Chairman of a United Jamiat ul Ulama (Britain)

Chairman of a United Jamiat ul Ulama endorses Moroccan Moon Sighting for Britain

Mufti Abdul Baqi Saheb (Wimbledon Masjid, 1977)

THE SOLUTION TO THE DISPUTED PROBLEM OF THE MOON SIGHTING IN U.K

QUESTION. The Mus­lims of U.K have been divid­ed into 3 groups on the issue of MOON SIGHTING.

1. The 1st group says that we should cel­e­brate EID and RAMADAN accord­ing to the 1st infor­ma­tion received about the sight­ing of the MOON any­where in the World.
2. The 2nd group firm­ly asserts that we should fol­low SAUDI ARABIA in the mat­ter of MOON SIGHTING, because the cen­tre of Islam, “MECCA” is sit­u­at­ed there.
3. The 3rd group says that we should fol­low the near­est ISLAMIC COUNTRIES in all mat­ters relat­ing to the MOON SIGHTING.

We need a “FATWA” as to which of the three groups is giv­ing the right sug­ges­tion accord­ing to SUN­NAH-a-RASOOL ALLAH (S.A.W.A), so that this dis­put­ed mat­ter may be set­tled once for all and the Mus­lims of U.K. can be saved from a lot of trou­ble, heat­ed dis­cus­sions and unnec­es­sary anxiety.

ANSWER:

It is quite clear from HADITH that Mus­lims should observe RAMADAN and CELEBRATE EIDS with the sight of the NEW MOON.

If the sky is cloudy and the MOON can­not be sight­ed, then it is nec­es­sary that we should observe fas­to for 30 days and then cel­e­brate EID. It is such a clear and sim­ple solu­tion of the whole prob­lem accord­ing to ISLAMIC THEOLOGY or SHARIAT. Unfor­tu­nate­ly this mat­ter has been made com­pli­cat­ed by some peo­ple in MECCA belong­ing to “ORGANISATION OF THE WORLD ISLAMIC AFFAIRS”, who sug­gest­ed that we should fix the same day of EID and RAMDAN accord­ing to the Islam­ic Cal­en­der for the whole of the WORLD. This sug­ges­tion put for­ward by such mod­ern thinkers has cre­at­ed a lot of trou­ble and con­fu­sion in dif­fer­ent coun­tries and has pro­vid­ed the mis­cre­ants with the grounds for play­ing around with the dates of RAMADAN and EID every year. This sug­ges­tion was actu­al­ly turned down by the var­i­ous offi­cials of the World Islam­ic Affairs in MECCA name­ly Sec. Gen­er­al Sh. Kazaz, Sh. Ib-ne Humeed (KAZI) and in fact Sh. Kazaz had to sub­mit his res­ig­na­tion on the issue of this very matter.

Sheikh Ib-ne-Humeed, a famous Sau­di Judge, pub­lished a pam­phlet on this issue and proved that it is impos­si­ble to have EID and RAMADAN at the same time and on the same day in the entire World. Allah has cre­at­ed this World in such a way that the tim­ings of MOON and SUN rise and MOON and SUN set are dif­fer­ent in each coun­try. Allah has clear­ly direct­ed PROPHET MUHAMMAD (S.A.W.S) to tell the believ­ers that THEY SHOULD WORSHIP ALLAH AND NOT MECCA, as stat­ed in the HOLY QURAN. There­fore, it is quite clear that the say­ings of the 1st two groups are quite con­tra­dic­to­ry to SUN­NAH-a-RASOOL, ALLAH AND ISLAMIC SHARIAT.

The Mus­lims of the entire World have turned down the idea of hav­ing RAMADAN and EID exact­ly on the same days. The var­i­ous coun­tries e.g. India, Pak­istan, Bangla Desh, Malaysia, Indone­sia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syr­ia etc; do not act upon this sug­ges­tion. They do not decide EID and RAMADAN dates accord­ing to SAUDI ARABIA, but instead they make their own deci­sions based on the pre­vail­ing cli­mat­ic con­di­tions of that coun­try accord­ing to SUNAH-a-RASOOL, ALLAH. Even Alge­ria, Moroc­co and Tunisia etc. Being so near to SAUDI ARABIA, do not fol­low EID and RAMADAN dates of the Arab countries.

Some SAUDI Govt. Offi­cials like to see that Islam­ic Cal­en­der pre­pared by them exact­ly coin­cides with the sight of MOON at each occa­sion to sat­is­fy the inno­cent peo­ple of that coun­try and for this rea­son, they give great mon­e­tary rewards to those peo­ple who bring the news of the MOON SIGHTING even though it may be entire­ly false and an utter lie.

THIS IS THE ONLY REASON AS TO WHY THE SIGHTING OF THE MOON IS ANOUNCED FIRST OF ALL ALWAYS IN SAUDI ARABIA AMONGST ALL THE ISLAMIC AND NON-ISLAMIC COUNTIRES OF THE WORLD.
It is sur­pris­ing to know that the TARAWEE NAMAZ is observed in SAUDI ARABIA for the 1st of RAMADAN even though accord­ing to the Roy­al British Obser­va­to­ry the very birth of the MOON has not been confirmed.

It is absolute­ly clear from all these obser­va­tions that the 3rd group is tak­ing the right deci­sion in such mat­ters accord­ing to SUNAH-a-RASOOL ALLAH (S.A.W.S) and ISLAMIC SHARIAT.

The near­est islam­ic coun­tries to the unit­ed king­dom are moroc­co, alge­ria, tunis and some parts of africa and some of these hap­pen to be at the same lat­i­tude as g.britain. so it is absolute­ly right to fol­low these coun­tries for eids and ramadan.

There­fore, “the Asso­ci­a­tion of Mus­lim schol­ars in Britain” and their “ruwait-a-halal com­mit­tee” requests and make a most hum­ble appeal in the name of allah to all the mus­lims of UK to fol­low the dates if eid and ramadan accord­ing to the near­est islam­ic coun­tries accor­ing to sun­nah-a-ras­sol (s.a.w.s) and safe­guard their wor­ship and their fasts. It is the unan­i­mous deci­sion of jami­at-a-ulla­ma britain that any one, who will act dif­fer­ent­ly in such mat­ters using and kind of mod­ern ide­ol­o­gy, will be doing a very wrong thing in the eyes of allah and will be spoil­ing not only his own reli­gion, but also that of his fel­low- broth­ers. He must not for­get that he will be answer­able to allah for such wrong and wil­ful mod­i­fi­ca­tions in this religioN.

MAY ALLAH GUIDE US ALL ON THE RIGHT PATH.
(Mufti Abdul Baqui)

Chair­man of JAMITA-a-ULLEMA,
Dat­ed:- 3rd Sep­tem­ber, 1977 Mufti of the UNITED KINGDOM,
North­ern Ire­land and Western
Europe, Imam of Wimbledon
M.A.BAQUI Masjid.
MUFTI ABDUL BAQUI
DARUL IFTA
DATE:
12 MELROSE AVENUE
WIMBLEDON PARK MASJID
LONDON S.W.19
TEL 9463350

 

 

جزاك اللهُ خيرًا