Fast Once You See It!

As a Muslim living in North America, I am quite used to the annual mess that happens whenever Ramadan is at the gates. Different Masjids and groups start "deciding" on whether Ramadan starts "tomorrow" or "the day after". They argue over who saw the newborn moon and who didn't and whether someone's sighting is valid or invalid etc. . It is simply the natural result of having multiple governing bodies when it comes to Islamic affairs. It got a little bit better over the past few years due to the majority of Masjids joining one of the two major Islamic bodies in North America, The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or The Hilal Committee.



However, this year something quite new and astonishing happened! ISNA "officials" apparently decided that they no longer "need" moon-sightings. In their newly-found view, astronomical calculations today have come to such a level of sophistication that they can accurately predict the moon-cycle; making moon-sightings no-longer necessary!



So far this sounds fine, HOWEVER:

The prophet PBUH (Peace Be Upon Him) states (and I quote): "Fast upon SEEING it (the new moon) and break your fast upon SEEING it. But if it is HIDDEN from you then complete the count of Sha'ban to 30 days".



Note how the statement clearly identifies visual verification as the sole method of determining the beginning of the month. It is also important to note that lunar-cycle calculation was a method known even before the time of the prophet (PBUH). Finally, note how the prophet (PBUH) makes it very simple by saying that if it is hidden from you then don't fast! This could be a situation as simple as a cloudy day! So even if you are a 100% sure that the moon should be visible yet you cannot see it due to any kind of obstacle then you shouldn't fast! It is that simple!



So somehow, ISNA decided to bypass all of this and come up with their innovative solution to Muslim disunity (as if Ramadan's moon is a source of it). They then proceed to make a comical video that resembles an interview in an attempt to explain their new stance. Yet, oddly enough, the gentleman on screen hardly sounds persuasive! Instead, he comes across as a typical Arab-world leader (despite not being an Arab in the first place) who expects obedience simply because "I said so".



But it gets worse!! Remember when I said that every year the conflict (if one existed) was over the 30th day of Sha'ban (what is known in Fiqh - Islamic Jurisprudence - as "Yaum Al-Shak" or day of uncertainty). For most people, this is not a big deal because of the existence of the "easy answer: Since fasting the 30'th of Sha'ban is prohibited if uncertainty is involved. However, due to the fact that the Hillal Committee uses moon-sighting, Saturday SEP23 to them was actually Sha'ban 29th (as opposed to it being yaum al-shak as per ISNA's "precalculated" month) forcing the believers to have to make a decission about who to follow! (a difficult decission in itself, as Hilal commitee has roughly the same number of member mosques in the GTA).



I am all for following a single religious leadership. However, "la ta'ata le-makhlooq fee ma'seyat al-khaliq". In the presence of the crystal-clear Hadeeth I mentioned above, combined with the fact that all Muslim countries for the past 1400 years have been applying it as it appears;