RamadanEid-Ul-Fitr

The birth of the moon (conjunction) for the Islamic month of Ramadan (H1423) will take place on the 4th of November 2002 at 20:35 and 30 seconds am GMT. On the following day, the American continent, Europe and most of Africa has very good chance of a sighting. However, further East, it would become increasingly unlikely to sight the moon. Therefore, Ramadan in Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia etc may not start until the 7th. Ramadan in Saudi Arabia would almost definitely start on the 6th which would be adopted by most Arab states.

For Eid-ul-Fitr, birth of the Shawwal moon is precisely at 07:35 and 27 seconds GMT on the morning of December 4th 2002. The above computer projection says it all. Moon will simply not be sighted anywhere in the world on that day. The following day will bring us that rare occasion when almost the entire world will be able to sight the moon on the same day as the evening sweeps across the earth from the East on 5th December. This SHOULD make 6th of December, the true day of Eid-ul-Fitr world wide. But of course, the usual confusion will reign as Eid-ul-Fitr will be declared in Saudi Arabia a day earlier (5th December) without any chance of a moon sighting in the country or anywhere else in the world on 4th November. Lets hope that the actual (and genuine) moon sighting will be adopted soon into the Saudi Taqweem, Um-ul-Qura and all this can be prevented year in year out.

For a comprehensive explanation of some of the related issues, please refer to "My researched analysis" on this site. Also refer to other items and links given on this site.

(IMAGES GENERATED BY MOONCALC 5.2 BY DR MONZUR AHMED)

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