Different Eids

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I used to think it was a sign of our poor unity as a muslim ummah worldwide, that even city to city the celebrations of eid can be on different days depending on when the masjid committee sees the moon.

Now I’m beginning to see it from a different perspective. Each country at least, should have it’s own committee on this sort of thing, because if we were all to follow Saudi Arabia, it would centralize the religion around one country and it’s cultures too much. It would set a bad precedent, it would mean we have to follow SA in other situations as well. If anything, the right to sight your own moon and practice your eid when you want to, is essentially a manifestation of your right to following your religion without an intermediary of a pope-equivalent, which would be filled otherwise automatically by Saudia Arabia’s clergy.

So to all those who sighted their own moon. Here here.

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Re: Different Eids

Only recently have I seen Eid dates coinciding with those people who follow Saudi Arabia. I’ve never seen it as a sign of the lack of unity. In fact, if anything, this was one issue where we had it. Because this is where we had difference of opinion, but didn’t make a big deal out of it. Though we practiced it slightly differently, there was no quarrel about it. Difference of opinion does not mean lack of unity.

In terms of people just following Saudi Arabia for it, it’s already been going on for as long as I can remember. What I remember hearing about it was that even the ulema of SA told people go for their own local sighting. It’s masses that want to follow SA.