Copyright Hamza Yusuf ©2006
God has made the heavens one of His greatest signs. He has told us that Muslims are those “who reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alteration of night and day. Surely in that are signs for those who possess innermost understanding” (3:190). He has hidden the unseen and the future from us and warned us that “It is God who has knowledge of the end of time, and who showers the rain, and who knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die: but God is omniscient, completely aware.” (31:34). Yes, there are discernable patterns in the world that make up the empirical sciences, but they have limitations, and we should take care lest in our arrogance we think that we have control over our lives and natural order:
Ibn Taymiyyah wrote hundreds of years ago,
God has made the heavens one of His greatest signs. He has told us that Muslims are those “who reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alteration of night and day. Surely in that are signs for those who possess innermost understanding” (3:190). He has hidden the unseen and the future from us and warned us that “It is God who has knowledge of the end of time, and who showers the rain, and who knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die: but God is omniscient, completely aware.” (31:34). Yes, there are discernable patterns in the world that make up the empirical sciences, but they have limitations, and we should take care lest in our arrogance we think that we have control over our lives and natural order:
Then when the earth takes on golden ornamentation [lights of our cities seen from space], and is all adorned, and people think they have power over it. Our order comes to it by night or by day; then we have it mown down, as if it had not flourished the day before. Thus do we explain the signs to people who reflect. And God calls to the abode of peace, and guides anyone at will to a straight path” (Qur’an 10:24-25).God has hidden from us the power to predict the actual appearance of the crescent moon on the first day. Even modern scientists admit this. Yet, we wish to fit God’s plans into our plans instead of fitting our plans into God’s plans. Convenience store Islam is the Islam of the day, where we can buy a pre-packaged Islam that fits into our busy schedules. But Ramadan is God’s month; it is a time of slowing down and reflecting, of looking at our lives and questioning ourselves, “Are we in harmony with God’s creation. Are we bypassing signs right before our eyes?” God has veiled Ramadan’s greatest night from us, and if He chooses to ask us to inconvenience ourselves just a little bit for His sake to seek out Ramadan’s onset, then praise be to God. I find it altogether odd that a month that is meant to teach us patience and is called “the month of patience,” is no longer patiently waited for by eager Muslims to see what God has in store for them tonight or perhaps tomorrow night. I believe sighting the moon is an intended purpose of Ramadan. It is indeed an act of worship, as the Prophet ﷺ has clearly said, “The best of God’s servants are those who monitor the sun, crescents, and stars as a way of remembering God.”40 Every morning before dawn, the Prophet ﷺ would awaken, go out into the late night air, and look up in the heavens and recite the final verses of Āl ʿImrān: “Surely in the creation and the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for people….”41 The signs are indeed clear for those who reflect.
Ibn Taymiyyah wrote hundreds of years ago,
It is impossible to determine, by means of mathematics, the exact time the crescent moon appears. For even though the astronomers may know that the light emanating from the moon is a reflection of the sun, and that when the two bodies meet in the conjunction, the light of the moon disappears, and when it separates from the sun, it regains its light, yet the best they can do is to determine exactly, through calculation, the distance between the moon and sun when the latter sets…. If we did assume that they managed to determine the moon’s position at sunset, this would not prove that the crescent had actually been sighted. Visibility is a sensory matter and is affected by several factors, such as the clarity or density of the atmosphere, the high or low position of the celestial body, and finally, the strength or weakness of one’s eyesight…. When they realized that the shariah commands the sighting of the crescent moon, they desired to determine it by means of mathematics, and thus they went astray and led others astray. Those who argue that the crescent cannot be seen at twelve or ten degrees, etc., have erred, for one person can sight it at the smaller number of degrees while another cannot at the same degree. They have resorted neither to reason nor to revelation, and because of this, the eminent scholars in their field have rejected their views.42What Imam Ibn Taymiyyah said is as valid today as it was when he wrote it. Several hundred years ago, a scholar in Libya was put to death because he refused to start Ramadan with the Fatimid ruler’s decree of calculation. He spoke out against the innovation and lost his life for obeying God and disobeying man. Thank God we live in a time and place in which we can freely dissent if our conscience tells us we must. May that Imam’s life not be in vain. Our Prophet ﷺ did not leave us with out guidance, nor did our scholars leave us without elucidation of that guidance for they are the “inheritors of the prophets.” In these latter days, the Sunnah is disappearing from the face of the earth. The Prophet ﷺ came to teach the simple and sophisticated, the meek and the mighty, and he gave each his dignity and his place. In following his example, we follow the best in ourselves, and in leaving his guidance, we open ourselves to great calamities and tribulations. Allah, the Exalted, said, “So let those who oppose his command beware lest a trial befall them or a painful chastisement” (24:63). The Prophet ﷺ has commanded us in a hadith that is of no less authority than the Qur’an itself: “Fast upon seeing the crescent, and break your fast upon seeing it; and if it be obscured, then calculate it.” The meaning is clear as has been clarified by the illustrious imams quoted in this paper. They are my proof; after God and then His messenger, I have no others. What is left is to follow their guidance. And may God give us the success to do so. And Allah knows best.
40 The hadith is related in Imam al-Ḥākim’s Mustradrik and is sound. As quoted in al-Imam Aḥmad al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī, ʿIlm al-Nujūm (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, n.d.), 22-23.↩
41 Imam Muḥyi al-Dīn al-Nawawī, al-Adhkār (Dār al-Minhāj, 2005), 67.↩
42 Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Jahd al-qarīhah fī tajrīd al-naṣīḥah mukhtaṣir al-radd ʿalā al-Manṭiqiyyīn (Dār al-Naṣr li al-Ṭibāʿah, 1970). And Ibn Taymiyyah, Trans. Wael B. Hallaq, Against the Greek Logicians (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1993), 140-141. (Note: Some retranslating done.)↩
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