Why are some Muslims celebrating Eid today? An Imam explains…

Shas­tri Boodan

Imam Shaykh Mu­naf Mo­hammed has ex­plained why some Mus­lims have cho­sen to cel­e­brate Eid on Fri­day and oth­ers on Sat­ur­day. 

Mo­hammed said wher­ev­er the moon is sight­ed first in the world in­di­cates that Ra­madan was over. He said, "We be­lieve that as long as the cres­cent is be­ing sight­ed, re­gard­less of where it is sight­ed, that we will ac­cept it as long as it is a re­li­able source, and we have con­fi­dence in it.

How­ev­er, there are some peo­ple who feel that they have to see it for them­selves and this, hence the rea­son, many peo­ple will be ob­serv­ing their fast to­mor­row, just sim­ply be­cause they did not see it for them­selves.  But we have the tech­nol­o­gy to­day, and in­for­ma­tion can in­stan­ta­neous­ly. You know, it was sight­ed, and we have ac­cept­ed that, and that's hence the rea­son we are cel­e­brat­ing Eid to­day, like many oth­er Mus­lims, mil­lions of Mus­lims through­out the world, they are cel­e­brat­ing Eid to­day." 

Isa Mo­hammed, pres­i­dent of the Caribbean In­sti­tute of As­tron­o­my, said be­cause of the po­si­tion of the moon rel­a­tive to the sun, it be­comes vis­i­ble in some ar­eas be­fore it be­comes vis­i­ble in oth­er ar­eas.

He said, "There are some coun­tries that would be able to eas­i­ly see the moon on a par­tic­u­lar day, while oth­er coun­tries can­not see the moon on a par­tic­u­lar day. But it is how the Is­lam­ic law is in­ter­pret­ed by the var­i­ous groups.  There's al­so tech­nol­o­gy that could be used to see the moon, tele­scopes, cam­eras.  But there are some groups that ac­cept the use of tele­scope and cam­eras, and there are some groups that, for them, they would need to see it with their own eyes.  So based on the dif­fer­ences of these var­i­ous groups of Mus­lims, you would find many Mus­lims are cel­e­brat­ing Eid on one day, while oth­ers are cel­e­brat­ing Eid on the oth­er day. And it has to do with whether the moon can be seen vis­i­bly with your eyes in your coun­try on a par­tic­u­lar day or not."