 |
|
|
|
January 17, 2005 (Monday) Zul-Hijja 6, 1425 AH ISNA's Announcement: ISNA is pleased to announce that Eid ul Adha will be on Friday, January 21, 2005. The Hajj Authority in Mecca as well as the Moon Sighting Committee in North America have both announced that Wednesday 12 January 2005 is the beginning of Zul Hijjah, and Friday 21 January 2005 will be Eid ul Adha (Eid of Sacrifice) with Muslims around the world celebrating the day of Eid in solidarity. On January 14, the Supreme Judiciary Council of Saudi Arabia announced a change in its earlier statement, that the standing at Arafat will be on January 19 and Eid ul Adha on January 20. Moon sighting on January 10 was astronomically ruled out in Saudi Arabia. The new moon was born at 12:03 Universal Time on January 10 and was only 3 hours old in Saudi Arabia. It set 3 minutes before the sunset. Therefore, sightability on January 10 was totally incredible. ISNA stands by its earlier decision that Eid ul Adha in North America will, insha'Allah, be on Friday, January 21, as announced earlier. ICNA's Announcement: Alhamdulillah, Zul Hijjah moon has been sighted on Tuesday, January 11, 2005. Therefore, Eid ul Adha will be on Friday, January 21, 2005.
Please read below this article on "The Saudi Hajj Decision Rifts American Muslims" By Dr. Mohammad Auwal, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, and An article on
The Saudi Hajj Decision Rifts American Muslims Dr. Mohammad A. Auwal According to Arab News (Jeddah, January 15, 2005), Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah has urged Muslims to unite to alleviate suffering of Muslims worldwide. I appreciate this call as it speaks to the hearts and minds of Muslims everywhere. Unfortunately, however, his country’s incredible decisions are doing just the opposite—dividing Muslims even on the matters of worship in which there is universal agreement. I am referring the recent Saudi decision about that Day of Arafat (the main day of the Hajj) as well as the day of Eid ul Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) and the rift and pain it has caused among Muslims especially in North America. Earlier, the Saudi Hajj authority and the Moon Sighting Committee of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an umbrella organization for North American Muslim organizations, declared that January 12, 2005, would be the beginning of the Zul Hijjah (12th month of the Hijri calendar), and accordingly, Eid ul Adha would be celebrated on January 21, 2005 (Friday). On January 14, however, the Saudi authority stunned us by announcing that the Day of Arafat would be January 19 and the Eid ul Adha on January 20. The Saudi authority reportedly advanced the Eid celebration by one day based on moon sighting claims by two persons on January 10. But astronomical data make their claims clearly unbelievable. As reported in www.Moonsighting.com, on January 10 it was impossible for anyone to see the new moon anywhere on earth except possibly in Chile and Polynesian islands. The new moon was born at 12:03 Universal Time on that day and was barely 3 hours old in Saudi Arabia where it set 3 minutes before the sunset. Put simply, if a trace of the new moon is sighted in Saudi Arabia, we in the North and the West coasts of the U.S. should be able to have a better view of that moon because we are ahead of the Saudis in its growth trajectory. Nobody has reported sighting the moon on January 10, 2005 anywhere on earth. So, ISNA has found the Saudi moon sighting report unbelievable and stuck to its earlier decision to celebrate the Eid on January 21. But many American mosques are ignoring the ISNA decisions and blindly following the Saudi decision ironically in the name of global Muslim unity. I have noticed since the early 1990s how decisions on Ramadan and the Hajj dates taken in Makkah divide and create conflict among Muslims in the U.S. In one year (possibly 1992), we celebrated the Eid ul Fitr over three days during which we experienced an unnecessary cold war within the community. After that, for several recent years, ISNA followed the Saudi decision in the interest of unity among Muslims. But finally, the ISNA woke up to the folly of that decision. The folly is that those who claim to have sighted the moon well ahead of its astronomical visibility (established by credible astronomers) are either lying or making a mistake. This is what an eminent Egyptian-American Muslim astronomer pointed out at a Southern California MAYA (Muslim Arab Youth Association) conference in the late 1990s (I don’t recall the exact year), after demonstrating the scientific determinism with which astronomers can predict the movement cycle of the moon. This year’s Saudi claim of sighting the new moon when none in the world has seen it is like telling us to believe that the broad daylight that we see with our naked eyes is dark and deep midnight. This is not the first time the Saudi authorities have unilaterally declared the date of the Yaomul Arafah (the Day of Arafat) and the day of Eid (alt. spelling ‘Id) based on astronomically incredible sighting of the moon. In fact the Saudis are almost always one day ahead in declaring the Ramadan, Eid ul Fitr, or Eid ul Adha. Those who accept the Saudi decision without critical sense making argue that the Eid has to be celebrated worldwide on the day after the Day of Arafat. But chronologically, Muslims in the time of Prophet (SA) began to celebrate Eid ul Adha in Medina before they could actually perform the hajj, which means that there is no conditional link between the two. In addition, throughout the fourteen hundred years, until the late 20th century, Muslims in the rest of the world, even those who lived just a couple of hundred miles away in Medina, did not hear from the Makkans about the exact day of Arafat or the Eid. They celebrated the Eid, as the Prophet (SA) instructed, based on their own local sighting of the crescent moon. This tradition of the Eid celebration is still valid in the many Muslim countries. Muslims in Bangladesh, for example, are celebrating this Eid on January 22, 2005 (Saturday), two days following the Saudi celebration. Today technology has brought us physically closer together. We watch the performance of the rites of the Hajj as they take place in Makkah on television and feel inspired to synchronize our celebration with the Makkans’. But this is historically untrue and logically or theologically questionable. The Saudi authorities who make the key decisions and those who illogically follow them have to keep in mind that their actions are drifting the already fractured Muslim community further apart. There is a way out of this mess we are in, and that is called shura or consultation in Islam. The Saudi authorities have to wake up and consult the voices of reason—international Muslim scholars and scientists—before repeating these mistakes and thus further creating disunity among Muslims. We, the Muslims in North America too have to wake up and see how our sincere but rash actions are fracturing us further as a community. Dr. Mohammad Auwal, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Determination of the proper date An excerpt from the chairman's Message in The Community News, a newsletter published by TARIC volume 107, March 8, 2000 According to a hadith [tradition of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him (pbuh)] narrated by Ibn 'Umar, "On the Day of Nahr (10th of Dhul-Hijja), When Hajj approaches, well-meaning Muslims will again raise the perennial argument about unity in the Muslim Ummah [community]. We will inevitably hear that Hajj is for the Hajjis [those who are performing the Hajj in Mecca], and we must celebrate Eid ul Adha on the day that they are observing it, and if we don't that would be tantamount to saying that the Hajjis performed their ritual on the wrong day. The TARIC Islamic Centre, the Hilal Committee of Greater Toronto and the many thousands of organizations in North America, South Asia, South Africa and Australia may celebrate Eid ul Adha on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah which may not coincide with the Saudi authorities, but is the sunnah [custom or practice] of Prophet Muhammad. The bida [perverse innovation] is to ignore the local sighting of the moon and seek out the moon's position in another locality so that one may perform an ibadat [worship or service to God]. It is analogous to phoning someone in Halifax to determine if the sun has set so that we in Toronto can perform salat ul maghrib [the sunset prayer]. Let us ask ourselves: "What is "Eid ul Adha"? According to many authentic ahadith [traditions the the Prophet] the Messenger (pbuh) asked Muslims to celebrate the two Eids in the second year after reaching Medina. When the Messenger (pbuh) arrived in Medina, he said: "You had two feasting days. Allah has replaced them with two better ones: the day of Fitr (breaking fast) and the day of 'Nahr' (sacrifice). [2]" The Hajj was made obligatory on Muslims nine years later so that, although the sacrifice on the 10th. of Dhul Hijjah is associated with the Hajj it predates it and is not dependent on it. The important question for us in Toronto, [Canada] therefore, is: "is Eid ul Adha the tenth of Dhul Hijjah wherever you are, or is it the day after the Hajjis have stood on Arafat?" They are not the same. In the year 2000, the moon of Dhul Hijjah was sighted in Toronto during the evening of March 7. Since Saudi Arabia is eight hours ahead of us, and since the possibility of seeing the moon becomes greater as one travels west, let us assume that the moon was not seen in Mecca on the evening of March 7, but instead a day later on March 8. For us, the 10th of Dhul Hijjah was Friday March 17, but for Saudi Arabia, it should be on Saturday, March 18 [they actually celebrated it in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, March 16, 2000]. Would those who are postulating so-called 'unity' urge us to then ignore our own moon sighting and our own calendar and delay Eid ul Adha by one day in order to correspond with the Hajj? With a change in the Saudi regime, they could possibly revert to actually sighting the moon rather than calculating. We await the proposals of the "Eid ul Hajj" propagators, if and when this happens Insha Allah. The Prophet (pbuh), according to Tirmidhi, stayed in Medina ten years offering his sacrifice. The Messenger (pbuh) sacrificed on the tenth day in Medina. (Sunan Baihaqi). The Prophet and the Muslims followed this tradition of sacrificing on the tenth day of Dhul Hijjah in Medina, or wherever they were, on the 10th day. As Muslims, our worship is based on what we are told by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'aala [may He be Glorified and Exalted] in the Qur'an and what was practised by the Prophet (pbuh). The sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh) was to determine the day of Eid ul Adha as the 10th of Dhul Hijjah. This was determined by the Prophet (pbuh) sighting of the crescent wherever he was on the 29th or 30th of Dhul Qa'dah. If, as we are told by those postulating the 'Day after Arafat' position, that Eid ul Adha is dependent on the Hajj date, then why did the Prophet (pbuh) make no effort to ascertain the Hajj dates in Mecca for his Eid celebration in Medina? After the conquest of Mecca in the seventh year of the Hijra [the year of immigration from Mecca to Medina which marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar] there would have been no problem in finding out when the Hajj was going to be since there would be ten days for a rider to travel to surrounding areas with the glorious news. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) made no attempt to know, or to inform the Muslims in the areas around Medina about when the Hajj was in Mecca. Every Muslim community prayed according to its own sighting of the crescent of Dhul Hijjah. Accordingly, all the scholars of Islam are unanimous that Eid ul Adha is on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah which is determined by the sighting in each locality, and NOT ON THE 10th OF DHUL HIJJAH IN MECCA. It is a bida to try to impose a Vatican-like dogma on the Muslim ummah, although the propagators would tell you that they are simply following a 'universal horizon.' Don't be fooled. In Ramadan of 1999 it was claimed that the moon was seen in Yemen and Libya, and the Muslims of those countries began fasting on December 8, 1999. Those who claim to accept any sighting anywhere in the world conveniently ignored those Muslims, opting for the 'universal sighting' of their choice. The Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) opposed every attempt to impose the moon sighting in one town over the others, even in close proximity, when it was not seen on a clear horizon, or when the horizon was cloudy on the 29 day of the Islamic month. Notes 1. Eid ul Adha = 10 Dhul Hijjah (or Zul-Hijjah). Dhul Hijjah is one of 12 months in the Islamic calendar year. The 12 months are: 1. Muharram 2. (a) Eid al Fitr (1st day of Shawwal - i.e. 1st day of the new month at the close of Ramadan, when fasting ends)
|
