IN what has become a yearly occurrence, the festivities of Eidul Fitr in Pakistan were marred somewhat when much of KP celebrated Eid on Friday, a day earlier than the rest of the country, thanks to the ‘sighting’ of the moon by an unofficial committee based out of a Peshawar mosque. KP government officials, however, celebrated Eid with the rest of Pakistan on Saturday. As reported in this paper, some members of the KP zonal Ruet-i-Hilal committee have complained that the central Ruet body is usually dismissive of testimonies received from the province. While all testimonies should be considered and vetted, the fact remains that if our clerics paid more attention to scientific projections and proof to aid them in their quest to sight the new crescent, such yearly controversies could be avoided. In fact, while the sighting of the new moon for other Hijri months does not result in debate, detecting the Ramazan and Shawwal crescents seems to be perpetually mired in controversy.

The central Ruet-i-Hilal committee consists of clerics of various persuasions coming from different parts of Pakistan, and officials from the Met office assist the ulema in matters of moon sighting. Therefore, in theory there should be no controversy surrounding the exercise, and unless evidence emerges of serious error in spotting the new crescent, the central committee’s decision should be accepted across the country. As mentioned earlier, in making their decision, clerics should pay more attention to scientific data pertaining to the birth of the moon and the likelihood of it being seen by the naked eye. In the present case, meteorologists said that while the new moon had been born on Thursday evening, there were slim chances of its visibility in Pakistan. Instead of turning moon sighting into a matter of ego, all parties must base their decision on logic, rationality and scientific proof coupled with religious requirements.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018