Re: Ramadhan in USA
From our local mosque's website.
[quote]
RAMADAN MUBARAK!
WE have a confirmed sighting from Frisco TX.
HENCE: Ramadan will start on Sunday Sep 24th
[/quote]
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Behn ji, relax. It’s not like you had any other option. I believe you said everyone in your area went with it. Whereas we had an option, so many of us decided to go with the actual moonsighting as per the hilal committee in our area.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Although ISNA had stated that they are not going to sight the moon (and thus caused a mini-revolt in muslim communities) and will just rely on calculations, seems like a couple of people in Texas did sight the moon on Friday.
For the rest of muslms who disagreed with pre-determined calendar theory of ISNA, tonight was moon sighting night, and guess where two people sighted the moon? Yep, you got it.... Texas, baby!!!
Seems like Texas is the NWFP of USA. Thats where all moons are sighted...
Ramzaan Mubarak, finally.
Due to this start date dispute, taaq raatein will be confusing, but hopefully we will just have one Eid on Monday, October 23, 2006. ISNA has already announced that Eid (thus 30 rozas), where as someone in Texas will make sure there is moon sighted on October 22 to satisfy the rest of us. :)
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Faisal: To my knowledge, tha witness came from San Diego, CA as well and not Texas alone as cited by ICNA
chicagohilal.com/
muslimcenter.org
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Although its a moot point now, here is what moonsighting.com say about when moon can be sighted for Ramzaan:
The Astronomical New Moon is on Friday September 22, 2006 at 11:45 Universal Time (i.e., 7:45 EDT, and 4:45 PDT ). Looking at the visibility curve one can understand that the moon is impossible to be seen in any continent, although it is possible to be seen near the International Dateline southwest of Hawaii by telescope on September 22. On the same day at west coast of North America, the moon will be about 14 hours old, and about 1 degree above the horizon at sunset time, and will not be visible in North America. On September 23, 2006, the moon will start to become visible, by telescope from New Zealand and Australia, and by naked eye from Southern Africa, South & Central America. If atmospheric conditions are perfect, it can be seen in North America also on Sep. 23, otherwise it will be seen in North America on Sep 24.
And here is what they say about moon sighting possibilities for Shawwal... just FYI.
The Astronomical New Moon is on Sunday, October 22, 2006, at 5:15 Universal Time, i.e., 1:15am Eastern Daylight Time - or October 21, 10:15pm Pacific Daylight Time. On October 22, this moon would be about 20 hours old on West Coast of USA and still not visible even by telescope, because the moon will be in the Southern Hemisphere. It could be seen in Some Polynesian Islands on October 22. On Monday, October 23, it will be visible in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Americas.
By the way, here is the witness for moon sighting on Friday
*Sha’baan 29, 1427 *
*September 22, 2006 *
*Ramadaan Declaration *
Houston Moon Sighting Committee declares Saturday, September 23, 2006 as First of Ramadaan, 1427 based on witnesses: *
*4 from Denton, TX : including Imam Muhammad Fuad Faraj and Br. Faisal Rabani, plus 2 other witnesses, and 1 from Houston, TX, who is known to Hafiz Tauqeer Shah and Sh. Mustafa Mahmoud. He appeared before the committee and it was confirmed by the committee. *
*We ask Allah (swt) to accept form us and bless us all in this most blessed month. **Sh. Moustafah Mahmoud Sh. Zoubir Bouchikhi Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal Sh. Waleed Basyouni Hafiz Nisarul Haq *
*
^^ Moonsighting.com waloN ki bhi kiya hi baat hai... masters of total confusion!!
Re: Ramadhan in USA
I thought friday was 28th shabaan, so how can they sight the moon on friday.
The lunar calendar or north america is really messed up.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
i heard that sumone in houston, tx thought that he saw the moon on friday nite..but wasnt sure
but still many ppl in austin r starting on sunday but almost the entire dallas..plano..richardson and close by areas started their ramadan on saturday!
I hope we wont have this same confusion for Eid!
Re: Ramadhan in USA
^^^ bwahahaha, we wish there won;t be the same confusion for Eid!
Re: Ramadhan in USA
The moon that was seen in Texas was somone’s pithi 
Anyway, Ramazan mobarik y’all…May Allah tabark’o tala give you strength to lose a few pounds.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Now we'll have two Eids - one on Monday the 23rd according to ISNA and one on Tuesday the 24th according to moonsighting. Allah mian please make the new moon on Sunday night so that everyone can have one Eid - Ameen.
I hate this :( I guess we better do shab-e-qadar every night in the last 10 days of Ramadan due to all this confusion :~(
Re: Ramadhan in USA
While driving to Masjid from home yesterday evening around iftari’s time I have seen moon it doesn’t look like thesri shab ka chand (3rd night’s moon). I have no idea why ISNA created that problem and started Ramadhan from 23rd. it is total bogus call of Ramadhan from ‘em.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
could our religious systems be more at fault? I mean asking people to count months based on a sighting which is heavily dependent on local weather and chance.. I don't blame anyone.. the system is broken.. people are just trying hard to work with it.. instead of trying to fix it.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
I suggest reading Sh. Hamza Yusuf’s article on http://www.chicagohilal.com talking about the case for moon sighting and how the Jewish calendar was similarly nullfied into strict calculations.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
We started Sunday in NJ.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
I hate this confusion, every ramadan of start and end dates. We (muslims) look daft in front of all the christians, hindus, jews etc.
I wish it would start together and end together.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
The idea that just because at the time of Prophet, strict calculations were not used, so we should do the same doesn’t go very far.
For example, at the time of prophet no strict military was organized. In modern terms, the Muslim military in AnHazoor (saw)'s time were all volenteer minitary. Now, you can’t argue that this is how Muslim governments today should keep their military. In fact, Hazrat Umar (ra) organized the military soon after.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Au contraire, the assumption made by ISNA et al is that people in Prophet's time were either not competent to calculate lunar calendar or were unreliable. And therefore, since we, in modern times are so smart and much more reliable (less devious) we can do all that, therefore its ok if we discard an established sunnah, and just go by calculations. Now, if that assumption is incorrect, pretty much the whole ISNA argument kinda falls by the way side.
I viewed the speech by Dr Siddiqui who narrated ISNA's position (its on ISNA's website). I read the counter argument by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf in the article posted on Zaytuna's website. Frankly, I am still not sure I understand ISNA's position. I think they did an effort to bring unity, but their approach is questionable. In my view its a perfectly good idea to bring unity to the ranks of muslims, and its also ok to establish a lunar calendar, but then you have to be prepared to adjust it as you go along, if the actual moon sighting differs from the calendar. Saudi Arabia has a calendar (they don't use Gregorian calendar for official business anyway, so they pretty much need a calendar to function), but they don't discount actual moon sighting. Thats where, I think, ISNA really tripped up. They completely eliminated the element of witnessing the moon.
Anyway, hopefully Shawwal moon will be sighted on October 22, and we will have one Eid on October 23rd. If all else fails, I am sure people in Texas (which seems to be the NWFP of USA) will be able to sight a/the moon one way or the other. So far, they have proven to be real tigers in sighting moons. Go Texas!!!
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Faisal Bhaijaan, I don't know ISNA's position and frankly I don't care. My position is that there is a scientific way to establish a lunar calender that claims to be accurate to the second significant decimal digit. We can establish our calender based on it and then let everyone go out to see the moon to satisfy the sunnah. Actually the Sunnah is to look for the moon to say prayers, so even if someone else has seen it, it doesn't mean the job is done, AnHazoor (saw) used to look for it and will immediatly raise his hands for prayers.
Anyhoo ... If a scientific model says a moon cannot be sited in California and not because of weather reasons and you claim you saw the moon than obviously the scientific model being used is wrong, this doesn't mean using science as a device for creating a calender is wrong.
I personally believe that the problem arise from the masses, especially the leaders in mosques, not understanding the lunar calender. Most of them believe that just because the moon was sited in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan should have the Eid on the same day too or if east coast saw the moon, west coast should follow. In fact, if I can see the moon in Colorado, there are models that show the certain counties in the very same state will not be able to see the moon because of differences in elevation. Regardless of what people in Huston think they saw or didn't see.
Oh and Saudi Arabia isn't the first to try to retrofit the lunar calender to be a bit more predictable. Muslims since the beginning of hijra being have been trying to establish one.
Re: Ramadhan in USA
Sir ji, if you don’t know their position and don’t care either, then please rest assured that your personal opinion, while it may be very valuable to you, is of limited interest to the rest. Tomorrow, you may issue another personal opinion that every Monday should be declared Eid-ul-Fitr.
Anyway, you raise questions that have been debated exhaustively, so its not like no one has thought about this thing. Google a bit, or click here](http://www.islam-qa.com/index.php?ln=eng&QR=1248)and here. Problem is, you may have no knowledge about these views or don’t care in the first place, so its difficult to sustain a discussion. In summary, in Islam, there is a concept of “matla”, which is described here. Again, you can only learn if you care. 