Countdown to Ramadan

Sighting of the hilal/crescent with the naked eye is farde kifaya meaning, a group of people in a small town or big cities should attempt to visualise the hilal.


Readers might have noted my Ramadan article exactly last year and by the grace of the Almighty all the dates I had predicted scientifically and Astronomically turned out to be cent % correct.


To remind the learned readers, in short, we should look for the crescent a few hours after the occurrence of the new moon – many of us mistake this word for a hilal, if so it would be a big mistake, since it is a totally dark black moon facing the earth while the other bright half faces the sun. It is similar to the fact when a microscopic embryonic hilal has developed whose incubation or gestation period is about 20 hours or more. As this phenomenon occurs, the disk of the moon keeps moving anti -clockwise from the west to the east continuously along its orbit at the rate of its own diameter (2160 miles) each hour or half a degree of its orbit. The moon completes one orbit in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds or 29.53 days. This means the length of a day on the moon is about 14 earth days and 16 hours and so also is the length of the night.


It has been observed mathematically that each hour about 6-6.5 miles more of the illuminated portion of the moon is seen from the earth depending upon whether the moon is in the perigee(shortest distance from the earth) or apogee(longest distance). When about 120 -125 miles of the illuminated disk of the moon faces the earth, may be at an age of about 20 hours plus, the chances of sighting the hilal are good.


Other criteria to be kept in mind are:

1. The moon set lag time from the sunset time should be about 50 minutes or more in the tropical region.

2. The age of the moon should be more than 20 hours.

3. Moon should be situated in the northern latitudes and would be visible later if situated in the south.

4. Would be visible later if the moon is situated in the apogee.

5. About 30-45 minutes after the evening twilight has set in.


I would like to remind the readers once again that the sighting of the hilal/crescent with the naked eye is farde kifaya meaning, a group of people in a small town and many groups in big cities should attempt to visualise the hilal and report to the local hilal committee.


Moon Sighting for Ramadan

The new moon or amavas for this month occurs on Friday, September 22, at 5:15 pm in India along with an annular solar eclipse (not seen in India). There are no chances of sighting the hilal this evening. The next day evening on Saturday even though the age of the moon would be 24 hours, the moon set lag would be just 25 minutes in central India as the moon is situated at its apogee and in the southern latitude as well, as such there are no chances of visibility in India. The next day the moon sighting occurs all over India and the world. Accordingly, inshallah Ramadan starts in India from Monday,


Moon Sighting for Eid-ul-Fitr(Shawaal)

The amavas or the new moon occurs on Sunday, October 22nd at 10:44 am. The moon continues to be at its apogee and in the southern latitude. Hence there are no chances of sighting the hilal even on the next day i.e., 23rd Monday as the moon set lag time is just 32 minutes in central India. On Thursday, October 24th the moon set lag time would be 72 minutes and the hilal would be seen in the evening and Eid would be inshallah celebrated in India on Wednesday, October 25th.


Tenth day of Zulhijja or Bakrid falls on the New Year day, i.e., January 1, 2007 that is Monday. Finally, our Islamic New Year day i.e., 1st day of Muharram 1428 Hijri falls on Sunday, January 21st.


The references to this original article have been obtained from the publications of:

1. The Positional Astronomy Center, Kolkata.

2. The International Islamic Calendar Program, Malaysia.

3. The Royal Greenwich Observatory, London.


(The writer is Member, International Islamic Calendar Program, Malaysia, Member Central Ruyath Hilal Committee, Bangalore and an Islamic Astronomer. Ph: 26636383/26636380. Email: abdul21@ hotmail.com).

The Fiqh Council of North America has said that it would use astronomical calculations to determine the start of Ramadan.


Kari Ansari recalls getting ready to celebrate one of the most important religious holidays of the year… the end of the month- long Ramadan fast.


She and her husband bought new clothes and gifts for their three children and planned a special family meal. But there was one obstacle to starting the celebration: Leaders of the two local mosques couldn’t agree when the feast, called Eid al-Fitr, should begin.


“We would just be sitting up at night waiting to hear the decision,” said Ansari, who lives in Herndon, Va., and is editor of America’s Muslim Family magazine. Now a scholarly panel that advises American Muslims on religious laws is trying to end the confusion.


The Fiqh Council of North America announced last month that it would no longer rely on moon sightings to determine the start of holidays and would instead use astronomical calculations. The panel released an Islamic calendar that runs through 2011, hoping Muslims in the United States and Canada can be persuaded to trade the old way for the new.


The schedule problem is more than a minor inconvenience. School calendars and vacation time from work, for instance, depend on knowing dates in advance. “There will be a lot of resentment at first,” said Khalid Shaukat, an astronomer and research physicist with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who calculated the calendar for the Fiqh Council. “But I expect that as time goes on and we educate them, people will see the benefit of this and understand that what may seem like a new approach to them is not against Islamic jurisprudence.”


Kareem Irfan, of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, where an estimated 400,000 Muslims live, said the uncertainty of the old system has been costly.


Organisers of the massive community worship services that mark the holiday had to reserve convention halls for two different days, losing money on the double deposit, he said. Muslims who needed a day off from work or had to make plans for pulling their children out of school could not say when the celebration would be. “It makes you feel sad,” Ansari said, “because not everyone is doing the same thing.” The Fiqh Council has spent years trying to end the chaos.


The first test of the new North American system will come on September 23, when, according to the Fiqh Council’s Islamic calendar, Ramadan begins.


“The American Muslims aren’t going to resolve this problem for the whole Muslim world or even for themselves,” said Sulayman Nyang, an expert on Islam at Howard University. “But, gradually, I think science is going to prevail.”


(Khalid Shaukat’s site on the Islamic calendar: www. moonsighting.com) (Associated Press)

If the missed fasts of last year’s Ramadan have not been compensated for, and the next Ramadan is approaching, then one should keep the missed fasts of last year immediately, before the coming Ramadan.

Make an effort to sight the Ramadan moon with full attention and eagerness and say this prayer on sighting the moon:


Allahukbar Allahumma ahillahu ‘alaina bil-amni wal-imani was-salamati wal-Islami wat-taufiqi lima tuhibbu wa tardu rabbuna wa rabbukallah.


“ God is the greatest ! O God ! Do make the appearance of this moon a token of peace, faith, salvation and Islam for us. Do make this moon arise as a favour to us so that we may perform deeds which conform to Thy Will and are dear to Thee. Our Lord and thy Lord is God”.