[Download pdf] - Related: Letter to Hazrat Maulana Yusuf Motala Sahib (حفظه الله) | Moon Sighting Practice And Darul Uloom Bury
The worldwide moon sighting reports by members of the Islamic Crescents Observation Project (ICOP) since 1998 showed that Muslims across the world were fasting Ramadan and celebrating Eid over 4 to 5 days, instead of 1 or 2 days. It has been proven from reliable sources (e.g. Kordi, 2003) that the main cause of the Ramadan and Eid divisions across the whole world, such as in the UK/Europe and North America, were caused by the false moon sighting reports from Saudi Arabia as a result of their civil (Ummul Qura) calendar starting the months before the birth of the moon (New Moon Conjunction) or when the moon has set before the sun.
The above errors of Saudi Arabia were well-recognised by the Muslims of the UK at least a decade before the inception of ICOP and hence an International Moon Sighting Conference was held in London Central Mosque and the Islamic Cultural Centre (Regent’s Park Mosque) in 1984. This conference was attended by over 350 scholars from many Muslim countries around the world. The UK scholars included people from different schools of thoughts/maslak (e.g. Deobandi, Baralwi, Salafi etc) as well as the representative of Jamiat-e-Ulama Britain. They all unanimously agreed to naked eye moon sighting reports, which included the condition that any reports from abroad will only be accepted if the moon was on the UK horizon (i.e. moonset after sunset).
The agreed 1984 criteria closely matched moon sighting reports from the nearby countries to the UK, including Morocco. Unfortunately, members of Jamiat-e-Ulama and Hizbul Ulama found it difficult to follow the 1984 criteria in the following year and decided to abandon it by holding a meeting at Darul Uloom Bury in 1986, to follow Saudi Arabia instead (see UK Moon Sighting History). This meeting resolution was signed by all their delegates (i.e. 11 signatures from Jamiat-e-Ulama and 10 signatures from Hizbul-Ulama) as shown below.
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All agreed decision of New Moon All the Muslims of Britain will have the pleasure of hearing this that the Jamiat Ulama Britain and the Hizbul Ulama UK’s delegates held a meeting on 28th of December 1986 after Magrib prayer at Darul-Uloom Bury under the sadarat [chair] of Maulana Yusuf Motala Sahib and naib sadarat [vice chair] of Maulana Musa Karmadi Sahib about the New Moon in Britain. In this meeting both Jamats agreed after a lot of discussion under the Islamic Law that the New Moon in Britain will be based on “Saudis” New Moon. And then be decided about the dates of Ramadan, Eids and the Islamic Months. This agreement was passed by the undersigned delegates: |
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Delegates of Jamiat Ulama, Britain
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Delegates of Hizbul Ulama, UK
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Representatives of Central Moon Sighting Committee (Jamiat Ulama Britain and Hizbul Ulama UK) |
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This resolution was widely publicised in their Mosque Noticeboards throughout the UK and the vast majority of the Muslim population were misguided by them to follow Saudi Arabia. They continue to do so over past 30 years, even with numerous independent evidences of false moon sighting reports from Saudi Arabia.
The recent publication in The Observatory Journal (Alrefay et al, 2018) with 27 years of moon sighting reports from Saudi Arabia by highly experienced astronomers also prove the past errors of announcements made by the Saudi Supreme Court. Therefore, the resolution of 1986 Darul Uloom Bury meeting to follow Saudi Arabia is proven to be false/invalid, due to the widespread misunderstanding of these technical matters. We urge all right-minded Muslims to avoid following news from distant countries (such as Saudi Arabia), and adopt local (or regional) moon sighting instead, as reported to our ICOUK.net website (see Moon -> Observation Results).