MOON SIGHTING IN SAUDI ARABIA - Haroon R. Choudhary - from moonsighting.com

MOON SIGHTING IN SAUDI ARABIA

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam,

The belated announcement by the so called Supreme Judiciary Council of Saudi Arabia regarding the day of Arafat on Wednesday January 19th and Eid ul Adha on Thursday January 20^th, 2005 is not the first incident in recent past years. I had the chance to live in Saudi Arabia during 1976 – 84, where I worked on some major development projects.

During all this period, it was always a surprise for those like me who had interest and some scientific knowledge about the moon and its various phases, when Saudi TV used to announce about sighting of moon even when it was never possible or at very odd times. Even once we had already finished our Sahur of 29^th of Ramadan, when suddenly the TV started playing music about Eid ul Fitr at 3:30 AM. It was quite a shock for me as I thought it was a mistake. I immediately called one of Saudi friend and asked about it. He told me that it was the announcement of Eid ul Fitr. Everyone was reminded to complete the first missed day after Eid because the moon sighting at the beginning of month of Ramadan was a mistake (which I earlier thought to be a right decision according to calculations for the first time). There were at least two incidents, when the date of Hajj was changed and flights were closed as on 5^th of Zhul Hijja, so there was sudden rush of Hajj flights and hajjis were allowed in the nick of time.

Besides all available technology, astronomical, scientific calculations and data about moon and sun, why it happens and how it works there in Saudi Arabia is perhaps big question in everyone’s mind. It might be of interest to many of the readers what I had experienced and I would like to share with you. Here is the other side of the picture, which was explained to me by my Saudi friend who was a bit educated but traditional Arab. Upon my inquiry, he explained why and how it all works.

According to him it is old traditional Bedouin way of life in desert who could be blamed as main culprit for all this. The fine knitted scarf which protects from Sun and sand and is commonly used there, is also the basic tool which helps a desert man in moon sighting and thus in his calculations. He does not need to stand at sunset to look for new moon as there is haze and suspended particles of fine dune sand in the air and visibility is poor just before sunset. Those who have the chance to live or travel in desert at night would also agree that the best time for any astronomical observation is late night or very early morning. Therefore, those traditional men look for moon and observe it during its last phase through their scarf at that time. The sieve of scarf helps them as graphic tool in measuring moon thickness till it disappears totally and thus they calculate the date of its birth or next appearance accordingly. They also count and depend upon the number of days of preceding months. This information takes quite some time from mid of the desert through a messenger to the authorities and thus formal announcement is made.

Another point which is worth mentioning here is, their date starts at sunset time and they count it as the day one when the moon is going to appear in that evening, where as we all normally consider next day and date, after midnight.

Haroon R. Choudhary

Edmonton, Canada

haroonc@shaw.ca

http://moonsighting.com/articles.html
http://moonsighting.com/articles/moonsighting-in-saudi-arabia.doc

Link