Yes BG, I was aware of Sh. Akiti’s essay; however, he also approves of using sightings further east of one’s present location, and has called Ramadan or Eid in the UK on the basis of sightings in south Africa, for example.

George and other interested parties should have a look at Shaykh Afifi Al-Akiti’s essay on moonsighting for an explanation of the importance of local human sighting of the moon.

Cannot the time of the new moon be determined scientifically?

Eid Mubarak to everyone.

……Whenever you celebrated your Eid (as long as you fasted with sincerity).

That aside, we do need a consensus.

Who to follow though? MCB? Saudi funded Mosques? Asian Mosques? Your own individual logic?

If they all have different dates, then whose is false? Or are they all false, or all correct?

Until we have this fabled united Ummah, I don’t really mind as long as I can stand in a congregation of Muslims within my community for my Eid Prayer.

Last night I was talking to someone in Morocco who insisted that Muslims “abroad” have to follow Saudi, because Saudi is where the Ka’ba is. I tried explaining that the Saudis have no authority over us as the Saudi king is not the caliph or ameer ul-mu’mineen and does not claim to be (and there is no way to “follow Mecca” without following Saudi as Mecca is occupied by the Saudis), and that there is no evidence for this position, but it had no effect.

Eid mubarak.

Typical situation. They’ve been getting it wrong for several years now at Saudi. Last Ramadan was started before the moon was even sighted so many fasted a day early.

Personally i follow the opinion that people should fast/have Eid, when the moon is visible in the country that they live in. I tried to explain this to my parents but they ain’t having it. They believe its obligatory to start Ramadan and Eid when Saudi declares so, regardless if your on the other side of the equator and refuse to accept that theres any other way to go about it and as I’m still living at home, I’ve got to follow along as the whole family is celebrating the same day- which was yesterday for us.

The thing is, we have a Muslim organisation which actually goes to the Greenwich observatory each Ramadan and check moon sightings and I remember last Ramadan, they were on Islam Channel and they got the dates correct but only a minority listened. Everyone else went on with the Saudi sighting which was revealed later to be wrong anyway! The whole thing is a damn farce.