ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s minister for science and technology Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday he had constituted a committee to devise a five-year calendar to determine the dates of religious occasions that rely on a new moon, taking on powerful clerics who have traditionally used telescopes to physically sight the moon before important holidays.
Islamic scholars disagree on whether the moon must be physically seen for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and other religious holidays to begin.
For the last many years on the eve of Ramadan, the country has found itself split on whether or not a new moon had been sighted. As a result, the country’s northwest regions often start the fasting month a day earlier than Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh provinces, as they did this year also.
“Ministry of Science n Tech Committee to resolve #moonsighting controversy constituted,” Chaudhry said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
Ministry of Science n Tech Committee to resolve #moonsighting controversy constituted pic.twitter.com/LknTHNOsOe
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 7, 2019
The committee includes scientists from Pakistan's space agency and its meteorological department and “would finalize the calendar to indicate the exact dates of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr & Eid-ul-Azha and Moharram for the next five years with 100% accuracy,” a notification from the science and technology ministry said, referring to the names of important Islamic months and holidays.
On Sunday, Chaudhry took on Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, the powerful cleric who heads the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee of Pakistan, the department which announces the sighting of the new moon, saying he would set up a committee that would use “modern methods” to produce a lunar calendar based on the objective position of the moon in the sky rather than on actual moon sightings.
“In Pakistan we have seen every time, on Eid, on Ramadan, during Muharram, a controversy arises on the moon,” Chaudhry said in a video posted on Twitter. “When modern methods are available, and we can decide on a definite date, then the question is, why do we not use the modern technology?”
Chaudhry said if the Ruet-e-Hilal committee thought it was appropriate to use telescopes, an outdated technology, to sight the moon then why did they resist using modern technologies, adding that he was resolved to make a new calendar and put it before cabinet for approval.
In response, Rehman has accused Chaudhry of being "unaware of religious matters" and said in interviews to local media that he had “previously appealed to the Prime Minister to allow only concerned ministers to speak on religious issues.”
Maulana Hafiz Abid Israr of the Pakistan Ulema Council rejected the idea of creating a new lunar calendar, saying the Islamic calendar was created on the basis of Islamic law not science and technology.
“It (Islamic calendar) has been working perfectly fine for centuries,” Israr told Arab News. “If we create a new one on the basis of science and technology, it will start a trend with every government changing the calendar according to their interests.”
“We have a government appointed body dealing with religious matters, so when they decide that they have sighted the moon, we as a nation accept that, we fast accordingly and we celebrate Eid according,” Israr said in support of the the central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee.
