Moonsighting for Ramadhan: Problems with Saudia 1434

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Posted on 1st July 2013 15:09 0 1

Summary:
Muadh_Kh an 1. 8 hour moon sets in Makkah 1 minute after sunset on 8th of July 2013 2. 8 hour moon CANNOT be seen regardless of when it sets 3. Throughout the rest of Saudia & Middle-East moon sets BEFORE sunset on 8th of July 2013 4. IF the moon is set before the sun it obviously CANNOT be seen because it is NOT THERE to be seen!

Joined: 1st Feb Keep that in mind if you decided to start Ramadhan on the 9th of July 2013 because 2008 you will be breaking the following rules: Longevity: 40% 1. Hanbali Madhab: Location: 1. Each (locality) area must sight the moon locally and UK 2. Saudi sighting is not applicable to UK as advised by Saudi Scholars Posts: 2. Hanbali Madhab: When the horizons are clear, the moon MUST be 1398 sightted by a large group of people to such an extent that it becomes Gender: impossible to dispute the sighting applicable to UK Brother 3. Common sense: You don't pray your Fajar at Saudi time so why do you Reputation: follow the Saudi moon sighting? Moon CANNOT be sighted it it isn't there! 1205 4. Precedence: 1. Deobandi Ulamah have NEVER followed Saudi sighting in India/Pakistan which are practically next door to Saudia 1. Are you claiming that you love the Haramain so much and they don't? They don't seem to follow the moon sighting of Makkah & Madina, why not? 2. Deobandi Ulamah all over the world have NEVER followed Saudi sighting So which and whose Taqleed (in UK) are you making?

Ramadan Prediction
From a scientific point of view, the Hilal of Ramadan 1434 AH will not be possible to be sighted anywhere in the UK or in the east on 8 th July 2013 (after sunset) and hence the month of Shaban 1434 AH is likely to complete 30 days. The Ramadan moon will be born on Monday 8th July 2013 at 07:14 GMT (New Moon Conjunction). It will be 13 hours old at London sunset, but moonset will be 21 minutes before sunset, hence it will not be possible to be sighted anywhere in the UK. In Makkah, the moon will be 8.9 hours old and it will set 1 minute after sunset. However, it will not be possible to sighted after Makkah sunset, as the moon will be too close to the horizon (0.1 deg altitude) and the sun (6 deg elongation). Also, the phase of the moon will be so thin (0.2% illuminated) that it will be beyond the resolution of the human eye to detect it! Furthermore, in most of Saudi Arabia, the moon will set before the sun, making it impossible to sight anywhere else. The predicted crescent visibility map for Ramadan 1434 AH [see Fig. 1] clearly shows that the moon will not be possible to be sighted anywhere in the east of UK/Morocco on the evening of 8th July 2013. The red shaded area on the top of the visibility map shows the moon will set before the sunset. There is a very small possibility that it might be sighted by high powered telescope from South America if the weather was perfect, but that has not been possible in the past and even if it was, it will not be considered in the UK to avoid undue hardships, since any reliable sightings reports may not arrive in the UK until the next morning! Therefore, 1 st Ramadan 1434 AH in the UK is most likely to be on Wednesday 10th July 2013 (i.e. after sunset on 9th July 2013), Insha-Allah.

Report from Saudi Arabia

It is well known that Saudi Arabia uses a pre-calculated calendar called the Ummul Qura for all civil/administrative purposes. The Ummul Qura calendar is based on the fact that if the moon set is after sunset on the 29th day of the lunar month (after New Moon Conjunction) then the next day is the 1st of the month. On 8th July 2013, which will be 29th Shaban 1434, the 8 hours old moon will set 1 minute after the sun in Makkah, so the Ummul Qura calendar will start Ramadan from 9th July 2013. What is interesting is that in most of Saudi Arabia as well as in many other Middle Eastern countries, the moon will set before (or with) the sun on that date, even though it will set 1 minute after the sun in Makkah (see Visibility Map in Fig.1). That means it will be impossible to sight the Hilal by the human eye anywhere in

Saudi Arabia (or any other parts of the world) on 8th July 2013. There is an International moon sighting organisation called, Islamic Crescent Observation Project (ICOP), which has over 400 members from around the world, including many Saudi Hilal Committee members. We understand from these ICOP members that there are about 10 Hilal Committees in Saudi Arabia (since 1429 AH/2008 AD) who look for the Hilal on the 29th day of the Ummul Qura calendar date every month and report their result to the Supreme Court. What is not very well known is the fact that, none of the Hilal Committees have ever been able to sight the Hilal on the 29th day of the Ummul Qura date, even with telescope, as will be the case on 8th July 2013. According to these ICOP members in Saudi Arabia, the false sighting claims usually come from a few people outside the Hilal Committees near Riyadh (Shaqra and Sudair), which are usually accepted by the court. The court only makes sighting claim announcements during Ramadan/Eids, but follows the Ummul Qura calendar in all other months. We understand from the above contacts that the King of Saudi Arabia in recent years has instructed the Supreme Court not to accept any witness claims before the Ummul Qura calendar date, which has resulted in all the decisions of the court to coincide with the Ummul Qura dates. However, there will be a unique case in this Ramadan, which has not arisen before in recent years. That is, the moon will set before the sun in all those locations where the claims of false sighting usually come from to match the Ummul Qura calendar date. So, what should the Supreme Court decide if there was a claim of sighting on 8th July 2013, even though in reality the moon will set before the sun in that location such as Riyadh? Should they reject it based on astronomical calculation for that location or should they accept it because it matches the Ummul Qura calendar date, as they have done before? Our advice to the Saudi Supreme Court would be to reject all sighting claims if made by a few people on 8th July 2013, unless there was such a large number that could not have collectively organised a false claim. This requirement of a large number or group sighting is known in classical books of Jurisprudence as Jamme Ghafir, to counter the problem of erroneous/false sighting claims. Alternatively, if the Ummul Qura Calendar was changed to a Predicted Crescent Visibility ( Imkan-eRuyat) formula, then the indirect bias towards false sighting claims could be minimised. It is unacceptable that false sighting claims of a few people near Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) should mislead millions of people in the same country and around the world, year after year. May Allah protect us!

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