Moon-sighting is a central facet of Muslim culture, with the Emirates Fatwa Council set to meet in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to determine when Ramadan starts.
In the UK, which is home to about four million Muslims, Moon-sighting can be a source of tension, because community members vary in which country’s Islamic calendar they follow.
One mosque may take its lead from, say, the Islamic calendar of Pakistan, while another nearby adheres to that of Saudi Arabia or Morocco, which may be different by one or two days. There may even be disagreement within families, so while some people are still fasting because for them Ramadan has not ended, others will have begun the celebrations and feasts of Eid Al Fitr.
'Inevitable division'
“When we outsource Moon-sighting to all of these different countries, it’s inevitable that here in the UK, here in a single city, here in a single road, here within a single family, we’ll celebrate Ramadan and Eid on different dates,” said Imad Ahmed, who is analysing these issues as part of his PhD research at the University of Cambridge.
“I’ve found mosque committees and communities divided, and it’s caused a lot of emotional pain and tension … Where I grew up there are two mosques. Neither of the mosques celebrates Ramadan or Eid on the same date.”
Mr Ahmed, who is from London, has helped to spearhead an initiative from the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds called the Moon-sighters Academy, which encourages Muslims in the UK to sight the Moon themselves.
If there is a network of Moon-sighters across the UK it could overcome one of the main challenges in identifying when the new crescent appears in the UK – cloud. In one part of the country the Moon may be obscured, in another it may be easy to spot.
With such a network, Britain could have “a perfectly functional Islamic calendar” similar to those in many other nations, said Mr Ahmed.
What is the programme?
The academy is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, a UK government-sponsored organisation that finances research in astronomy, physics and related subjects.
After being heavily oversubscribed, organisers selected 19 men and 19 women to take part in their inaugural course, which began in December and involves monthly online sessions along with in-person training. In January they held a residential training session in Leeds, and there will also be a gathering in Cambridge before the course finishes in August.
Funding covers the first year, but Mr Ahmed said that organisers, who also include Prof Esra Özyürek, a Cambridge anthropologist and a Muslim herself, Dr Matthew Bothwell, a public astronomer at Cambridge, and Dr Emma Alexander, a Leeds astrophysicist, hope to continue the course after this.
The programme is as much about helping participants become leaders in the subject – some participants are community organisers or science communicators, so will be ideally placed to pass on their knowledge – as it is about actual Moon-sighting, which can be taught quite quickly.
“All you need to do to sight the Moon is know where to look, and where to look is at the sunset,” Mr Ahmed said. “On the 29th of the lunar month, you just observe the sunset and the new crescent always emerges near the point of sunset. It’s as easy as that.”
Representing the start of a new lunar month in the Islamic calendar, the appearance of the new crescent Moon follows the astronomical new Moon, when the Moon is invisible to the naked eye.
'Change is happening'
Mr Ahmed, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, has a long-standing interest in Islamic astronomy, having founded the New Crescent Society more than eight years ago.
One of the course participants, Zahid Ali, from Edinburgh, Scotland, is confident that the Islamic calendar in the UK will eventually be unified. “In the UK we’ve had this problem over the last 30-odd years, so to bring change is going to be difficult and slow. But change is happening,” he said.
Mr Ali has spoken to other mosques and to other Muslims in the UK about a unified Islamic calendar, and has found them receptive to the idea. Two mosques in his home city have switched to local Moon-sighting, he said, and at least a dozen others in Scotland are looking to do the same.
“It’s a slow process but it’s about educating people and bringing them on board,” he said. “And they appreciate that we’re going back to something that we had 1,500 years ago that worked well.”
Another participant, Muminah, from London, who is working towards a master’s degree in science communication, has experienced splits within her family, with some following the Moroccan Islamic calendar and others the Saudi one. When highlighting to others the benefits of a unified calendar, she said it is important not to tell anyone that what they are currently doing is wrong.
Maintaining respect
“It’s our job to work with them, because ultimately, regardless of their position, everybody in the UK wants to celebrate Eid with their whole family on the same day. Everybody is agreed on that,” she said.
Zainab, from Birmingham, who is also a member of the inaugural cohort, has been “really surprised” that her family and friends, and others she is spoken to, have “reacted really positively”.
“Everybody is just so interested, it’s almost like a door has been opened,” she said. “It’s like gaining access to something that everybody thought was out of reach.”
Beyond unifying the Islamic calendar in the UK, Moon-sighting can be very fulfilling. “Just the joy that seeing the crescent brings, it’s incredible,” Mr Ahmed said.
“The idea is you’re going to see the Moon with your friends, with your community, with your family, your mum, your dad, your kids, and you’re just going to scream and shout out in joy because it’s so wonderful. It’s such a thin crescent. If you’re not looking for it, you might not see it. It’s so unique, so splendid in the sky, people are mesmerised.”
Zainab, meanwhile, said that “it pulls you towards believing in God” and highlights “that there is a connection there, not just to God, but to everything that God created”.
“When you see it, you just feel like, wow, a new month has started, something new is beginning, but also how incredible it is that we have this connection with the movements of what happens in the skies, and it affects our lives on Earth. I don’t know what it is, but it just makes you feel so small and so awe-inspired,” she said.
