Re: Inaccurate Decision of ISNA’s Fiqh Council Creates Controversy
Well i appreciate your answer, but my basic question remained, why cannot we estimate on calculations and observe for confirmations, but let this observation be at one place in the world, Because in old times, there were no communicaion means so you could celebrate eids in your own time and the business of the state was never affected because of real time clock.
You remember that in old times very few people even kept calendars therefore many old timers of villages even do not know their birthdays, but the world has changed, why this problem was not confronted by the scholars of past eras as they were scholars of past era. As simple as that. you cannot decide the problems of today on the interpretations of scholars of yesterday. Sunnah & Quran are not to be changed, but how a particular scholar reaches on a verdict has to conform to the modern time requirements. Precisely because of this stubborness of the Ulema we are making fun of ourselves and we are unable to implement our islamic calendar in our daily lives, that hurts me more than anything else.
Visual sighting is necessary that is beyond doubt, but you can add the calculations to your benefit just like we have used loud speaker for implementation.
The bigger issue in this whole thread is not visual sighting or whatever, it is that our ulemas are refusing to accpet the changing times and want to drag us back to past centuries which is impossible. The arrow of time will never go back, whether they like it or not. Only if they accept the challenge and conform the interpretations according to present day requirements, only then will Islam be a progressive religion.
Sorry for being lengthy but the issue is for all of us to understand, the golden period of Muslims was when there was no bar on questioning and interpretations were going on. No matter what we say that Mutazila or whatever heretics we had produced in those times, we produced the best thinkers in those times as well. The moment we said that door to Ijtehad is closed, we degenrated.
It is wishful thinking by anyone in the contemporary age of telecommunications that each township, village or city does it own eid. The telecommunication has bridged those distances. You call USA and you know that they are fasting while you are celebrating. Our Ulemas need to do ijtehad on this, just saying that at the time of Prophet or Caliphate, every one had their own eid so we will do so is living in a fool's paradise. What Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) used to do is to be done, no question about it (like watching the moon) but what was the living of those times and we should mimic it at all costs create this fitnah (as they had several eids due to lack of communications so will be ours in this era of communication)
Hope you have understood the broader problem, the stakes here are much higher than simply one eid.