The Eid dance has started, as if it have ever ended! Declarations are coming fast and furiously from all over the Muslim world jostling for position of when Eid should be.
Some, like Nasrallah Fadhlallah of Lebanon, a leading Shi’a cleric with good following in Bahrain declared as early as last week that Eid’s going to be the coming Thursday, that’s Nov 3rd, basing his opinion on scientific facts. Najati of Muharraq this morning came out and said that as the new crescent moon can’t be seen on Thursday evening (it’s only going to be present apparently for 7 minutes and because of the light available at the time of its supposed rise is too bright to see the faint moon) then Eid should be on Friday, Nov 4th. The betting is that Saudi will declare Wednesday as the first day of Eid, and most if not all the GCC countries will follow suit.
Does this sound familiar? Of course it does to even the light follower of Muslim affairs. But is it right? Can we realistically carry on and contribute something sensible to the world, display our unity especially at this particularly difficult time, in a complete absence of a unified and agreed calendar? I don’t think so. And this is a serious situation which invariably gets hijacked by the turbanned lot for political reasons rather than religious motivation, and the rest of the Muslim world remains a haphazard, and an uncoordinated lot.
To be fair, this is not all the religious folks doing, we contribute to it as Muslim individuals too. All you have to do is just keep watching this poll and see how varied a response you will get.
If we as “normal” Muslims can’t come to an agreement on when our major religious events are going to be or how to decide on them, then how can we pressure the clerics in coming up with and agreeing to a solution? And why wait for clerics to tell us what to do? Isn’t it glaringly obvious that we need and abide by a calendar?
The dance continues…
Comments
Re: Eid Dance
The relatively new phenomenon is a cleric issuing a religious ruling that accepts scientific methods of calculating the phases of the moon, hence calendar is correct and acceptable.
The eyeballing of the moon is not of course and has been going on for more than 1400 years.
Eid Dance
[quote]Some, like Nasrallah of Lebanon, a leading Shi’a cleric with good following in Bahrain declared as early as last week that Eid’s going to be the coming Thursday, that’s Nov 3rd, basing his opinion on scientific facts. [/quote]
you mean Mohammad Hossein Fadhlallah right? Nasrallah is the Hezbollah leader, and isnt a Marja’ Taqleed. It is S. Mohammad Hossein Fadhlallah who declared eid on thursday.
Re: Eid Dance
Ooops! You’re right and I’m so totally wrong! I’ll correct that now. Thanks for correcting me.
Eid Dance
One SG hears that the moon can be [i]sighted[/i] Wednesday night in Chile, which shares part of the night with Beirut -or perhaps Lebanese immigrants- and so declares Thursday as Eid. Another SG reads that it can not be[i] seen[/i] anywhere East of Eden, and so declares it to be on Friday. Since visibilty -as opposed to the conjuction- of new moon is an empirical thing, with at times borderline cases (with 50-50 chance), both have a problem at their hands -and at our unturbaned heads.
The Edid Dance -aptly called- is a perfect indication of where we are on the rationality scale. Once that is solved, we can finally look forward to start tackling serious things in life.
Eid Dance
Is this a relativley new phenomenon?
I seem to recall that up until this and last year, Eid was decided by moon sightings in Saudi. Maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention!
Trackback :: Bahrain: When is Eid?
TrackBack from Global Voices Online
Mahmood is betting that Saudi will declare Wednesday as the first day of Eid, and most if not all the GCC countries will follow suit. Does this sound familiar? Of course it does to even the light follower of Muslim affairs. But is it right?, he says.
…
Eid Dance
–
Ah Bahrain, the Emeritus, To Have and to Have Not, Casa Blanca… across the Gulf the hyenas… despotting
Au
.
Eid Dance
According to :
[url]http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html#formb[/url]
The following information is provided for Manama (longitude E50.6, latitude N26.2):
Wednesday
2 November 2005 Universal Time + 3h
SUN
Begin civil twilight 05:23
Sunrise 05:47
Sun transit 11:21
Sunset 16:55
End civil twilight 17:19
MOON
Moonset 16:26 on preceding day
Moonrise 05:57
Moon transit 11:32
Moonset 17:02
Moonrise 06:59 on following day
[b]
New Moon on 2 November 2005 at 04:25 (Universal Time + 3h). [/b]
Eid Dance
I declare Eid Wednesday cos I cant wait to boogie…:) hehehe just kidding.
Just my opinion and I AM entitled to one arent I?