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Tawasul – SPA:
Muslims have been adhering to the legal method of observing the new moons for more than 1440 years by calculating the entry of the Hijri months according to the lunar year because of their connection with matters of worship, as the Almighty said (They ask you about the new moons, say they are the times of people and the Hajj), and based on this basis the “Hijri calendar” in which scholars have worked hard Astronomy has been around centuries ago to make accurate measurements of the moon’s rotation from huhs to huhs around the earth, during which the phases of its houses change so that we know the number of years, months, and days, as the Almighty said (and let them learn the number of years and arithmetic).
And the moon is that dark body that shines on the earth’s sky at night as a result of the reflection of sunlight on it is one of the important signs in studying the times on the earth, and its rotation around the earth changes the area reflecting the sunlight of the earth, increasing its bright size and showing the phases and phases on which Islamic law has assigned the knowledge of the times of worship, he said. The Almighty: (And we determined the moon to be home, until it returned like the old white * The sun should not perceive the moon or the moon.)
And linking the rituals with the observation of the new moons requires knowledge of time, and for this reason Muslims began in the era of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab – may God be pleased with him – to create a special history for the Islamic nation after it was before Islam chronicling the most important events that took place between them, and the Companions – may God be pleased with them – agreed on To begin with the year of the migration of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, from Makkah Al-Mukarramah to Medina, and it coincided with the beginning of the Islamic history in July 622 AD.
The Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar based on the rotation of the moon around the earth, and the number of months of its year is 12 months, as mentioned in the Book of God Almighty. The most accurate value they found was 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes, and the length of the lunar year became 354 days and 8.8 hours with algebra of the surplus fractions of the integral days of the year.
Historians in the Arabian Peninsula affirmed that King Abdulaziz Al Saud – may God have mercy on him – was considered the first founder of astronomy in an official and organized manner in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The first block of the calendar in the Kingdom, as they were merged with the Umm al-Qura calendar, and the first number of the calendar was issued in 1346 AH.
But the oldest criteria for observing the beginnings of the lunar months go back to the Babylonians, according to what was mentioned in the books of the Saudi astronomer, Professor Hassan Basurrah – may God have mercy on him – where they created a standard for themselves by which they determined the angular distance between the sun and the moon at the moment of sunset at approximately 12 degrees, meaning that the moon sets after The sun is about 48 minutes, and the Indian standard did not differ from them except for the importance of relying on the size of the crescent.
The scholar al-Khwarizmi (215 AH) was one of the first Muslim astronomers to develop tables to verify the possibility of seeing the crescent, as he set some mathematical rules for the predictions of sighting, followed by Musa al-Qurtubi (247 AH), then Thabit ibn Qurra (288 AH), al-Battani (317 AH) and al-Biruni ( 440 AH), and the situation continued to develop until the beginning of the twentieth century, when the astronomer Fetherham used observations taken in Athens during the years from 1859 to 1880 AD.
In the era of the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, the observation of the new moons was characterized by knowledge, knowledge and lack of impatience. Whoever sees the crescent tells the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, and if the sighting is just, then his testimony is counted in proving the beginning of the month. One is fair, and Muslims still do that in the myriad of crescents until the present time. However, such jurisprudence needs the qualities of farsightedness in the field of science and the unity of vision in the eyes.
In contrast to what the heritage books have mentioned about the blue of the dove, which is exemplified in the strength of her eyesight, and she was famous for the color of her blue eyes, along with two Arab women: the zuba and the bassous. The sharp eye sees it as seven stars, just as Abu al-Abbas sang the cooled: If the chandelier in the sky is exposed, the iron of the eye sees it as seven stars.
The Kingdom devoted most of its attention to the process of hypocrisy, due to its connection with the worship of Muslims, so it entrusted this task to the Supreme Court, which stands to ensure the reliability of the hypothesis through several criteria, including the medical standard, as the hypothetist is subjected to a long experiment and a medical test to examine the acuity, according to what was mentioned to “SPA” His Excellency the President of the Court The Supreme Council is Sheikh Dr. Khaled bin Abdullah Al-Luhaidan, then his papers are presented to the permanent supervisory committee to monitor the crescent at the Ministry of Justice approved by a high order, and its work is followed up by the Minister of Justice, Dr. Walid Al-Samaani.
From the point of view of modern medicine, it is possible to test the measurement of visual acuity and distinguish shapes by means of a snellen chart, which is a standardized global scale that is conducted at a distance of 6 meters (20 feet) because the vision process is a complex process, as the consultant ophthalmologist Dr. Ibrahim Al-Obaida said, and it is done by analyzing Light waves entering the eye and then transmitted through the eye nerve to the brain, and in order for vision to be sound, all the parts that the light passes through must be intact.
In light of these precise criteria for choosing visualists, the possibility of an optical illusion situation in some of them is less important to some astronomers, but it remains a subject of scientific discussion as Professor Hassan Basurrah – may God have mercy on him – presented in one of his posts where he said that the crescent may appear above the western horizon despite Its setting before the sun is under the influence of what is called a “sublime mirage” that causes imaginary images to appear high in the sky above the original bodies.
The Islamic Sharia did not contradict merging with other sciences, rather it was in harmony with it. Therefore, the idea of linking technology with visualization was one of the topics discussed by members of the Council of Senior Scholars in the Kingdom to give the most correct opinion on it after research and investigation. Accordingly, the Commission in 1403 AH authorized the use of astronomical observatories and determined the difference between the lunar month among scholars. Sharia and arithmetic scholars, and the research was published in the Commission’s Research Volume in 2013, and in 1418 AH the Council of Ministers issued a regulation for investigating the sighting of the crescent in the early lunar months.
According to the scholars of Sharia, the month begins from sunset on the twenty-ninth day if the crescent is seen after sunset or its completion 30 days from the date of the previous sighting to the beginning of the month following it with such a thing, so the sighting is actually occurring with sunset in the general public or the possibility of sighting among a group of jurists.
Whereas, according to arithmetic scholars, the month begins from the birth of the moon when it leaves the sun and is late in walking to its meeting with it, even if it was during the day, as the lesson they have is in separation and meeting, and that is only once in every lunar month, and by this it becomes clear that its beginning and end is not for Sharia scholars. Except when the sun sets, unlike its beginning and end according to arithmetic scholars, as it may be day or night.
His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Khaled Al-Luhaidan stated that relying on whether or not the Hijri month has entered the moon is based on seeing the crescent after sunset, for the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Fast to see it and break the fast to see it” because the principle is that following the Sunnah in adopting the vision, stressing that modern science does not clash Absolutely with the tolerant Sharia that is valid for every time and place, and incorrect testimony that contradicts sense and reality will not be accepted.
In this, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Fiqh Society, Professor at the Faculty of Sharia at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, Professor Saad bin Turki al-Khathlan, said: The hypocrisy is after sunset on the twenty-ninth day of the lunar hijri month, and if the crescent is seen after sunset on the twenty-ninth day, even by one minute, then the month is Minus that is 29 days, and that night would be the night of the following month.
His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Khaled Al-Luhaidan says that judges are delegated to persons with hypocrites at the site of hypocrisy in the observatories in the regions of the Kingdom supervised by the King Abdulaziz City for Technology, with the participation of a group of specialists in the observation of crescent and a number of specialists in astronomy who hold a doctorate in this specialization, and delegates Government agencies take great care in choosing the sites of these observatories, as they are subject to geographical, scientific and astronomical criteria, which facilitate the hypothesis process to determine the accuracy of these observatories, whether or not the crescent is seen.
And based on the importance of using technical devices in the hypothetical, on the basis that they work on an existing clarification, not finding a missing one, the city’s astronomical observatories include devices equipped with the latest technologies, telescopes, binoculars and thermal cameras of the type (CCD) so that they and the Majmaah University Observatory work to monitor crescent, in addition to the modern observatory in The Makkah Clock Tower, which is awaiting work, and these observatories are linked to a live video broadcast with the Supreme Court during the session at the start of the observation and visualization process, while the competent team prepares reports on the conditions of the moon.
The Supreme Court continues to monitor the new moons technically in the days of hypocrisy from an early date, as well as the astronomical and mathematical reports issued by government agencies about the birth of the moon, the time of sunset and the moon and its residence and degree, and the weather conditions in each of the monitoring areas to know the extent of the possibility of seeing or not, and the testimony of the seer is not accepted. On her back, His Excellency Sheikh Khaled Al-Luhaidan stated that the committee is discussing it to verify the validity of his vision prior to announcing the sighting of the crescent.
In light of the tremendous technical development in the field of the uses of electronic monitoring devices, astronomers are currently monitoring the crescents using the computer to determine many variables, including: the times of sunrise and sunset, the moon, the positions of sunrise and sunset, the angle between the sun, the intensity of its illumination, and the path of the crescent in the sky with high accuracy, according to Celestial coordinates, according to Professor Zaki bin Abdulrahman Al-Mustafa, Professor of Astronomy at the National Center for Astronomy and Navigation of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.
The National Astronomy and Navigation Center is a pioneer in the field of crescent monitoring at the global level, publishing many scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and publishing crescent data in a booklet prepared for this regard annually, and the city has provided for the monitoring of crescent observatories distributed in a number of regions of the Kingdom, including those established in Makkah Al-Mukarramah. Umm Al-Qura Observatory ”and in Tabuk“ Al-Wajh, and the state of Ammar ”and the rest are mobile in each of Riyadh“ Sudair, Tamir, and Shaqra ”, Qassim, Dammam, Medina, and Hail.
Professor Zaki Al-Mustafa and his team were able to observe the crescent several times in broad daylight with high-sensitivity cameras, and were tracked until sunset, and the team obtained two patents for this scientific step, while work is still being developed on this technology for monitoring in difficult climatic conditions such as clouds. And dust by designing special filters (filters).
He stated that the Umm al-Qura calendar was based in its preparation on achieving the scientific conditions that are compatible with the Shari’a conditions by combining the birth of the moon and its departure from the sun, meaning that it sets after the coordinates of the Holy Ka’ba, and it is the first time in Islamic history that a calendar is prepared with these conditions, indicating that one of the basics of monitoring the crescent is the occurrence of The birth of the crescent, or what is called conjuncture, before sunset and moon set, after sunset at the place of observation.
The Kingdom’s interest in legal matters related to the crescent was not only the result of development, but rather an extension of the era of King Abdulaziz Al Saud – may God have mercy on him – who supported the idea of Sheikh Muhammad Abdul Razzaq Hamza – may God have mercy on him – the teacher at the Grand Mosque in establishing an astronomical observatory at the head of Mount Abu Qubays in Makkah Al-Mukarramah. To use his machines to prove the sighting of the crescent of the months of Ramadan and Dhu al-Hijjah, where the idea was presented at the time to the Crown Prince (King) Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – may God have mercy on him – and he directed on Ramadan 23 1367 AH to build a special room for the observatory at the top of Mount Abu Qubays.
At the forefront of these instruments that help to monitor crescents, and a “barometer” device was brought from outside the Kingdom to measure heights of natural heights such as mountains, deserts and plateaus above sea level, the “theodolite” to measure the inclination and straight ascent of celestial bodies, and the “chronometer” used in ships of the seas and installed in Two wooden boxes to prevent movement and vibration on them. The British “Big Ben” clock was set in 1948, which works on the British Greenwich Observatory.
Other devices published by Umm Al-Qura newspaper on the words of Sheikh Muhammad Hamzah in August 1948 AD, such as: “The Sakstan” which is used in marine ships to measure the height of the planets, stars, sun and moon from the celestial horizon with accuracy of degrees, minutes and seconds, and “telescope” which is a telescope for small vision. The planets and their moons, Saturn, the moon, and the sun.
A number of those interested in astronomy emerged during the reign of King Abdulaziz – may God have mercy on him – among students of forensic science, such as: Sheikh Hamad bin Rumaih, born in 1263 AH, who traveled to several countries to seek knowledge and excelled in Sharia sciences, the Arabic language and astronomy and was a reference for the people of Najd in that, and the Sheikh Abdullah Al-Khalfi, born in 1300 AH and has a manuscript on astronomy, and Sheikh Saleh bin Sahman, born in 1320 AH, has a book entitled “The Innovative, Refined Calendar of the Most Compact”.