Greetings all, Thursday? According to the calendar on Islamic Finder, today is the 27th day of Sha'ban, I beleive. So isn't Thursday a little early? Anyway, at any rate, as the Q and A says, we should follow our own local calendars, and although there is a legitimate differnece of opinion in this matter, and I'd rather not get into the "moon sighting debates", I follow a local sighting myself, or at least, a sighitng within North America, that is. Take care all, and an early Ramadan Mubarak. Ginny On 9/20/06, musa pembo <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > RIYADH, 20 September 2006 — The Supreme Judiciary Council yesterday urged > Muslims in the Kingdom to look for the new moon of the month of Ramadan on > the evening of Thursday. Those who sight the new moon are directed to report > the matter to the nearest court so that it can be recorded, the Saudi Press > Agency reported yesterday. > > Beginning of Ramadan: Following the Saudi Moon Sighting. > > Q. Some people in my home country do not begin the Ramadan fast according to > their country; they follow Saudi Arabia. They do the same with the Eid and > mark it on the same day as in Saudi Arabia, while people at home may be > still fasting. Please comment. > > A. These people are well meaning. They think that Islam is practised in its > best form in Saudi Arabia and they want to follow it. But their practice is > wrong because it does not have a solid basis. If we were to extend their > practice to its logical conclusion, we should offer prayers according to the > timings in Saudi Arabia, rather than our own timings. Thus,we should import > Saudi calendars and follow the timings indicated in them. Similarly, we > should fast the same number of hours as fasting is indicated in Saudi > Arabia. This is easy nowadays, because of satellite television. We can > always watch the time in Saudi Arabia and follow it. Needless to say, no one > will agree to this although some logical argument could be presented in its > support,such as the unity of all Muslims. > > Yet the practice of all Muslims is that each locality has its own > timings.The difference in prayer time between Jeddah and Dammam, at the two > coasts of Saudi Arabia is around an hour. No one suggests that it should not > be observed. In fact if it is not observed, we run the risk of having our > prayers rendered invalid. > > The difference in starting Ramadan has always been known, and the Prophet's > (peace be upon him) companions accepted it. Abdullah ibn Abbas asked someone > who had traveled from Damascus to Madinah about the day they started > Ramadan. > > When he was informed of the day, he mentioned that the people of Madinah > sighted the moon on a different day. People asked him whether he would defer > to the sighting in Damascus since it was the capital city of the Muslim > state at the time, but he said: "Each have their own sighting." This is a > clear answer to those people by one for whom the Prophet prayed to be a > scholar. Needless to say, he was a scholar of high distinction. > > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ > To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L > Web interface > at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html > > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: > http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l > To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: > [log in to unmask] > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ > -- Visit my blog at: http://quickgm28.blogs.com/ginnys_thoughts_and_thing/ ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤