Wifaqul Ulama Planning

Moonsighting or Calculations?

Abdul Aziz Raje

If the dec­la­ra­tions of Wifaqul Ula­ma are based on Moon­sight­ing, how are they able to pro­duce and release graph­ics so quick­ly? Doesn’t it show that Islam­ic dates are pre­de­ter­mined and not based on actu­al Moonsighting?

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salā­mu ‘alaykum wa-rah­mat­ul­lāhi wa-barakātuh 

We would like to begin by extend­ing our grat­i­tude to you for ask­ing this ques­tion. May Allah (SWT) give you the best of rewards (Ameen).

In a nut­shell, it is down to planning.

Dur­ing most months, a rea­son­able guess can be made when the month will start so head­ers are designed 2 weeks before the start. Some­times, two head­ers are designed and two cal­en­dars are made and are hid­den away on the web­site, see below for Dhul-Hij­jah 1438.

 

When the moon is sight­ed and the Ula­ma have made a deci­sion, it will take less than a minute to acti­vate the right cal­en­dar and delete the wrong one by the IT department.

Some of the pub­li­ca­tions are dis­card­ed if the date is wrong and nev­er made pub­lic because the date is wrong.

Usu­al­ly, vis­i­tors to the site will not see this but this is being shown to answer your question. 

      جزاك اللهُ خيرًا