Islamic Calendar - a Discussion

Bi ismillahir rahmanir raheem

Sometime back, I had circulated, on the web, an article captioned 'Islamic Calendar'. I received critical comments on the same from a Brother. In the interest of our quest for the truth I am giving below the Brother's comments in black font. The passages in grey are from my original article, and my replies to the critical comments are in blue.

Mohammad Shafi

According to a tradition (huadeeth), the Prophet (peace and Allah's blessings be upon him) had told the Muslims then that if the new moon was sighted on the 29th of the month of Ramadhuaan, the Eid was to be celebrated the next day. If the new Moon was not sighted on the 29th, the Eid was to be celebrated only after completing 30 days of Ramadhuaan.

The ahadith are translated to say the "new moon" must be sighted, this is an obvious mistranslation since the "new moon" is imposible to see and what the translation should say is the cresent of the new moon. The article it self points this out when it says the new moon is not visible for 24 hours, the moon goes through fases and at each fase a new name is given to it according to western conventions.

New Moon

Waxing Crescent

First Quarter

Waxing Gibbous

Full Moon

Waning Gibbous

Last Quarter

Waning Crescent

we are looking for the waxing cresent of the moon not the new moon. the translations of the hadith are literal and do not convey the intent of what is being said.

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary gives the meaning of 'new moon' as 'moon when first seen as a crescent after conjunction with the sun'.

Muslims thus follow different Islamic calendars in different parts of the world. Obviously such different calendars cannot be practically followed for international dealings and transactions in today's world which has virtually been converted into a global village thanks to technological advance.

this is not relavent to the Islamic calender since the islamic calender is to establish the month of the year for the purpose of worship such as the days of ramadhan, eid and days of fasting. not for the arab version of wall street to keep track of there business dealings, they use western calanders anyway and are forced to if they want to deal on an international level we do not bend our religion for money.

Islam is a practical religion, Brother! It doesn't prescribe double standards, one for religion and another for worldly affairs. It's persons of your school of faulty thought that make Islam look impracticable in today's world. By admitting that one has to use 'western calendars' for business dealings at international level, you're already making your faulty version of religion bend for money. Pure Islam, as depicted in the divine Qur'aan, doesn't have to bend, for anything. The lunar calendar based on this pure, Allah-perfected religion would be internationally viable for all purposes. And if the non-Islamic world insists on a solar calendar, the dates on the former calendar can easily be converted into dates on the latter. The solar calendar that the world follows is not at all perfect. It remains imperfect even after inserting an addtional day once in 4 years. The clock has even then to be adjusted by a second or so after every few years. It's after all a man-made calendar. The perfect divine calendar based on the pure Qur'aanic guidance, on the other hand, shall inshaAllah have no corrections to make.

Saudi arabia already seperates its civil calendar from its religious one which is why moon sighting still occurs in the country, last years contravercy was over two witnesses suposedly sighting the moon on the day the new moon was calculated to have been. Al hamdulillah they still place value on sighting the moon and recognise that it is a requirment.

That is what you say, Brother! My information is that the Saudi government follows the calculated new moon timings.

But this requirement of physically sighting the new moon, is nowhere mentioned in the Qur'aan.

Which means nothing unless you are implying the sunnah is of a much lesser authority than the Quran.

That's the root of all our troubles, Brother! We're unable to understand that the Huadheeth regarding our Prophet (peace and Allah's blessings be upon him) telling people to start and end Ramadhaan fastings on sighting the new moon, was time-specific for the people of the age in which he lived. This huadheeth has to be read with another wherein he said that theirs was a community of illiterate people, who knew not how to keep accounts [H.137; Vol.3, Sahih Bukhari]. The Qur'aan, on the other hand, is valid for all times till the Last Day. The people during the Prophet's time had no alternative, but to end any month on the 29th day only if they sighted the moon on that day. They had no means to calculate the fixed/appointed points of time for the new moons to come out for the earth.

As per the divine Book, people did question the Prophet about the new moons. And the Prophet was directed to inform the people that these are fixed points in time to enable mankind to measure it (time) [refer verse 2.189].

not true in the context of this article, they did not question rasul allah in relation to whether they should site the moon or not which makes the very next line have no basis what so ever.

And indeed are these fixed points in time, for the entire mankind on earth.

the moon has an orbit just like the sun it is not a fixed time starting in one location on earth this is twisting of the ayat and what rasul allah said.

Your denial of new moon timings being fixed points in time, is a denial of the Qur'aan. Verse 2.189 clearly tells us that the new moons are mawaaqueetu linnasi (fixed/appointed points in time for mankind). And it's a scientifically verified fact that the different phases of the moon occur at fixed points of time in relation to the entire earth. But because of the rotation of the earth, these fixed points in time have to be represented by different local times at different places on the earth. If this is too complicated for you to understand, let me give you the example of the full moon. It occurs at the same moment of time for the entire earth, although this same moment of time is represented by different local times at different places. And mind you, the full moon is a momentary occurrence. In the very next moment, a this line of darkness starts spreading at one side of the moon, which generally goes unnoticed by the naked human eye.

And about 15 days later, an exactly opposite phenomenon happens. The entire illuminated half of the moon gets away from the earth, and for all of us on earth, it's entirely a dark moon, which the stronomers call, as you have mentioned, a new moon. They call it a new moon, because at that very moment, a thin bright line at one side of the moon's circumference starts getting illuminated by the sun's rays. This bright line cannot be seen by naked eyes on earth. But that is the meequaat (singular of mawaaqueet) for mankind mentioned in verse 2.189. What different people in different countries see as the new moon, is not actually the new moon, as you have yourself pointed out. What they see is the waxing crescent at different stages of its development. The waxing crescent doesn't have a fixed time. But since Allah T'a'ala speaks of fixed times (mawaaqueet), it has got to be of the astronomical 'new moon'.

Brother! Your denial of the Qur'aanic mention of new moons being fixed points in time, also betrays lack of knowledge of the dynamics of the relative movements of the sun, the moon and the earth in space. Therefore, frankly, the other remarks in your comments above make no sense.

here is the clear falacy of this articles entire argument,

The new moon that last occurred was on the 2nd November, 2005 at 6.54 a.m. as per the Indian Standard Time.

the new moon occured on the 2nd of november all around the world making the cresent posible to see on the 3rd of november and friday being the first day of the month. Saudi arabia celebrated eid on the 3rd of november meaning one day early so how can you advocate that people follow saudi arabia if you know they are wrong.

But the Saudi government was not wrong, Brother! The meequaat, in terms of verse 2.189 had already occurred on the 2nd November. Qur'aanically, they were correct in observing the Eid on the 3rd.

My information is that if the calculated occurrence of the new moon there is before sunset, the next day is declared by that government as the 1st of the next Islamic month.

The information relied upon in the article is not accurate since it is an established scientific fact that you can not calculate the visibility of the new cresent the thing Allah and his prophet commanded us to establish the days of the month with not the new moon( which is not visible ever). Saudi arabia calculates the new moon not the cresent there is a diference and mix up in terminology in this artile.

The mix up is in your understanding, Brother! Since the Qur'aan speaks of new moons being fixed points in time, the 'new moons' it is referring to cannot but be the astronomical new moon. The 'new moons' that you and I first see cannot have fixed points in time.

The Quran it self says you have to witness the first cresent not calculate it (2;185) fa man shahidah minkum ash sharah, those from you who have witnesed the month, some translate it as "So every one of you who is present (at his home) during that month" the meaning is still pointed towards presence and witnessing the month.

Witnessing the month cannot be the same as 'witnessing the new moon', Brother! You're clearly trying to twist the clear meaning of the divine Writ. If we go by your interpretation, the translation of that particular part of the verse, 2.185, would be: ---'whoever of you witnesses the new moon, should fast'---. Do you mean to say that those who do not witness the new moon, need not fast? Don't you think you are incurring Allah's wrath by such open twisting of the clear meaning of His words?

"the root meaning of the term shahidah refers to a witnessing which takes part in a physical form, as a form of proof, scholars of arabic grammer agree on this by unanimous concensous, ibn abbas is one example". Therefor you can not merely calculate the cresent (something imposible to do with accuracy) it must be sighted with human eye.

I reiterate, you are misinterpreting Allah's unambigously clear words with ambiguous and error-prone human opinions. And I reiterate, there cannot be fixed points in time (mawaaqueet) for the new moons (crescents) first sighted by human eyes. Mawaaqueet could be valid only for the astronomical new moons. Allah has enabled these fixed points to be accurately calculated by modern man.

Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated, “I heard Allah's Messenger (The blessing and peace of Allah be upon him) saying, “When you see the crescent (of Ramadhan), start fasting, and when you see the crescent (of the month of Shawwal), stop fasting; and if the sky is overcast (and you can't see it) then regard the month of Ramadan as of 30 day.

People of the Prophet's time didn't have the knowledge to calculate the meequaat. There was no alternative for them but to sight the new moon to be aware that the meequaat had occurred.

the entire world ought to adopt the calendar as framed by the Saudi government; for, that government is the custodian of the places where the Hajj is performed.

There is no authority in the Quran or sunnah to follow Saudi Arabia a country named after its rulers not becouse of its religion. Many times in our history the seat of the Khalifah has changed, from Makah to Damascus to Baghdad to Istanbul it never stayed with who ever was in control of the two cities.

The mention of the Hajj in verse 2.189 is the authority. The astronomical new moons are mawaaqueet for mankind as well as for the Hajj. It is the Saudi government that determines the dates of the Hajj every year. Mankind from all over the world come there for the Hajj. They have willy-nilly to follow those dates. And as long as that government follows the guidance given in the Qur'aan, mankind should not have any objection to follow the same calendar all over the world.

This artilce is an argument for the Quran only Group, no mention or value is placed upon the Sunnah of the prophet, Allah himself in the Quran asks us to look towards the sunnah of rasul allah to clarify the Quran.

There are no groups in Islam, Brother! Those who follow the Qur'aan, belong to Islam. And those who do not follow the Qur'aan, do not belong to Islam. The Prophet was the very embodiment of the Qur'aan. The Qur'aan contains the most authenticated and accurate sayings of the Prophet. He was the Messenger of Allah. His sunnah could not be different from sunnatullah. Those who follow the Qur'aan, follow the Prophet.

Mohammad Shafi
islam-n-interest.com