We mentioned so far that it is imperative for the Muslim community to use the most accurate means to determine the beginnings and endings of both the day and the month of fasting. We also mentioned that astronomical calculation provides accurate and reliable information. This has been the view of Islamic scholars for a long time, even well before the great scientific advances that bring us today even more accurate calculation.
Several centuries ago, Imam Taqiy Al-Deen Al-Subki said in one of his rulings on the subject: “Calculation provides certain and confirmed information, while testimony based on sighting provides only probable information. What is probable cannot counterbalance what is certain, let alone be preferred to it. Evidence is accepted only if what is testified for is possible physically, logically and legally. If we assume that calculation indicates with certainty the impossibility of sighting, then a testimony of sighting must be rejected because it testifies to what is impossible. Islamic law does not make impossible requirements.” Even earlier than Al-Subki, Imam Abu Al-Abbas ibn Suraij comments on the Prophet’s instruction, ‘resort to estimation,’ saying that this should be on the basis of the normal cycle of the moon and the changes in its rising positions. He also says that this Hadith addresses people favored with such specialized knowledge, while the other Hadith, which requires us to complete the month in 30 days, is addressed to all people.
The Prophet’s description of the Muslim community as unlettered most probably refers to the first Muslim generation which included only a limited number of people who had learned reading, writing and arithmetic. It is not a reference to the Muslim community in all generations. God wants this Muslim community to be the bearer of His revelations and to be equipped with wisdom. Indeed God makes an oath ‘by the pen and all that they write with it.’ (68: 2) He reminds His servants of the favors He has blessed them with when He has ‘effaced the symbol of night and set up the light-giving symbol of day, so that you might seek your Lord’s bounty and be aware of the passing years and of the reckoning.’ (17: 12) Another reminder shows how God ‘has determined for (the moon) phases so that you might know how to compute the years and to measure (time).’ (10: 5) “The sun and the moon (run their courses) according to a definite reckoning.” (55: 5) “He has made … the sun and the moon for reckoning.” (6: 96) This last verse means that both the sun and the moon have been set as indication from which we learn how to reckon.
It is a fact that all Muslims agree, without any dissent, to rely on astronomical calculation to determine the times of prayers, which are also set in the Qur’an and the Sunnah on the basis of sightings. Considering this, it is most amazing that some of our leading scholars continue to reject, or at least to show reluctance to accept, the same method in determining the times of fasting.
Prayer timings differ according to geographical locations. Every community has its own times of dawn, midday and sunset. By contrast, the starting times of months do not differ from one country to another, distant as they may be, even though the position of moon rise differs. When the new moon sets after sunset, the new month begins. Scholars who considered differences of moon rise times, stating that the population of each city should have their own sighting of the new moon were very consistent with relying on sighting the moon with the naked eye, because this was the method available at the time. This difference does not change the beginning of the month, but it has its effect on people and the duty they are required to fulfill. When a person learns that it is time for a specific duty to be fulfilled, on the basis of the means of information defined by God, which in the case of an unlettered community was sighting with the naked eye, he has to act on this basis.
On the other hand, scholars who disregarded differences of sighting, and ruled that sighting the moon in one place applies to all Muslims throughout the world, rely on the fact that a month should start everywhere on the same day. This is a fact that admits no argument.
However, a question arises here: do we have to relate the start of the month to any point on earth where the moon sets after sunset, or do we have to define a certain reference point for the whole world? The late Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, a highly eminent scholar of Hadith in the twentieth century, is in favor of establishing such a reference point. He specifies the point mentioned both in the Qur’an and the Hadith, the two sources of Islamic law, namely, Makkah.
God points out in the Qur’an the benefit of the different phases the moon goes through and the changes that affect the moon, increasing it up to its fullness and then decreasing it to obliteration. He says: “They ask you about the new moons; say: “They are means people use for measuring time, and for pilgrimage.” (2: 189) This means that people, particularly the Arabs at the time of revelation, could rely on them for calculating time in all their affairs, and to make sure of the time for pilgrimage. Sheikh Ahmad Shakir reflects on the specific importance given here to pilgrimage after the general statement about calculating time. He finds in this a subtle reference to relating time to a specific place, which is the venue of pilgrimage, i.e. Makkah.
In the Sunnah we have several versions of a single Hadith, with the most comprehensive one related by Abu Dawood, quoting the Prophet as saying: “Your feast ending the fast is on the day you stop fasting, and your feast of sacrifice is on the day you sacrifice. The whole area of the Arafat valley is a valid place for attendance (on Arafat day), and the entire area of Mina is appropriate for slaughtering your sacrifice, as are all places in Makkah. The entire area of Jam’ (or Muzdalifah) is valid for attendance there.” A different version related by Al-Tirmidhi says: “Fasting begins on the day you fast, and it ends on the day you stop fasting, and the feast of sacrifice is on the day you slaughter your sacrifice.”
Sheikh Ahmad Shakir is also of the view that this particular Hadith addresses the people who were actually on pilgrimage, at the place pilgrimage is performed, during the Prophet’s farewell pilgrimage. As such, he takes the Hadith to mean that fasting begins on the day the people of Makkah and its surrounding area fast, and the feast following it is on the day the people of Makkah end their fast, and that the feast of sacrifice is when they celebrate it while Arafat day is when they attend at Arafat.
If we adopt Sheikh Shakir’s view, Muslims would be united in determining their lunar months. Makkah would be the center point for their definite timings. This would be an apt choice, for Makkah is the birthplace of Islam, where Qur’anic revelations were started. It is the place where Muslims from all over the world meet every year for their pilgrimage, where they get to know one another and strengthen their ties of brotherhood. It houses the Sacred Mosque which Muslims everywhere face in their prayers.
We should not be reluctant to adopt astronomical calculation as a reliable method, on account of its being criticized by some early scholars of high standing. Most former scholars of Fiqh and Hadith were unfamiliar with astronomy as a science, or they, at best, knew only a few of its basic principles. Moreover, many of them did not trust those who pursued such knowledge. Indeed, some scholars accused those that pursued astronomy of being suspect in their faith, thinking that they utilized such knowledge like astrologers who claim to divine the future. Indeed some such people made such claims, putting themselves and their specialized learning in a truly bad light. Islamic scholars were totally justified in their attitude, for physical sciences were not as well developed as religious disciplines. Indeed, their principles were not yet verified or properly established. Today, astronomy has made great advances, outstripping practically every other branch of science. Astronomers are able to calculate the birth of the new moon, even when it sets only a split second after sunset, for every month, well into the future. The data they come up with is absolutely certain. Hence, there is no harm in accepting their information, relying on their methods in the same way as we rely on their calculation of prayer times.
In our view, the best approach is that which combines best methods. We should define the time when the moon sets on the basis of astronomical data. Then we recruit a number of astronomers, who are of undoubted faith and competence, and place them at the Makkah observatory, so that they should sight the moon with a telescope. By God’s will, they will sight it at the very moment specified in astronomical data. If they are unable to sight it, which will be a very rare possibility if they use the telescope, then we operate the Prophet’s instruction and ‘resort to estimation’, as Ibn Suraij explains it. In this case, we rely on calculation, which is closer to certainty.
It may also be preferable that a number of reliable astronomers, in different parts of the Muslim world, should watch the setting of the new moon on their telescopes. They should also inform the Makkah observatory of their sightings, particularly in the case when the sky is overcast in Makkah. The collective information thus provided will re-confirm the Makkah sighting and provide for even further assurance.
It is hoped that this should be followed every month, not merely in Ramadan and Dhul-Hijjah. We thus regain the importance of the lunar calendar and we rely on it more and more, after it had almost disappeared from our life due to the confusion experienced in sighting the moon. In this way, we will fulfill what God has mentioned, knowing for certain the number of years and the reckoning of time.
