Meteorology fails to end differences on sighting Eid crescent

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

It was 28th of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak and the fireworks had lit up the night sky over city. With pockets full of firecrackers, the flippant teenagers, who had hardly observed the Ramazan fast and were only vaguely aware of the significance of the annual Islamic festival of Eidul Fitr, were thoughtlessly throwing here and there in front of unwary pedestrians the explosive toy-like devices and the match-sticks with their tips dipped in phosphorus.

The match-sticks exploded like tiny hand grenades and scared the wayfarers out of senses. The more one felt irritated by the firecrackers, the more enthusiastically the street urchins chased him to throw still nastier match-sticks in his feet. At the same time, the unofficial Ruet-i-Hilal Committee was in session.

On the issue of sighting the Eid crescent and fixing the date of the festival, there were traditional differences of opinion. A few days back, several of the Frontier religious scholars met Speaker of the Frontier Assembly, Karamatullah Chagharmati, and called upon him to make possible the joint meeting of the zonal and national Ruet-i-Hilal Committees.

On September 19 (Ramazan-ul-Mubarak 28), Minister for Auqaf and Religious Affairs, Nemroz Khan, allowed such a meeting to take place. Even if to play to the gallery, Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour and Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain also made it to the historical mosque in Bazaz Larra Bazaar near Qissa Khwani.

The administrator of Qasim Ali Khan Mosque, Shahabuddin Popalzai, wanted that the Ruet body should give due importance and credence to the evidences produced by members of the zonal committees in Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi. For the last many years, Popalzai family has not only been taking care of the mosque but also been issuing edicts regarding the sighting of the Ramazan and Shawwal crescents.

These announcements are accepted by quite a number of people in the province. The same thing happened on Saturday night. At about 10-15pm, Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai popped out of television screens, wearing a smart white turban and telling the media persons that the Shawwal crescent had actually been sighted and Eid would be observed on Sunday.

He said that several evidences had been produced regarding the sighting of the crescent. Tuckers ran on television screens that the Shawwal crescent had also been sighted in Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other states of the Persian Gulf. Identical news came from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine and other countries of the Middle East region.

Recovering from bullet wounds sustained in the recent attempt on his life, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Qazmi, was contacted by the surprised television anchors. They asked the federal minister why Eid was not being announced all over the country as Peshawar's Qasim Ali Khan Mosque too after all happened to be in Pakistan.

The federal minister said that it was difficult to comment on the evidences received in the light of Shariah.

However, it was illogical, impracticable and unscientific to believe that the Shawwal crescent could be sighted in different geographical regions especially when it was a barely visible arc-like mark and appeared in the sky for such an exasperatingly short time.

Immediately after the announcement of Eidul Fitr, tuckers again rolled out on television screens giving the timings of Eid prayers in various mosques in quick succession.

Although the government normally avoided to meddle with the cultural and religious affairs of the masses yet Minister for Health and chief of the PPP in NWFP, Syed Zahir Ali Shah, had categorically stated in the press that government would not allow the general public to celebrate two Eid festivals in the first two days of Shawwal.

Nobody bothered to pay any heed to the statement of the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman that by allowing two Eids in the province, some of the religious leaders in Frontier were working against the national unity and cohesion.

The residents of Hayatabad will bear out the fact that there was a time when three Eid festival used to be observed in the first week of Shawwal: first with the Afghan refugees, second with the local people in the Frontier province and third with the central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee.

During the days of General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, the Afghan refugees once announced that the Eid crescent had been sighted in some parts of their country so they would celebrate the festival earlier than their Pakistani hosts.

Wearing neat and clean clothes, when the refugees converged on the sprawling Bagh-i-Naran to offer congregational Eid prayers, the place was already cordoned off by armed jawans of the paramilitary Rangers force.

The Rangers told the impatient worshippers that they could offer the prayers where the Eid crescent had been sighted but as long as they lived as guests on Pakistani soil, they would not be allowed to make fun of the Islamic festivals. After this stern warning from soldiers with a stiff upper lip, the over-enthusiastic refugees walked back home downcast.

The result of showing this resolute determination on the part of the government was that for the next three years the countrymen celebrated Eidul Fitr on one and the same day.

No body bothered to ask if the Palestinians and Jordanians had sighted the Eid crescent or not. In Pakistan, there is no dearth of religious scholars, who want the faithful to celebrate Eidul Fitr on one and the same day all over the country.

At the same time, however, there are politicians and social figures that feel happy when the national unity, cohesion and oneness come under tremendous strains.

Muslims already stand divided into various categories of faiths and clashing ideologies. There is immediate need to bring them closer rather than drive them further apart.

One feels like winding up this piece on lines from Allama Iqbal's long poem 'Jawab-i-Shikwa': "Aik hi sub ka Nabi, deen bhi, Quran bhi aik; kia bari baat thi jo hota Musalman bhi aik!"