Moon Sighting

With the drastic rise in the number of Kitaab Gaabs and their followers causing confusion by the day, the beauty of the once divinely revealed message seems headed for total contamination. The amalgamation of unctuous hypocrites having differing religious and ideological views who often apply pecksniffian declarations on issues beyond their comprehension regarding theological jurisdictions deserve to be treated with contempt, if not, neglected, otherwise, they could lead the Muslim Ummah into a seemingly bottomless chasm. If the Shawwal moon is sighted in Saudi Arabia and other parts of Africa, then, it would be meaningless to continue with the fast even after the new Shawwal moon has been sighted by reliable Muslims. Relying on Saudi Arabia as the maker of the final verdict or حكم on moon sightings is unacceptable. Likewise, judging the one who sights the moon by his religious sectarian inclination is unfounded and a fabrication of the Islamic requirements of moon sightings. عيد الفطر or Eid ul Fitr is the Islamic religious festival that marks the end of the month of Ramadan. A look at the different ways Muslim Madhhabs perform the Eid ul Fitr salah illustrates existing dissimilarities and performances of rituals and prayer elements. Even the required charitable contributions to the needy and elderly could be different within a city because followers rely on the final decisions of their chosen religious scholars. The person who sights the new moon must be a Muslim who is not visually impaired, must be an adult who is sane, honest, and just and must not be a known Faasiq (sinner). To ensure the one who sighted the new moon is up to task, a testimony becomes compulsory. The declaration, "I testify" should be taken into consideration because, the Qur'an states, "And take testimony from the just and honest amongst you". While Ramadan, the 9th month of the Hijri calendar is dedicated to the observance of fasting for Muslims, Eid al-Fitr is observed at the start of the month of Shawwal which is the following month. The advancement of satellite technology aside, people have different vision types. Muscular degenaration is a major problem that impacts elderly vision. When someone is afflicted by farsightedness, the ability to see near objects get easier while distant objects appear blurry and this is known as hyperopia. One could suffer from nearsightedness or short-sightedness which is a condition known as myopia; optic neuritis is an inflammation of the optic nerve and unlike other visionary influences, it can be treated with corticosteroids. Strabismus can be identified by the looks of the eyes of a person since they are wall-eyed or cross-eyed. The human eye is estimated to be about 7 times sharper than cat eyes, and 40-60 times sharper than rats and goldfish. So, when searching for a new moon, it is best to put all these visual conditions into consideration. A day and night constitute 24 hours, meaning the world has 24 time zones. Longitudinally, there is a 15 degree separation in each hour. The International Date Line (IDL) creates 3 more time zones. As internationally accepted, the Universal Coordinated Time (UCT) starts at zero degrees longitude and that is the Prime Meridian, a global dissecting line that passes through London in England and Accra in Ghana respectively. The Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is "about 334 feet east of the current Airy Transit Circle at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England." That spot is 0 or zero degrees longitude. The measurements of the Earth's rotation is linked to geodetic coordinates. The application of GMT was put into use in 1884 after a gathering in Washington, DC. However, there is still differences of opinion among geographers that the zero degree could be somewhere else because 102-meter shift has been recorded which could be attributed to conventional and geodetic deflection. Since the earth is oval like an egg or spherical like a ball or comparable in shape to a handmade globe, the zero could be somewhere else. When traveling Eastward, you add 30 minutes or 15 degrees for every imaginary line, while, when headed Westward, you substract 30 minutes or 15 minutes for every line. Let's not forget the Continental Divide Line that starts in the Cape Spring Wales in Alaska. Call it a miracle, but, geographically, it is a serpentine line that divides entire North America into two parts. All rivers on the Eastern side of the line dump their waters into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico while those on the westside flow into the Pacific ocean. The saying "East is best, West is least" is known to navigators. Strange , isn't it? Remember, wherever you are on planet earth, you're always on the top. Whether you are located on the North, South, East or West, you'll still the sky above you. To give you an example, the "Heart of America" is a small town outside of Kansas City, Missouri known as Independence where the former US President, Harry S. Truman was born. A former Haberdasher (tailor), Truman became the 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953) after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The historic Harry Truman Museum and Library aren't new to me. When traveling Westward towards Kansas and Colorado States, regardless of the means of transportation, you will be compelled to do time subtraction and if going Eastward, you add 30 minutes to your time every line you cross. Remember, the lines are imaginary. I wasn't surprised when my professor who was a former colonel in the United States Army, once told our class while engaged in a subject on East Asia Studies, that geography is a piece of cake and that he previously taught in other universities without having any specialization. For sure, it isn't a piece of cake, but to the Somali who is "Jack of all trades, master of none", it could be true because, the many years of listening to the most favorite dhegadhegeysi radio enhanced one's understanding of global geography. Unquestionably, Somalis are the most widely traveled and the most multilingual ethnic group in Africa. The absence of indhoindheysi or the perfect application of visualization of the crescent moon has remained a disagreeable and a permanent recurring theme among Somalis for centuries. Since Islam does not contradict science, on April 21 2008, a conference that was held in Doha Qadar titled "Mecca: the Center of the Earth, Theory and Practice" brought together scholars and theologians under the tutelage of Sheikh Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Egypt to deliberate on "Ijaz al-Qur'an", meaning the miraculous nature of the Qur'an. Despite the conference objecting to the Greenwich Meridian as a colonial creation even though the former Ottoman Empire was part of the attendees and that Makkah was under it's jurisdiction, the hope that the Mecca Time would serve as a universal defining time zone did not bear fruit. Even with the raising of the largest clock in the world in Makkah, resting on the fifth tallest freestanding building in the world, the Abraj Al Bait (Towers of the House), it has failed to capture what it was intended for. Instead, P.Z. Myers, referred to the Mecca clock Time proposal as a "cargo occult science"---a term denoting pseudoscience or an imagined hypothesis. To overcome the lack of compromise on the sighting of the moon---a phenomenon that is only common at the beginning and end of Ramadan, it would be wise to have reliable telescopes and other astronomical instruments. Among modern Muslim Ulamaa, the issue of moon sighting has transformed into moon fighting. The relentless moon fighting is plainly against the following Hadith: "Do not fast unless you sight the crescent, and do not break your fast till you sight the (following) crescent." (Al-Bukhari, Vol. 3:130). Like the growing fragments of sectarian tentacular filamentations, the religious scholars divide and rule tactics that is akin to political ignominy, will remain with humanity forever.