Bismillahi walhamdulillahi wassalaatu wassalaamu ‘ala rasulillah.
In the mistaken belief that Friday, the 22nd of September, 2006, was the 29th of Sha’baan, our local moonsighting committee attempted a sighting this evening but without success. After consultation with several other organizations, we have now determined that according to the best sighting information available to us (for North America), the 29th of Sha’baan will be on Saturday, the 23rd of September. Friday was in fact the 28th of Sha’baan. Insha’allah we will attempt another sighting Saturday and make a final announcement sometime after isha. A more detailed announcement will be posted here soon.
DETAILED ANNOUNCEMENT
(Posted Satruday, 9-23-2006, 5:00 pm)
Bismillahi walhamdulillahi wassalaatu wassalaamu ‘ala rasulillah.
Unfortunately, this year, more so than ever before, the issue of moon sighting in North America has become excessively confused. Since the 80’s our community has adhered to the following methodology in determinig the beginning of Ramadan:
1) The new month will only commence with the verified report of a sighting conducted anywhere in the mainland United States.
2) Claims of sighting will not be accepted if they contradict indisputable astronomical (physical) facts.
This was the old standard followed by ISNA until this year, when ISNA chose to adopt a pre-calulated calendar and to completely forego the physical sighting of the moon. With all due respect to those adopting the new ISNA postion, we felt this new opinion was in need of much more debate within the scholarly community before it might even become an option, if at all.
We have decided to continue using the old method (the one stated above) as we believe it represents the best implementation of the letter and spirit of the Quran and Sunnah.Since ISNA used to play a central role in accepting and verifying sighting reports from across the country, their abdication of that role has certainly created difficulties for us. We are now having to rely on regional or local organizations to ascertain reports from various parts of the country.
In addition to that, since we, like most communities around the country, did not closely follow reports of sightings in North America for previous months (particularly Sha’baan), we fell into the mistake of assuming that Friday, September 22nd was the 29th of Sha’baan when all reliable sighting records kept by other Islamic organizations indicated that based on the absence of any verified sighting on the evening of August 24th, Sha’baan began on August 26th, 2006 (which would make Sep 22nd the 28th of Sha’baan). We learned of this reliably only after our September 22nd Jumu’ah announcement concerning Ramadan.
We have also been in close consultation with Sheikh Mokhtar Maghraoui, and through him, with Dr. Mohib Durrani (of www.hilal-sighting.com). Dr Maghraoui is a member of the Fiqh Council of North America and incidentally one of the dissenting members of the council that adopted ISNA’s new policy. Sheikh Maghroui advised us to conduct a sighting on Saturday evening as it is qat’i knowledge that the moon was physically impossible to sight on Friday evening in any case. Since yesterday, Dr. Durrani has posted his analysis of the reports received from Texas on the evening of September 22nd.
To add to all this, we believe part of the confusion people are experiencing results from the fact that the respected authorities collecting reports in Houston and perhaps elsewhere are following the position that sighting reports need not be verified with information derived from any type of calculation whatsoever. The only verification performed concerns establishing the trustworthiness of the witness, not an analysis of the report itself. This is one understanding of the issue in the fiqh and we respect those who have chosen to adhere to it, although we respectfully disagree.
In contrast to this, the position we have always adhered to, which is also well established in the fiqh, is that the authority receiving the report can check the report itself in comaprison to indisputably known facts, and may reject a testimony if there is contradiction. If for instance, someone reports that he sighted the moon on the eastern horizon, such a report would contradict indisputably known facts and must be rejected. In the case of yesterday’s reports, we can say with certainty that a new moon that is only 1.2 degrees above the horizon at the time of sunset is absolutely impossible to sight. This is well established, and can be used to reject testimony to the contrary. We shall be relying on Dr Durrani verify sightings that will insha’allah be reported tonight (Sep 23rd). In addition to that, we will also seek information on valid sightings from the following organizations, which are following the same methodology for sighting:
Islamic Circle of North America (www.icna.org)
Hilal Sighting Committee of North America ( hilalsighting.org)
Zaytuna Institute (www.zaytuna.org)
