A Simple Solution to the Moonsighting Problem
Category: Past Events Published Date
Date: 31 Jul 2009
Title: A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THE MOONSIGHTING PROBLEM - AN ILLUSTRATED PRESENTATION
Speakers: Dr Usama Hasan
The lunar controversy continues to divide Muslims each Ramadan, making it seem like we are asking for the moon when it comes to celebrating Eid on the same day. Usama Hasan suggests his solution to the moon-sighting problem in the UK, based on traditional Islamic jurisprudence as well as modern science.
It is extremely ironic, not to say utterly-embarrassing, that the Muslim people, who led the world for a millennium in every scientific discipline, developed the scientific method itself and taught science and rationality to the West, are still in a state of chaos over a relatively simple matter of science and Shari'ah, i.e. the lunar calendar. In an age when we can measure the properties of sub-atomic particles to dozens of decimal places and time itself with an accuracy of nano-seconds, the Muslim world differs by up to four days about the beginning and end of the lunar month and hence about the dates of its most important festivals: Ramadan and the two Eids.
There are many factors contributing to this confusion. Apart from religious and political disunity, perhaps the biggest reasons are the gulf between Science and Shari'ah and the simplistic approach to Shariah that characterises much of Muslim religious discourse and ignores the magnificent theory of Maqasid al-Shari'ah, or the objectives and spirit of the Sacred Law of Islam.
Usama is an amateur astronomer and served as Planetarium Lecturer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 2006-8. He is an advisor to the ongoing UK Moonwatch Project (www.crescentmoonwatch.org) as well as ALUNA, the world's first tidal-powered moon clock (www.alunatime.org). A selection of articles on Islamic astronomy can be found at his website: http://unity1.wordpress.com