Those who will start fasting on 21st August (Friday)
Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Kosova, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Albania, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Somalia, Djibouti, Spain, Czech, Hungary, Greece, the Netherlands, Brazil, Libya, Serbia, Montenegro, Ukraine
Those who will start fasting on 22nd August (Saturday)
Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Brunei Darussalam, USA, Philippines, UAE, Iran, Pakistan, Oman, Morocco and Mauritania
Those who will start fasting on 23rd August (Sunday)
Bangladesh; some parts of Pakistan
Salam,
Are we Muslims playing with sacred dates of Ramadan? We are going to have different dates for all important days in Ramandan and also for Eid. We need a universal Islamic Calander which will solve this problem once for all.
'We are an ignorant people. We do not know how to compute [or calculate]. The month may be with 29 days or sometimes may be with 30 days; and if you do not sight the moon [immediately after the sunset of 29th] you estimate it.' – Hadith, quoted by Bukhari
The Hadith quoted above, points clearly to the fact that at a future point in time, when astrophysics is mastered, the reckoning of the month has to be by computation. The dates of starting of Ramadan, Eid days are always a matter of confusion. The dates are always changed from countries to countries and even within a country. I remember a few years before Eid was celebrated on three days in India and ironically Eid is always two days in India. In the Gulf, Eid in Oman is always one day after the Eid in other gulf countries. In Oman people watch Arafa day live without fasting. And the next day when Eid is celebrated in Saudi the people fast!!! Actually it is prohibited to fast on a Eid day.
I quote from a blog from Oman posted during the last Eid.
Oman: The Ministry of Interior issued an offical circular telling the Wali's to instruct people, under the authority of HM Sultan Qaboos, to perform Eid prayers only on Tuesday 9th December. The Saudi authorities declared Eid on Monday 8th December. Apparently another circular was issued to specific towns telling them to make sure that no one prays on Monday. The memo warns that if people celebrate on the 8th despite this Royal instruction, the police would be forced to 'take legal action'.
The significance of the issue is highlighted when people are arrested simply for praying a day early. There are reports many Omani crossed into the UAE to pray there on the 8th. It seems this date thing was a special issue for many people for this particular Eid, as it is associated with the Haj, and of course Saudi called Eid on the Monday 8th December. The day preceding Eid El Adh'ha is often a day of fasting too, with special prayers for those attending the Haj, so again, the date difference was important to many.
This is what is called total confusion! Only Allah knows which day they are going to celebrate Eid!! A universal Islamic calendar will solve this problem once for all. It will bring unity among Muslims. We give importance to Gregorian dates and we think that lunar dates prescribed by Allah is not dependable in the present world and its dates have to be always kept changing!
Ali Manikfan developed a scientific basis for the Islamic Calendar that could be used by all without ever occuring any need to change the dates. He has proved that to fix the beginning of a lunar Calendar it is not necessary to watch the rising of the moon, which is a source of confusion all over the world. Watching of the moon was necessary during the prophets time because even in the hadith itself it was said; 'We are an ignorant people. We do not know how to compute". The hadith further says the month is sometime 29 and sometimes 30. The observation of the Moon for long periods gives us the average number of days for a year as 354.3671 and 29.53059 days for a month. (29.53059x12=354.3671). Astronomers have proved that the statement of the Prophet (saw) that the lunar months have 29 or 30 days only is correct. But they had no scientific method to fix the dates of differnet months. The dates for starting of Ramadan, Eid, Arafa and all dates could be predicted by calculations by any qualified or experienced astronomer and any layman with some training can check the dates with the phases of the moon. Hence there remains no difficulty in preparing a Universal Lunar Calendar in advance. Ali Manikfan proved that his calculation is scientific and in conformity with the teachings of the Qur’aan. You will get a brief introduction about who is Ali Manikfan at hijracalendar(dot)com/contactus1(dot)htm
Years and years of enslavery have made us believe that it is impossible to have lunar calander prescribed by Allah SWT that could be followed by all the Muslims. We do not have a proper calendar now even though we are the people to convey the message to others. We all must remember that rejecting Taghut and their Systems is the condition of Tawheed.
Wassalam