Before I ask the question, a little (known) background.
In USA, we have 3 groups of Mosques/Muslims when it comes to moon sighting for Eid.
Those who follow Nasa Calendar.
Those who follow Global moon sighting (in short, they follow Saudi Arab’s moon sighting)
Those who follow local moon sighting.
I have faith on the 3rd group (however at the end, I follow my local mosque regardless of how they are reaching the conclusion).
Every single possible chand raat, we go through the same discussion in mosque and then someone tries to throw a lecture that “oh Muslims should show unity by having one eid”, and at the end, somehow this lecture is thrown at the people who follow the 3rd school of thought (local sighting), as number 1 and number 2 already know the eid in advance and its the third group that is holding the decsion till the last minute.
So here comes my question.
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If Muslim unity is so important for the people, why the heck no one ever asked the 1st or the 2nd group to come and join the 3rd group. Why the axe is always dropped on the 3rd group that they are not united with the rest of the ummah. Why are they looked down as the odd ones out?**
BTW, for me, I dont give a damn to the unity of Muslims in the name of twisting Islam. To me, importance is in doing the things right according to the teaching of Islam. From tomorrow, if the whole ummah starts performing 4 rakat for Maghrib, I am not going to join them because I should show unity. I will continue with my 3 rakats even if I have to do alone.
No man wants to bow down to what someone else wants.
All three are valid in their own right. I was having this same discussion on my fb Monday night. The people in charge (probably all men), i think, don’t worry about the other things - they decide if its eid or not at the 11th hour, and either go to the masjid for taraweeh or go home and sleep.
its the wives/mothers that have to cook for eid, iron everyone’s clothes, clean the house, put mehndi on her hands, put the kids to bed, etc etc…and by the time she gets to bed it will be a couple of hours before she gets up again.
The masjid I go to follows #2 =) Some people are changing their stance from #3 to #2…a main masjid in Toronto recently did this year, along with Imam Zaid Shakir.
If Makkah's timings are so holy, then why people in USA or other countries dont follow Makkah's timings for 5 daily prayer? Jey its 3 pM for me but Fajr time in Makkah so I am going to do Fajr at 3 PM!! Does not make sense.
Then again, if global sighting is indeed the way to go, then why Makkah? Why not follow the Island of Tonga where the dateline actually starts from.
I cant connect to your site from my work but cooking or preparng for clothes in not more important then to do Eid on the day of Eid. We cannot shift eid days because we need 24 hours to cook food and clean house.
Because if we were to go with the recommended method, which is number 3 above, wouldn't all hell break loose? People want certainty...who cares a crap about the "right" thing anymore. They want to know ahead of time so they can schedule their dawaats, take time off from work, etc. While it sounds like a reasonable thing to do, unfortunately it isn't the right thing to do. Shoot me for all I care, but just because we choose to do what is being done in modern day Islam doesn't make us right.
Here where we live, our Imam was interrupted after 4 taraveeh rakahs by a phonecall. Half hour later it was decided that the moon was sighted somewhere in Chile by one person on a clear night so all masjids were declaring Eid, except for one masjid who's Imam is a Mufti. The Mufti stood by his understanding that when the sky is clear, one person's moon sighting isn't enough, so 30 rozay need to be completed. The rest of the Imams got under pressure of the committees and Eid was announced. Oh well, we went with our masjid but somehow somewhere I know inside of me, it wasn't the right thing to do.
I always here this reasoning from working people that "oh it looks so odd in front of our non-muslim collegues when they seee hafl of Muslims taking day off on this day and the other half next day. No wonder they laugh at us that Muslims dont have unity. We should do one eid so we can present ourselves as one united ummah".
Amazing logic
I've been working fro more than 10-12 years and to this day, not even a single colleague or boss of mine approached me and/or made fun of me beause I took a different day off than my college for eid.
And talking about unity, I think they are laughing more when they hear than in Iraq and Pakistan and Afghanistan, its Muslims killing Muslims. Lets stop that first rather than throwing the blame of unity on the people who follow local moon sighting for eid.
in my town the b's and the d's celebrate on different days almost always. the d's celebrate with saudi afaik so i am suprised at what tlk is saying
this issue needs the ulema to sit down and talk, as it seems what has happend is that the global village phenomenon has suddenly appeared without us being prepared for it
was eid always celebrated on the same day in industan before partition?
Afshi, many people at our masjid did not agree with those following number 3. They thought we were foolish to look out for local moon sightings. There's many in each category.
The thing again is that there are clear instructions in our shariah. I'm not an alima either but I like to follow someone who has several years of education in Islam rather than a regular Joe like my next door neighbor. But again, there's so many questions as to who is qualified these days so this debate will only go in circles.
At the end I just hope whatever decisions we make or have made are accepted by Allah swt.
like I said, you have ur opinion and i have mine. and like i said before, each of them are all valid. and unless you have the word Shaykh/Moulana/Alim/Mufti in front of your name, telling how it "should" be isn't right.
that is your opinion. thats fine. But using the word "should" isn't right (IMHO)
the reason is I used the word "should" is because what if you are stranded in a remote island by yourself for 2-3 years. No cell phone, no internet, no TV. How would you do do eid? Would you follow 1, 2 or 3?
For most of the part, Islam is a tech-free/Tech-independent religion. Allah formed it in such a way that anyone, anywhere from any era can follow it without changing anything. Was global sighting possible 300 years ago when news from Saudi to USa would take 3 months to reach? were people celebrating eid worng the? No, right!
i think for the sake of unity (yes, IMO it should be about unity in this case, since all 3 are valid (according to the scholars)), the people in charge should come a consensus of how to sight the moon..that is the issue.
if they all want to do #2, thats great. if they all want to do #3, well thats great too.
there was a debate/conference a few years ago in california about this. i dont know why whatever they decided hasnt been established.
and tlk, if you and niksik dont agree on how ur moon was sighted, why didnt you say anything? or change your masjid?