It’s the 29th day of Ramadan, and there’s much worry and questioning. The big question in discussion is the sighting of the new crescent, or the new moon as we would like to say, for it beckons the end of a month of devout fasting and also beckons the celebrations of Eid-ul-Fitr, or Eid.
I thought one of the things I would have done for the month of Ramadan, in 2011, was to blog each day about Ramadan. You may wonder why I would want to do this, but I’ll explain later. Shanie also took up the same challenge, to do a daily blog post. In the end, the results:
Michael – 0
Shanie – 6
Regardless, I am going to present to you now, a 36000 feet view of Ramadan, in my perspective. Note I am not an Islamic Scholar, but I am a Muslim, not a terrorist, but a follower of the religion of Islam.
Ramadan, is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is one which started around 610 A.D with the migration of the Muslims from the City of Mecca to the City of Madina, in the Country of Saudi Arabia, because of persecutions at that time. The details of that story is beyond the scope of this post, but if you’d like to know more, you can comment or leave me an email, and i’d be happy to post it. For now, we would just accept the fact as it relates to the muslim calendar. This calendar has 12 months that comprises a year and is based on lunar(moon) sighting to determine the start and end of each month. It is a known fact that the moon revolves around the earth in a period of 28.5 days. On the 29th day of the each Islamic month, jurist, scholars, leaders and followers all look to the sky to see the new crescent. If this is sighted, then the month is considered to end on the 29th day, and the new month begins. If it is not sighted, then the month is computed to be 30 days. There is much more details as it regards, moon sighting and islamic calendaring, please refer to other sources for more information, or keep checking for an upcoming post.
