|
00050 |
|
Hilaal sighting committees in Saudi Arabia oder was und wie die "Saudis" mit dem Problem des Ramadtaanbeginns umgehen; am Beispiel 1420 / 1999 by Omar Afzal Mittwoch, 8. März 2000 / CFCO
Aßalaahmu Alaykum w.r. w.b.
This report is regarding Hilaal sighting in Saudi Arabia. Please forward it urgently to "Muslim email lists", including ICOP InshaÂllah. As I have mentioned in earlier emails, the ruling council of Saudi Arabia has ordered formation of "Hilaal sighting committees" which include: one member of Qada (scholar/justice department), one Astronomer from King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), one member of Imarah (ruling council of the city), and volunteers. Currently there are six such committees in Saudi Arabia near Makkah, Riyadh, Qassim, Hail, Tabuk and Asir.
However, the Justice department accepts witness of "any"
Muslim and not just the 6 committees mentioned above. For each of the last
Ramadtaan, Shawwal, Dhul-Qida and now Dhul-Hajj, the new month has been declared
while NONE of the 6 committees saw the Hilaal. For last Eid ul Fitr, I had gone
with the Makkah committee. Neither we, nor the other 5 committees sighted the
Hilaal. But Eid was declared for Friday, January 7, 2000. (In fact moonset was
before sunset in Makkah for Thursday evening). Later, an article in the
locally published "Arab News" dated February 11, 2000 admitted that
a mistake was made in the Eid ul Fitr date decision. (I had earlier emailed a
scanned copy of this article). But officially, no admission has been made of
the error. Also, I have been told that apparently it is usually the same 5-7
people or so in Tabuk, Hareeq and Huta etc. who report the Hilaal sighting in
Saudi Arabia, year after year, with at least one of them mentioning in a later
discussion, that he can see the hilal during the day (BEFORE Maghrib)!
WaAllah
Also, a partial solar eclipse of February 5, which lasted till after sunset by Riyadh time, implied that if the EidulFitr decision was correct then Shawwal would be 31 days, which is not possible! This follows from the Fatwa of Sheikh Ibn Othaimeen, which I had emailed earlier. For Dhul-Hijja, we went with the Riyadh committee. Neither the Riyadh committee nor any of the other committee reported any sighting of the Hilaal on March 5 evening or March 6 evening. Yet Dhul-Hijja 1 was declared for March 7. Further, on March 7 evening, several brothers here in Lucent Technologies in Riyadh saw the Hilaal. It was very thin. We saw it from after the Maghrib prayers for about 20 minutes. It's thinness and short time made it clear beyond any doubt that it was the Hilaal i.e. the first day crescent. The brothers from Lucent witnessing this included me, Br. Ziaur Rahman, Br. Ali Al Shamrani, Br. Aamer Sabbah, Br. Shahin Iqbal, Br. Budiatmoko Onang, Br. E. Ashraf Koya and others. Ofcourse several Muslims outside also witnessed the Hilaal. Seven of us from Lucent went to try to briefly meet Sheikh Saleh Ibn Muhhammad AlHaidan, the Head of Majlis AlQada AlAala (Supreme Court ?) of Saudi Arabia, but somehow it was difficult to put the message through.
|
