Moon-fighting | Losing the sight of sense

As the global leaders fight over the matters earth, Muslimsfight over matters moon. So we are far ahead; ahead by celestial margins.

Fun apart, this controversy over moon-sighting is not apretty sight. It makes us look like walking, talking disgrace. The way Muslimreligious leaders behave on this occasion, the manner in which announcements,and denouncements, are made, turns us into worst specimen of unreason,indecency, and finally ridicule.

   

This controversy, which is not a controversy at all, but anunpleasant display of an attitude by our religious personalities, and thosewith a simplistic religious bent of mind. The problem is concentrated in thereligious leadership. Muslim societies become the victims of this religiosity.And in the end it brings us shame, and for this, world is not to blame. Noconspiracy.

This year when the government of Pakistan decided to rely onmodern means in drawing the lunar calendar it generated a pitched debate. Thereligious scholars, from the ones directly associated with the task ofmoon-sighting – Ruyat e Hilal Committee – down to lesser known preachers,stormed into this debate. Hearing them all, the upshot is that unless we sightthe moon with naked eye, we cannot decide whether the month of Ramazan hasended on not. It means the uncertainty over the lunar dates will persist.

Since a commoner, given the routine of modern day life,yearns for a certitude in lunar dates, there is a readiness for scientificmethods to help solve the problem. For years this public anxiety was brewing,and now it came to a head. A people’s representative government expressed itswillingness to give it to the Science & Technology department, and come upwith a calendar for five years. People in Pakistan, and by extension inKashmir, heaved a sigh of relief, but the offensive mounted by religiousleaders turns this situation very unpleasant. One doesn’t know how this willpan out on the 29th day of Ramazan, but the contest between the New and the Oldis not going to end, at least this Ramazan; though, eventually, we all willyield. Don’t be surprised when down some years we will have the same religiousgroups, and the seminaries, printing colorful lunar calendars, distributingthem with gusto.

Leaving aside the unpleasant, and down right ridiculous partof this issue, it’s time to understand what is wrong with our religiousscholars, and also with our general ways of understanding religion. This can bedone precisely by taking the case of moon-sighting. The entire argument, if itqualifies for an argument, of those who insist on visual sighting of moon isbased on the historical reports attributed to the Prophet. These reports,Ahadith, quite clearly advise the Muslims to end the month of Ramazaan onlywhen they have sighted the moon – Ruyat, as it is known. This simple guideline,that is very amenable to reason, has been turned into a legal, and doctrinalprecept. As if the Prophet actually guided us to see the moon with bare eyesbefore concluding the month per se. Reading these lines, as humans read, iteasily filters out that the Prophet wanted us to ensure that the month reallyended, and not to insist on fasting for all the 30 days. This, because thelunar month is of varied duration. It can be 29 too. Since the Quran used theword Shahar – a month – the prophet sensed the possibility of Muslims insistingto fast for all the 30 days. The reported sayings of the Prophet clearlyreflect that we should follow the lunar timings, and not insist on completing30 days, as is a religious minded person’s wont.

Now the only way to ensure the lunar course in those times,and even up till recently, was the sighting of moon with the human eye. Hencethe Prophet sensitised us to take care of this, and hence the practice ofmoon-sighting when the month of Ramazan comes and leaves. Similarly for theoccasion of Haj, and of the Sacrificial Eid.

As the human knowledge made progress many practices gotreplaced by the scientific methods, the timings for daily prayers is a glaringexample of that. There is nothing doctrinal, or religious, in such matters.It’s subject to change as human knowledge progresses. If the advances inastronomy can tell us with certitude when the month ends or begins, the purposeof the Prophet’s advice is fulfilled. The only thing that needs to beestablished is the certitude of this scientific knowledge.

Since the religious obligations like fasting, andpilgrimage, matter to us, we can’t take it lightly. It is not like the modernsecular mindset that finds little, or no value to such acts of worship, that weshould summarily reject the sensibilities of the religious mind. But in thename of religion we shouldn’t block our ways to knowledge, and make ourreligion sound like an ignorant clique’s weapon of mass destruction.

Once again we must listen calmly to Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, whorestores grace to any discussion on Islam. Who gives to religion what belongsto religion, and leaves for science what pertains to science. It’s thanks tohim who pushed the Muslim society of Pakistan, and consequently the governmentof Pakistan, to save Islam and Muslims, from the disgrace that thismoon-sighting announcement brings. His clarity on these matters has infused newcourage in the Muslim mind, and his courage to stand for sense and sacred, isopening up new founts of clarity for us. In him we sight a new light.

Tailpiece: If it’s not considered blasphemous, had therebeen any possibility of God’s intervention into such human matters left, Hewould replace it with a solar calendar. How can God take this absurditycommitted in the name of his religion.

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