A Quandery
Assalamu alaikum / greetings, OK, I hate to seem as though I’m beating a dead horse by addressing this whole moon sighting thing again, but… As I’ve said before, I chose to follow the position of ISNA / moonsighting.com / the Shura Council of North America, regarding the start of Ramadan, even though my local community (Clarksville / Nashville), I guess, decided to do otherwise. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what criteria they used in determining the start of Ramadan, whether or not they followed Saudi Arabia or whether or not they followed a local sighting. This was one reason I didn’t follow my local community. Firstly because I follow the Maliki madhhab, and to my understanding, one must follow a local or regional sighting for determining the start and end of Islamic months. And it’s not so much that following a global sighting isn’t valid, or isn’t something that I’d consider doing. But the issue is, whether or not said global sighting is valid. For example, I wouldn’t mind following Saudi Arabia, if I was assured that they were actually following a confirmed, credible moon sighting. But according to moonsighting.com, on October 3rd, the moon could not even be seen in Saudi Arabia. So then, the questions I had and still have are, who is right? And when I start asking questions about the whole moon sighting controversy, and when I bring up moonsighting.com’s assertion about the Saudi sightings, I get a variation of the following responses: "If a Muslim says they saw the moon, then they saw it". "I’ll take a trustworthy Muslims’ report over science any day". "Are you saying that Muslims would lie? Muslims would not lie over something this serious, if they said they saw the moon, then they saw it". "Saudi is, or should be, the spiritual center of Islam, so we should follow them". OK, the thing that I’m wrestling with is, who is right? If astronomers, and Muslim astronomers at that, are saying that it was not possible for anyone to have seen the moon on October 3rd, and a body has been set up in North America to collect and verify sighting reports, why not follow them? I mean, no one is saying that anyone is lying here. I’ve never seen the moon, I don’t know what the moon looks like, but is it possible for people to mistake the moon for something else? I’m all for believing trustworthy Muslims, but I am also for following trustworthy Muslims who have spent years studying a particular subject, in this case, astronomy. Muslim astronomers such as those who are consultants to ISNA know what the moon looks like, know where it is in the sky at a given time, place, and location. And the birth of the new moon can be calculated with I’d say, almost absolute certainty. So then, what do I do? If my local community follows Saudi, and ISNA / moonsighting.com are saying that there is no way the moon could have been sighted in Saudi Arabia, what do I do? Who do I follow? Do I follow my local community for the sake of unity, and in an attempt to "not create fitna"? What if, given all of the reading I’ve done, and given that I’m a traditional Muslim, who adheres to one of the recognized four Sunni Madhhabs, and what if my madhhab (Maliki madhhab), states, as it does in the Guiding Helper, that one should never take the report of a sighting from halfway around the globe? And what does one do if one decides, because of all of this, and because one can’t discern if the local community actually followed a local sighting report or whether the local community is following Saudi, so one decides to follow ISNA / moonsighting.com, because the said sites have declared that out of all the calls they’ve received, there was no confirmed sighting report within North America. So now, that Ramadan is drawing to a close, what does one in this situation do for the Eid? Would it be valid, from a Traditional Islamic fiqh point of view, to just celebrate Eid with the local community and make up whatever days you missed from Ramadan up later? For example, if you started your Ramadan on October 5th, but your local community started on October 4th, do you celebrate Eid when they do? What if they declare the Eid to be on November 2nd? Or, what if they declare Eid to be on November 3rd, but ISNA / moonsighting.com / the Shura Council of North America declare that the moon could not be seen in North America? The thing is, I am not really connected to any Muslim community, for a variety of reasons, mostly related to transportation. I may work in Clarksville, but if I want or need to get to Clarksville at any other time than during working hours, then that presents a problem. For example, I attended an iftar at the small masjid in Clarksville a couple weeks or so ago, and getting there was no problem, but then, I had difficulty finding a ride home, and someone finally had to drive me home. I felt awful about this, because many people who live in Clarksville don’t want to make the 30 to 40 minute drive to Erin, and then make the drive back to Clarksville. And it’s funny how many people in Clarksville don’t even know where Erin is! Not only this, because of the gas expense, I don’t want to ask my brother to keep making trips to Clarksville so I can attend Islamic functions. And during the weekends, my brother and his wife like to spend time together and relax and do things, so they many times have their own things planned. So these obstacles make me more disconnected from the local community then I’d like. It’s funny that the community I seem to know the most about is the Knoxville community, because a brother I’d met at a Nawawi Foundation event in Chicago last May subscribed me to their list! So it seems the two communities I seem to be the most connected to is Chicago and Knoxville, how funny! It’s not that Nashville or Clarksville are not good communities, but if you don’t have reliable transportation, then Clarksville, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chicago might as well be the same distance. So anyway, what do I do for Eid? Is it valid to follow the local community, even if people who know more about astronomy and moon sighting and things like that are saying that the moon could not be sighted, either here or in Saudi Arabia? Also, is it a valid fiqh position to follow the local community for the Eid, even if you’ve not fasted the required 29 or 30 days of Ramadan, or if the people who know about these sorts of things have said that the moon could not be sighted, for either the start of Ramadan or for the start of Shawwal? I just would like to know so that I can at least feel comfortable in my decision to follow someone other than my local community. Maybe this would not be such a big deal if I was more connected to my local community, I don’t know. And I really don’t mean to seem obsessive about this, but seeing as how it’s fasting Ramadan, and that this is one of the 5 pillars of Islam, I do take this whole thing seriously. It may not be my responsibility to determine the start and end of Islamic dates, but I feel that it is my responsibility that I am following correct moon sightings, and I’m not sure if it is OK, just to follow my local community just to "keep from starting fitna". Just as I feel that following a madhhab is good for me, because it insures that I’m getting correct Islamic knowledge, the same goes for following sites such as moonsighting.com, for determining the start and end of Islamic months. And I’m not sure if this makes any sense or not. But within the last couple of years, this has really started bothering me. It didn’t bother me so much at first because the first few years as a Muslim, I followed ISNA, and I guess my local Muslim community in Northwest Indiana did too, I can’t really remember. But I followed ISNA, because they put up timely statements on Ramadan / Eid, and I liked their approach. They would take moon sighting reports, and they would accept them, as long as said reports did not contradict known astronomical fact. And why is this not a good thing? It makes sense to me. So that is what I’ve always followed. It’s only become a problem once I’ve moved here to Tennessee. And the only community that I’m aware of that follows this position is the Knoxville community. I’m not sure about Memphis. And I’m not sure how the Nashville community has decided to determine the start and end of Ramadan, I’ve gotten conflicting answers on that one, one person saying that the imams have decided to follow Saudi, and another report saying that some local brothers sighted the moon. And Clarksville is following Nashville, it seems. At any rate, the only thing listed on the Nashville Islamic Center’s website is that "Ramadan would start tomorrow October 4th". They made no mention, that I can remember now, of anyone sighting the moon anywhere. So this just reenforced my decision to follow ISNA. So what am I going to do for Eid? That’s the next question. If Eid is declared to be on November 2nd by Saudi Arabia and by extension my local community, I couldn’t celebrate it even if I’d wanted to because I have to work on that day, I’d only taken off the 3rd and 4th of November. And if they say it’s on November 3rd, and ISNA / moonsighting.com are saying that the sighting of the moon in North America on November 2nd is highly unlikely, and if they don’t get any confirmed reports of moon sighting, then the question becomes, do I follow my local community for Eid if they say it’s on the 3rd, or do I follow ISNA / moonsighting.com? Maybe I’ll just have my own personal Eid at home. But I don’t want that! I want to be around other Muslims! And I wish I didn’t feel like I had to keep the fact that I practice traditional Islam or the fact that I follow a madhhab or have taken a tariqa a secret either! It makes me feel like I’m being dishonest or a hypocrite or something. I wish that I could freely say, "I follow the Maliki madhhab", or I’m a member of such and such a tariqa, or, I follow ISNA’s position regarding moon sighting and the start and end of Ramadan, without the fear that I’m going to be accused of "blindly following", or "causing fitna", or something like that. It just makes me feel disingenuous somehow to be around other Muslims, yet not be able to express my feelings as a Muslim. Does that make any sense? Why does it seem that everything seems so Salafi / Wahhabi / anti-madhhab dominated? Is this the case or is it just me? It’s like those who follow a madhhab or tariqa can’t openly say it, unless they know they’re among like-minded people. So where are other like-minded people like myself? Or are living in Tennessee and who I can get access to, or get to know? So I don’t feel so disconnected? Anyway, Inshallah, someone can help, because I’d like to at least be able to put this issue to rest, or at least be assured that I’m following correct fiqh positions within the bounds of traditional Islam.
Three teenage girls beheaded in Indonesia - Yahoo! News
Assalamu alaikum / greetings… Who would do something like this? Subhanallah, I really don’t know what to say… What is the reason for doing this? Even though these men were supposedly? Muslim, I don’t see where Islam would have had anything to do with this, except in these men’s twisted heads. But I’m sure the likes of Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer will have a field day with this one!
Excerpt from article:
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Men in black clothes and masks beheaded three teenage Christian girls on Saturday in eastern Indonesia as they walked to school near
the Muslim town of Poso, officials said.
Link: Three teenage girls beheaded in Indonesia - Yahoo! News.
Update on Editor’s Arrest by Baba Galleh Jallow
We have been reliably informed that The Independent’s Editor-in-Chief Musa Saidykhan reported back to the NIA today, Friday morning. Apparently, the NIA
offices were flooded with calls and letters from international media and human rights bodies around the world. The arrest also received widespread coverage
and condemnation in the international media. As a result of the overwhelming international attention the case has attracted, the NIA released Saidykhan.
It is our understanding that the case is closed, at least for now. Saidykhan was not charged with any crime.
Meanwhile, the Gambia government today received the South African Amabassador in the region, who is based in Dakar. Information secretary Neneh Macdoll
told GRTS that her department invited the ambassador to discuss and strenghten bilateral relations between the two countries. Observers believe that the
invitation was motivated by the recent arrest of a South African Muslim cleric and his son by the Gambian authorities in Banjul as well as Saidykhan’s
report to the South African authorities on the murder of Deyda Hydara last December. Deyda was shot in a drive-by shooting while driving home after work.
No one has been charged in connection with the gruesome murder.
Baba
Alert: NIA “Invites” Independent Editor
Assalamu alaikum / greetings, the below message comes from the former? editor of the Independent Newspaper in The Gambia. I need to ask if he still does any editing work for the paper or not. I don’t want to say that he’s still an editor if he is not, but I know at lleast he used to be. My apologies in advance if I got anything wrong. Anyway, the below message is from Baba Galleh Jallow, who used to be and maybe? still is, the editor of the Independent Newspaper in The Gambia.
Dear Friends,
I have just been informed that The Independent’s editor-in-chief Musa Saidykhan was today picked up for questioning by three NIA agents. Initially, Mr Saidykhan
was "invited" to the NIA headquarters. When he refused to go because his request to be told the reason for the invivation was denied, three men came to
The Independent’s offices to pick him up. Mr. Saidykhan demanded to see an arrest warrant but the agents told him that with or without a warrant, he had
to come with them. They also took his cell phone from him for "screening."
At NIA headquarters, Saidykhan was questioned about events surrounding his recent trip to Johannesburg for an African editors forum about which he wrote
in The Independent. While in South Africa, Saidykhan had also submitted a report to the authorities there on the state of the media in The Gambia. As at
the time of sending this brief report, Mr. Saidykhan had been released but asked to report to NIA headquarters again tomorrow moring, Friday.
We will keep you posted on developments.
Baba
PS: NIA = National Intelligence Agency
