30 Masjids 🟩

Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating today or tomorrow! See my humble message on the following:https://t.co/THUv8p5lLv pic.twitter.com/4VR5MLykzw

— HSlimi (@ihslimi) June 4, 2019

By Imam Dr. Hamid Slimi

As-Salamu alaikum everyone & Eid Mubarak whether you are celebrating today (Tuesday, June 04) or Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 05).

May Allah accept your fast of the month of Ramadan and all your good deeds.

As in almost every year, we have to go through the same frustration of Hilal sighting reports but we need to accept the fact that Muslims never had unanimously one day Eid for everyone.

Many parts of the world in the East and the West do not share the same night and it is normal to have differences.

Even in the time of the Companions (May Allah be pleased with them) they fasted or had Eid on two different days due to geographical reasons.

However, for us in spite of modern technology and communication, the problem is still there because of the methods and references we follow even in one country/city.

Sadly, the division happens even in one single family.

We do not live in a Muslim country with one government that organizes the days and events including the religious ones.

So we try with our humble means to organize ourselves and insha Allah we will be very good at it one day.

This is the reason why we decided many years ago to follow Global sighting to be with the majority of Muslims as much as we can.

We want to preserve the prophetic tradition of moon-sighting while we use science as a means to organize the process.

The reality is that the lunar year changes constantly due to the fact that the months are either 29 days or 30 days and cannot be more or less like the Gregorian calendar (28, 29, 30 and 31 days).

In addition, sighting also depends on the birth of the moon and the angle where it is positioned for sighting.

Every region of the earth is different.

Moreover, In the last decade the early sighting has always been closer to the most Western part of the Earth (the West of the West) which also happens to be the most Eastern part of the earth (the East of the East) since our planet is a globe.

This region is next to the International Date Line (IDL) where the day starts west of it and ends east of it.

The difference between Global sighting and Calculation method is that the former upholds the tradition of moonsighting while the latter does not consider the actual sighting as a requirement and relies only on the scientific possibility of sighting without taking in consideration the problematic issue of applying the sighting for the upcoming day on the day that has not even completed orbiting for one complete rotation.

For Global sighting, we have set some key criteria including the requirement that the testimony of sighting is documented and confirmed according to the Sunnah of the Prophet (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam) by reliable witnesses not by just some random statements or hearsay reports.

As for following Makkah, we do not have anything in our religion that orders us to follow Makkah announcement.

We cannot follow Makkah just because of the emotional attachment or just because Hajj takes place there.

Even many Saudi Scholars have repeatedly said not to follow Saudi Arabia announcement while ignoring other sightings.

This problem will not go anytime soon but al-Hamdulillah for the first time here in Canada the Crescent Committee of Canada and the Hilal Council of Canada worked together to verify the sighting and made a joint announcement.

This means unity is happening but it will take time insha Allah.

Let us remain positive and remember that good things take time to build.

Again,

Eid Mubarak to everyone!

تقبل الله منا ومنكم وعيد مبارك سعيد وكل عام وانتم بخير وعلى خير ومن اهل الخير