Ruyat-i hilal: Well, what I said would happen in Pakistan, DID happen!
Please see my post below from 25 April 2021.
What I had said in that post, on the basis of scientific data, proved exactly correct: “This year 2021, in Pakistan on the evening of 12 May … the [Ruyat-i Hilal] Committee will find it very difficult to accept any report of sighting as correct.”
That is why it took the Committee 4½ hours to reach a decision!
The Ruyat-i Hilal Committee deliberated for about 4½ hours after sunset on 12 May 2021 (29th Ramadan there). Pakistan government’s meteorological department was announcing that the age of the moon was so short (i.e. length of time elapsed since birth of the new moon) that the crescent could not possibly be seen by the human eye or even by telescope. At 11.30 pm local time, after even tarawih prayers had finished, the Committee announced that it was accepting as correct the various reports of moon sighting it had received and hence Eid would be next day on the 13th.
The comedy is that, while the day in Islam begins at sunset, it was announced 4½ hours after this time, after the Islamic day had begun, that this day is not 30th Ramadan but 1st Shawwal!
The only justification for holding Eid on 13 May was that calculations showed that the moon was new. But not wishing to admit this simple truth, the Committee accepted erroneous reports, provably erroneous reports, that the moon had been sighted.
I may add that in the UK since 1978 the Lahore Ahmadiyya branch has been using the published scientific data about the moon to set the Eid date many months in advance. I know because I have been doing it!
So this year in Pakistan, those very strong believers in sighting the moon by eye found themselves setting an Eid day which is only justifiable by the known scientifc data and not at all by sighting.
— Zahid Aziz
Further to the above, the previous Chairman of the Ruyat-i Hilal Committee, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, has refused to accept that Eid should have been on 13 May since the moon could not have been sighted on 12 May and the sighting reports are erroneous. He has asked all Muslims in Pakistan to observe a missed fast on 14 May.
See: Geo TV News ♦ The Tribune ♦ Samaa TV
From Jnhih:
I am a little confused about your post here? The reason it would be very difficult to accept any sighting of the new moon as on the 12th was because even though the moon was new it would be impossible to sight it with the naked eye.
The first date where it became possible to sight the new moon was on the 13th. So clearly Ruyat i halal committee was in error. As to their reasoning God knows better.
As to why they made the comment about seeing the new moon on the 12th. Most probably they got that information from the Governments Science and technology ministry. They have created the ruet app and also the pakmoonsighting.pk website as well
Your calculations for the new moon are also incorrect. How could you hold Eid on the Thursday when it was impossible to physically sight with the naked eye. In many hadith the Holy Prophet has mentioned when "sighting" or "seeing" the new moon. So on what basis are you holding Eid?
The way every year you go on about sighting the new moon, one would thing that the main reason for your communities existince was just to sort out the issue of the moon sighting.
Please see here http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/nao/miscellanea/ramadan_2021/eid_al-fitr.html
From Zahid Aziz:
Thank you for your comment.
You write: "The reason it would be very difficult to accept any sighting of the new moon as on the 12th was because even though the moon was new it would be impossible to sight it with the naked eye."
You are accepting that it was new on 12 May but impossible to sight. How do you know? Only through the scientific data. You yourself provide a link to an official astronomical data website. So you are accepting the validity of that data.
In the Holy Prophet's time, would people have known that on a certain day the moon would be new but impossible to sight? To them, if it was impossible to sight, then it was not new.
You ask me: "So on what basis are you holding Eid?" We held it on the basis that we know (and you also know) that the moon is new. And not only that, the link helpfully provided by you informs us that a sighting by telescope would be possible in some places.
But on what basis did the Ruyat-i Hilal Committee hold it? On the basis of erroneous sightings!
When Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman says that the sightings should not have been accepted, it means he himself is accepting the scientific data. Otherwise he has no way of knowing that the sightings were erroneous.
Regarding your final comment about "the main reason for your communities existence was just to sort out the issue of the moon sighting", the main reason for our existence leads to the sorting out of this issue (and many other issues). It is an issue that causes inconvenience to millions of Muslims and is a source of embarrassment in this day and age. Do you want Muslims to go on suffering this in front of the whole world?
What you cannot deny is that my warning that the Ruyat-i Hilal would be facing a dilemma turned out to be perfectly true. They deliberated till 11.30pm.
From Abdul Momin:
Quote:
"The way every year you go on about sighting the new moon, one would thing that the main reason for your communities existince was just to sort out the issue of the moon sighting."
Unquote
One can draw two conclusions from the blogger's above comment: 1. That the blogger has been reading posts concerning sighting of the new moon on this blog for a long time, and 2. he is upset at the criticism leveled at the concerned authorities in the Muslim world for presenting incorrect dates related to the sighting of the new moon.
What the blogger needs to really focus on is that out of the 12 lunar months, in 9 of them there is no controversy. No one is bothered in Muslim countries (especially Pakistan) about when the start and end dates of the lunar months occur. The officially declared dates are considered valid.
However with the arrival of the month of Ramadan, apparently some people develop super natural powers of vision, so they begin to see the new moon when it is scientifically not even possible! The same thing happens at the end of Ramadan and on many occasions on Eid-ul- Azha. This has become an annual event, so that a month of blessings and spirituality is mired in controversy every year as to whether it started and ended on the correct date or not. Is this not a cause for serious concern?
Now if the hadith of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) concerning sighting of the moon is to be followed, then one must not follow it selectively. If the moon cannot be sighted on the 29th day of the month (for any reason) then one must wait one more day. However, in the case of Pakistan recently, some people did not have that much patience and the moon was "sighted" even though it was highly unlikely to have been sighted that particular evening.