Moonsighting is amongst one of the crucial topics for a muslim who wishes to live according to sacred time, that is time in tune with nature and its daily, monthly cycles. It also happens to have a political dimension to it where it is necessary for the muslim ruler to determine the two 'Eids every year he passes through as the person responsible for managing and discharging the affairs of the Ummah. Whosoever does not wish to remain unknowing, unintelligent, ignorant must know  about the reality that it is not the position of the moon which matters to us.

For the qawl of Rasulullah ﷺ  dictates:

"... فإن غم عليكم، فاقدروا له.. ."

Meaning if it is obscured from you  -even if it is supposed to be there- Complete the 30th. 

The choice word "غم" tells us that the Nabi ﷺ was not ignorant that the moon may well be high and yet covered by the clouds, not visible to us.

What is meant by the hadith is clear, that we do not care so much if the moon is there. We care if Allah makes us witness it.

" ... إن اللّه قد أمده لرؤيته، فإن أغمي عليكم فأكملوا الْعدة... "

-Ibn Abbas in Sahih Muslim.-

This translates to: "Indeed, Allah has extended its duration for its sighting. If it is obscured from you, then complete the number of days."

The same word occurs with a slightly different grammar "أغمي" indicating that some obscuring is being acted upon the moon, by who else but Allah.

This leaves us with but one certainty, one yaqeen, where there is only two possibilities:

1. When we sight the moon, it means Allah is telling us the month ends at 29 days, start the new month tomorrow.

2. When we do not sight the moon, it means Allah is telling us the month will continue to the 30th, the new month begins the day after.

Do we have a right to contravene His Will?

No we simply do not.

Shaykh Mukhtar Maghrawi, may Allah be pleased with him, has surgically dissected the matter on moonsighting since August 2007, in his essay: "An Islamic Legal Analysis of the Astronomical Determination of the Beginning of Ramadhan", at good length and lucidity in contradiction to what a layman might swallow whole without question at the expense of his intellectual integrity. What Allah says in the Qur'an: "فمن شهد منكم الشهر "

where this part of the Ayat categorically dictates "and whoever - shahida - sees (with his own two eyes i.e. eyewitness) the moon" as the command to sight the moon, gives us clear guidance. The Ayat did not say " فمن حسب" or any other word which may connote counting or calculation. The sunnah of the Nabi ﷺ also has never contradicted nor shown any hint that astronomical calculation could become a sufficient substitute, as demonstrated in the quoted article.

The claim that moonsighting is based on 'ilm zhanni (ظني)  whereas the astronomical calculation is one of yaqeen (يقين) is a dangerous claim for reasons we do not wish to discuss; and even more precarious than the claim upon a Sahabi to say something that prioritises his own private knowledge over established, publicly accessible knowledge in the Qur'an and Sunnah. One is a claim on the personal basis with a Sahabi, the other deals with the conceptual on the realities of knowledge, both acquired and revealed. They are two distinctly separate matters of their own levels, only joined into one whole by the muslim's integrity to his epistemology. That particular narration has not been found anywhere, and the absence of any hint of debate or discussion amongst the earlier classical scholars regarding this giant of a Sahabi (Abdallah Ibn Umar r.a.) speaks volumes. If such a claim was made by a Sahabi, we can imagine the ripples such an exceptional act would cause in the intellectual history of the Ummah. Why would a Sahabi contradict what he himself narrated from the Rasul ﷺ his own brother-in-law, remains a puzzling question we cannot answer, but only the proponent who claims the existence of such a saying can do so by providing sufficient evidence. If there is such a narration it must be produced publicly, because this pertains to the Sahabah, and the failure to do so may see the claimant needing to defend himself in front of Sayyidina Abdullah ibn Umar r.a. later on. We urge those who make or attest to this claim to be conscious of Allah and be transparent with the source of that report.

But the deafening silence from the search for proof of such a narration, be it through records or debate and discussion amongst the earlier great scholars of Islam, must give us pause. Did a Sahaba really speak such words as to contradict himself and his Nabi ﷺ ? If so, maybe he had the knowledge to do so, but that would contradict public consensus and if he were still right to do so, even that is still an exception which cannot be taken as a legal premise to exercise astronomical knowledge and apparatus measurement to be a norm. That is because even the Nabi ﷺ did not do so, for he said -and we quote once again-

 "... فإن غم عليكم، فاقدروا له ...";

To re-interpret the last part to mean "calculate" would be an extreme level of intellectual strong-arming that nearly attempts to break the bones of the Syari'ah given by the Nabi ﷺ.

From our 2 to 3 years of moonsighting, in Singapore and parts of Johor Bahru nearer to the causeway, we have consistently sighted at least 5 to 6 moons out of the 12 months of the calendar. Surely that is not a very low possibility of sighting, because if we can sight with the naked eye at approximately 50% possibility in a year, the argument that moonsighting is impractical falls apart, quite practically.

We are also still in the midst of gathering data to determine, when the moon was visible through the telescope, and what elevation would the moon be at when even a telescope no longer be able to detect the visual presence of the Moon, i.e. the Light of the Moon would be visible. In addition to that, it is also worth knowing how much time may elapse from the time a normal telescope would detect the moon, without composite image enhancements, before the unaided eye would be able to spot the moon in the sky with plain light. We ask humbly for the du'a of the reader for Allah's Help in our endeavour to re-establish in our individual lives at least one relinquished life sunnah of the community of our Master, Muhammad ﷺ.

It is not so much the position of the moon which ever mattered to us, but it is the light of the moon which we must see, thus the Qur'an says:

"و جعل فيها سراجا وقمرا منيرا"

{25:61}