Ye desh hai andhay logon ka,
Ae chaa nd yahaan na nikla kar
(This i s a country of blind people,
dear moon, there’s no need for you to rise here. )
This verse from Habib Jalib’s poem is what one Mufti recited to The Hindu when asked for a comment on the recent ‘moon-sighting’ controversy in Pakistan.
Every year, the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee of Pakistan announces the sighting of the moon for the month of Ramzan and Id after getting credible testimonies. Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman is the chairman of the Committee. But there is an unofficial Committee headed by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai that usually disagrees with the panel and announces the first fast and Id a day earlier.
To end all this controversy and also to make use of the advances in science, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry launched a lunar calendar last month, stirring yet another controversy. Mr. Chaudhry also launched an official moon-sighting website, apart from an official app called ‘The Ruet’.
Making lunar calendar official
Mr. Chaudhry said that at a time when progress in technology has made lives easier for many people, it is unfortunate that in Pakistan, the Muftis are not willing to make use of it. “My Ministry has issued a lunar calendar for the next five years but Mufti Muneeb and Mufti Popalzai are not willing to follow it. I guess this is because they have their own vested interests to protect. But I believe that everyone in Pakistan will follow this calendar eventually. After all, it took hundreds of years for the muftis to accept the printing press. Even accepting the use of loudspeaker and travelling by train took a lot of time for such people,” said Mr. Chaudhry.
He said he got a lot of support from the media and the public. “Hopefully, these religious scholars will also accept it...,” he told The Hindu .
“There is nothing wrong with issuing a lunar calendar. In fact, it is in line with religious teachings. The only issue is that we cannot follow it unless the state itself makes it official. Till such time, we have to follow the Ruet-e-Hilal committee’s decision...” renowned religious scholar Javed Ghamidi told The Hindu .
Mufti Popalzai said that observing Id on the same day all over the country is not necessary. “It depends on moon sighting,” he said. Mr. Popalzai announced that the first fast would be on May 6 while Ramzan officially started in Pakistan on May 7. He also announced Id a day before — on June 4 — than the rest of the country.
When asked why, he narrated a story: “We got a call from a religious scholar (Mufti Ateeq Ullah) who said he had sighted the moon in an open area in Peshawar and not just him but 11 other men as well. This was on May 5. I told him to testify. He said he had asked Federal Minister of Religious Affairs Noor-ul-Haq Qadri to talk to Mufti Muneeb...
“An hour later, I got a call from him saying that the Ruet committee will not listen to him as it said that according to its astronomy department, there was no chance of sighting a moon... Acceptance or rejection of the testimony should have taken place as per sharia . Their failure to listen to the testimony is a non-sharia act, opening the doors to fitna (rebellion).”
The Ministry of Science and Technology’s lunar calendar declared Id on June 5. While Mufti Muneeb rejected Mr. Chaudhry’s calendar, the committee also declared Id on the same day after sighting the moon. Mufti Popalzai feels the committee may not say it out loud but it has endorsed Mr. Chaudhry’s lunar calendar by quietly following it.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) announced Id on the same day — June 4 — as Mufti Popalzai despite the fact that it started Ramzan on May 7. This led to another controversy as only 28 fasts were observed by the people there, as against 29 or 30 fasts believed mandatory as per sharia . The province’s Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said the people of K-P will fast for an extra day to compensate for the missed fast. According to Dawn TV, Mr. Yousafzai said: “We started fasting as per the announcement of Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman but beginning the fast a day earlier would have been [more] accurate.”
(Mehmal Sarfraz is a journalist based in Lahore.)
