At Tunis forum, experts mix fiqh, science to determine lunar months

2009-06-16

Muslims around the world get caught every year in the politics of the lunar calendar. A recent seminar in Tunis drew Islamic scholars and scientific experts seeking to find common ground.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 16/06/09

[Jamel Arfaoui] Tunisian engineer Mohamed El Awsat Ayari discussed his invention: a telescope to identify the crescent that he named Shahid.

As the holy month of Ramadan draws near, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and experts in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and astronomy are once again trying to unify the procedure by which the Islamic calendar is aligned.

The OIC, in co-operation with the International Islamic Fiqh Academy and the Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs, held a seminar in Tunis on Thursday (June 11th) to examine the process of dedicating the start and the end of lunar months. Participants in the seminar tried to come up with a unified methodology for Muslims worldwide to perform their religious rites, such as fasting and the hajj.

The calendar is one of the most controversial issues within the Muslim world, attendees said.

"Muslims are keen to celebrate their religious occasions at the same time," OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu noted. "It shows their unity, boosts their concord and enhances their standing among the nations."

But it is not that easy, he said. These occasions come in lunar months, and it's very difficult to specify the dates. Some countries depend on the eye solely to determine when a lunar month starts and when it ends; others use technology; and some use both.

"Unfortunately," Ihsanoglu added, "the reality we live in right now indicates otherwise, although combining between the contents of religious texts in this regard and the unification of time for these occasions has become available through the understanding of fiqh and developed science and technology."

This issue has been a controversy magnet for as long as people can remember. There have been many attempts to solve the problem, to no avail.

In 1978, at a conference in Istanbul, Muslim countries agreed on a unified calendar. However, not many countries followed it. While they do all agree that lunar months consist of 29 or 30 days, they have been unable to concur as to when the months start and when they end. Of course, that led to differences in the dates when Muslims celebrated holidays, like Eid el-Fitr and Eid el-Adha.

"It is still one of the main concerns for Muslims in the Mashreq and Maghreb alike," said Tunisian Minister of Religious Affairs Aboubaker Akhzouri.

Tunisia, Akhzouri said, decided to depend on both the sighting of crescent and scientific calculations: "something that would ensure compliance with the religious texts on the one hand and scientific certainty on the other".

The disagreement is not only on the official level. It extends to the streets. A poll conducted last September by alarabiya.net showed a major divide among Muslims regarding the best way to determine the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Out of a total number of 13,662 people who participated in the poll, 36% said that the sighting of the crescent by eye was the way that must be adopted in determining the start of Ramadan. Only 20% preferred the use of technology, while 6% said that each country should be given the freedom to choose the best way for determining the issue.

However, 38% of the respondents agreed that it was possible to combine eye sighting of the crescent and astronomical calculations to determine of the start of fasting.

"I don't understand how we can say that we are one Muslim nation, with one God, one Holy Book, one prophet, one qebla and one Sharia," said Souad Khimila, a woman in her 40s. "Why then this divide in determining the start of fasting in Ramadan and Eid el-Fitr?"

Tunisian engineer Mohamed El Awsat Ayari, who works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), stressed the need to reconcile between fiqh and science.

"The determination of the Muslim calendar is a purely scientific thing that depends on observations and on purely technical matters," Ayari said in the seminar.

Ayari said he invented a telescope to help unify the sighting of the crescent and determine when Ramadan starts. He called it Shahid. "It represents a highly accurate scientific revolution that will enable the Muslim nation everywhere to unify its ranks."

Hamed Sayari, meanwhile, said he is not very optimistic.

"Many years have gone by, and our nation hasn't been able to make just one serious step towards unity in feasts and start of the month of fasting," he said. "Isn't it about time that we became united on just one of the simplest matters, which is the sighting of a crescent in order to avoid any tarnishing of our image in the eyes of non-Muslims?"

The issue should be given to a committee of scholars that will determine the best solution. "Whatever that committee decides should be implemented in all countries in general," Sayari said.