا فِي جُحْرِ ضَبٍّ لاَتَّبَعْتُمُوهُمْ
“You will tread the same path as was trodden by those before you inch by inch and cubit by cubit so much so that if they had entered into the hole of the lizard, you would follow them in this also.” (Sahih Muslim)
Interestingly, a dissident Jewish sect—the Qumran community of Essenes associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls—rejected the practice of visible moon sighting to determine the beginning and end of the months. That was one of the reasons for their separation from the mainstream Jews of Jerusalem who accepted the validity of the priesthood serving at the Temple and continued to determine the beginning and end of the months based on visible sighting of the crescent moon.
Specifically rebuking the innovation of reckoning the lunar months based on astronomical calculations, the Prophet صلي الله عليه وسلم said:
إِنَّا أُمَّةٌ أُمِّيَّةٌ لاَ نَكْتُبُ وَلاَ نَحْسُبُ
We are an unlettered Ummah; we do not write nor count (ibid)
He صلي الله عليه وسلم then displayed all ten fingers of his hand three times, indicating the month could be thirty days, and then displayed the fingers of his hand another three times except he folded one of his thumbs the third time to indicate that the month could be twenty-nine days.
It is crucial that Muslims do not deviate from their established methods that we have been adhering to for centuries since the time of the Prophet Muhammad صلي الله عليه وسلم and the early Muslims.
In our time, some of the Christians have radically departed from the established norms and conventions, including with regard to the calendar. They have innovated the concept of a lunar Sabbath, in which the Sabbath—the Seventh Day—is not based on a fixed week of seven days, but based on phases of the moon.
We Muslims obviously reject the notion that the week is anything but a fixed cycle of seven days, with the sixth day being Yawm al-Jumu’ah (Friday) and the seventh day being Yawm al-Sabt (the Sabbath).
Although the names of the seven days of the week in English are based on Norse paganism, the days of the week are, remarkably, in sync globally, across every human culture, with the notable exception of modern-day fringe Christian churches that have innovated the Lunar Sabbath.
Allah عز وجل says:
اِنَّ عِدَّۃَ الشُّہُوۡرِ عِنۡدَ اللّٰہِ اثۡنَا عَشَرَ شَہۡرًا فِیۡ کِتٰبِ اللّٰہِ یَوۡمَ خَلَقَ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضَ مِنۡہَاۤ اَرۡبَعَۃٌ حُرُمٌ
Verily, the number of months in the sight of Allah are twelve months in the Book of Allah (since) the day He created the Heavens and the Earth. Of them four are sacred
(Surah 9, Ayah 36)
Based on this I say that even in the Shari’ah of the earlier Prophets, like Moses, the people were instructed to follow a purely lunar calendar consisting of twelve months. The Jews innovated the introduction of an intercalary month on a “leap year” so that the months remain aligned with their seasons and so that the Passover is always in spring. Otherwise, there is no explicit commandment in the Torah to have a thirteenth (intercalary) month in seven out of every nineteen years. This innovation of the intercalary month seems to have started in the 5th century BCE, after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, probably due to the pagan Babylonian influence they were exposed to.
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