People wonder why Different Months under Hijri Calendar begin from different weekdays in different places and communities. Why it happens quite often, we celebrate Eidul Fitar and observe other religious rites on one to three different days not only in different countries and regions but also within the same city as we Muslims are divided in the following groups. 

(a) Largest one indulges in ritual of crescent sighting on regional basis on every 29th day of the Hijri month. See the note about Saudi practice below.

(b) Second largest one follows the announcement at Mecca based on sighting of crescent by naked eye at Holy Ka'ba.

(c) Followers of Egyptian/Modern Hijri Calendar who look at the printed calendar instead of the skies. 

For the last two decades OIC has been trying to prescribe a uniform basis for determining the onset of new month or year under Islamic Lunar calendar. Only a few countries and communities rely totally on Egyptian or Fatmid calendar without any need of actual sighting the moon with naked eye. 

No progress appears to have been achieved on the 1990 recommendations of a seminar organized jointly by the Pakistan  Academy of Sciences, the ministry of religious affairs, the Pakistan Science Foundation, the Islamic Research Institute and the International Calendar Programme of USM, Malaysia. The demand for dissolution of Ruyiyet Hilar committee continue to be made by quite few Ulemas specially from NWFP as they want to follow moon sighting in Mecca and not Pakistan. It is not only Ramzan every month under Hijri calendar begins from different days  in different countries. Days of Haj, the Holy Night of Ramzan (Lailutul Qadar), birthdays and death anniversaries of the Holy Prophet (sws) are observed on different days of the week – usually with a gap of one to two days. 

Dr. Mohammad Ilyas of Malaysia was instrumental in establishing the International Islamic Calendar Program (IICP) at University Sains Malaysia, and for creating broad awareness about the need for a unified Islamic calendar. As regards the recommendations of the seminar held in Islamabad 1990 jointly by the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and  the ministry of religious affairs, some people feel that the Academy and Dr. Ilyas are basing their scientific research on assumption that
Holy Quran prescribes actual sighting of the crescent every month whereas Holy Quran merely prescribes lunar calendar and does not make actual sighting mandatory. But some Hadiths do. However the following Hadith from Bukhari Sharif shows that the advice was meant for people of that time. 

Narrated Ibn 'Umar:  - The Prophet said, "We are an illiterate nation; we neither write, nor know accounts. The month is like this and this, i.e. sometimes of 29 days and sometimes of thirty days." 

Logically all such Hadiths negate the need of forming RHC as the parts of Pakistan near to Emirate are supposed to follow the nearest state according to Sharia! 
 

Let us follow the Sadui Umm al-Qura calendar developed by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST)  Riyadh based on the modern atronomical data. That is adjusted every year by determining onset and the end of Holy Month Ramazan based on actual crescent sighting in Ka'ba,
Mecca by naked 
eye. There is no need to adjust it every month. 

(a) Only prayer timings are regional but commencement of days, month and years are global. 

(b) Holy Quran lays down the basis for calendaring; i.e. counting time, dates, days and year. See verses 002.189, 010.005 and 055.005 those are relevant. Holy Quran does  not require us to see the crescent by naked eye. The only thing that supports the orthodox view that sighting is necessary are the Hadiths on the basis of which the rituals of moon sighting have been persisting in many communities of Muslim for centuries ever since the means of communications were primitive.

(c) Just as Juma prayers are offered within 12 to 15 hours all around the globe, the difference in Eid prayers and onset of new month and year should not be greater than that - not 24 to 72 hours as often happens due to mistaken interpretation of Hadiths.
. 
Since the names of weekdays from Monday to Sunday depend on the international dateline, having a separate dateline as recommended by Dr. Ilyas is not considered as right. Moreover the Saudis insist on actual moon sighting in Mecca by naked eye.. 

The Saudi Practice
The government of Saudi Arabia employs a lunar calendar for civil purposes, known as the Umm al-Qura calendar and developed at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh based on the modern astronomical data.  As of 1423 AH (15 March 2002) onwards, the Institute of Astronomical & Geophysical Research has modified its rules for the Umm al-Qura calendar as follows:

If on the 29th day of the lunar month the two following conditions are satisfied, then the next day is the first day of the new lunar month: 
(a) The geocentric conjunction occurs before sunset. 
(b) The Moon sets after the Sun. 
Otherwise, the current lunar month will last 30 days.

Umm al-Qura calendar is only for civil purposes but for important occasions such as Holy Ramzan, Haj etc. the practice of seeing the crescent with naked eye from Mecca, or more precisely, from the Great Mosque of Mecca (al-masjid al-haram) where the Ka'ba and the holy Black Stone (al-hajar al-aswad) are located - is being followed. And on the recommendations of Ulemas the Government declares the festivals or special occasions. 

A few years back Saudis had prepared their civil calendar on the basis of astronomical data from a British observatory for a period of about 30 years. For the last many years they have their own arrangements as well as access to the most modern obsevatories of the world. 

As far as the sighting by naked eye from Mecca is concerned, the possibility of deviation from astronomical data or error cannot be ruled out due to reasons like weather conditions but that was the practice of the Holy Prophet (sws) that Saudis Ulema insist on following. On a few occassions there have been unintentional errors in announcements of Haj and Eid dates. Allah (swt). 

According on Saudi scholar owever, God is very kind to us. He does not place a burden on us as a result of our mistakes. Should we make an error in the sighting of the moon and, as a result, begin Ramadan on the wrong date, He does not deprive us of any benefit of the month.

Lialutal Qadar: Even if there is a mistake in determining the actual date of commencement of Holy month of Ramzan, there will still be a Night of Power, and it will occur on an odd night in the last third of the month. Since we differ according to the sighting of the moon, the Night of Power will remain true according to our actual fasting. This means that it will occur on different days for different regions, but it will continue to be calculated by the same criterion.

Unlike Pakistani Ulemas Saudis do not use any aid like telescope and if the weather is overcast and the crescent is not seen they usually recommend the month to be of 30 days and they do not move around in the Saudi Arabia whereas Pakistani Ruyiet Hilal Committee moves around all over the country from year to year and takes evidence from regional committees besides astronomical observatories of Pakistan. Their practice is in modification of the Fatawa of Imam Shafi who had prescribed a limit of some 24 kilometers or so for following the crescent sighting.

The solution is simple and OIC should prescribe it:
For the month of Holy Ramzan we should follow the announcement of Saudi Arabia about moon sighting at Mecca with naked eye according the practice of Holy Prophet because Mecca is the center of the earth and we are commanded to face toward K'aba for prayers. There are places on earth where crescent cannot be sighted for many months. 

For the sake of uniformity OIC countries can follow Umm al-Qura calendar as now it is based on the scientific and reliable data for appearance of waxing crescent at Mecca and it is  adjusted every year by determining onset and the end of Holy Month Ramazan based on actual crescent sighting in Mecca by naked eye. There is no need to do such adjustments every month. This is the easiest way at present to maintain uniformity in following the Hijri Islamic calendar. The central and Regional Ruyiet Hilal committees in Pakistan and other countries should be dissolved. 

The sighting suspense
Dawn Editorial - October 6, 2005
ON Tuesday evening, millions of the faithful lingered on in mosques even
 after the Isha prayers were over, because they did not know whether to 
offer Taraveeh. It was only when PTV announced in its 9 pm news bulletin that the Ramazan moon had not been sighted that people left the mosques. The suspense continued until nine at night when the chairman of the  Ruet-i-Hilal Committee (RHC) finally made the committee’s decision known  to the people. 

The RHC bases its decision on eyewitnesses accounts. The witnesses must be reliable according to the Islamic standards of piety. If the horizon is cloudy and no reliable witness reports sighting the moon, the RHC makes a decision. 

The sighting of the moon with the naked eye has been the practice since the early days of Islam when modern technology for observing the movement of  heavenly bodies was not available. Today, technology has reached a stage where sunset and sunrise, solar and lunar eclipses, and the movement of planets can be predicted with astounding accuracy. Yet it is a measure of the Muslim  world’s approach to such things that it still considers eyewitnesses as the best  way to determine whether a new lunar month has begun.

For starting the month of Ramazan, the Holy Quran itself prescribes no
procedure. It says: “The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast for the month....”  (Al Baqra: 180). The contradiction, however, is that those insisting on “sighting” observe all iftar, sehri and prayer timings by astronomical calculations. In fact,  printed charts of prayer, iftar and sehri timings are to be found in most mosques and many homes. It is time the OIC addressed this issue and tried to develop a 
consensus with the help of the ulema.

Moon sighting - Comments by Dr S.M. JAFAR - Islamabad

I WRITE this with reference to your editorial “The sighting suspense” (Oct 6). It is time the issue of fixing the dates of the first day of the three Muslim holy months of Ramazan, Shawwal and Zil Haj is settled in a manner that accords with the Holy Quran, the Sunnah and science.

This subject was discussed at a two-day international/regional seminar on the Islamic lunar calendar held at Islamabad in June 1990 jointly by the Pakistan  Academy of Sciences, the ministry of religious affairs, the Pakistan Science Foundation, the Islamic Research Institute and the International Calendar Programme of USM, Malaysia, at which the opening session was addressed by Prof M. Ilyas from the USM, Penang (the originator of the International Lunar Date Line) and which was attended by all members of the Ruet-i-Hilal committees in Pakistan.

The recommendations of this seminar included: (a) as a trial, a five-year Islamic calendar (based on M. Ilyas’s ILDL concept) should be set forth on the basis of the latest scientific and technological information, and a comparative study should be made; (b) the ministry of religious affairs (Pakistan) may implement  this recommendation, in collaboration with the International Islamic Calendar Programme (of USM, Penang); (c) the religious affairs ministry, in collaboration with the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, should regularly obtain reliable information on the probability of crescent visibility and convey it to the various Ruet-i-Hillal committees.

Accordingly, the Pakistan Academy of Sciences has been sending regularly to the religious affairs ministry monthly forecasts based on Prof Ilyass’ ILDL- based 15-year calendar. These forecasts have agreed beautifully with the pronouncements of the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee; and a booklet giving a comparison of the two made by Dr M.M. Qurashi (a Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences) was published in 2000, together with an Urdu translation a year later.

Your suggestion of the OIC addressing this issue is worthy of consideration  and follow-up through an appropriate international committee under the aegis of the OIC to study the matter in-depth and come up with an agreed formula that takes account of the Quranic injunctions, the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), with regard to moon-sighting, and the scientific facts underlying the visibility of the first sightable moon. Your esteemed columns can play a pivotal role in removing the confusion and rumours that have become routine on our religious festivals.
Dr S.M. JAFAR - Islamabad .

Paklink eDigest has summarized different views in the following articles and hopes that OIC may be able to solve the problem of different dates under Hijris calendar occurring on different  weekdays in different countries and even communities.

Is Moon sighting necessary? If yes where? 
See article at http://www.netvert.biz/paklink/articles/eid.html

How to maintain Uniformity in dates under Hijri Calendar? 
http://www.netvert.biz/paklink/articles/islamic-calendar.html

Hijri calendar's History and usage 
http://www.netvert.biz/paklink/articles/HijriCalendar.html

Islamic Dates 
Summary of different views
http://www.netvert.biz/paklink/articles/IslamicDates.html