New Crescent Society

Outsourcing the Moon Abroad  Today in the UK, there is no UK based Islamic Calendar, nor is there any consensus on how we should conduct our calendar locally. Instead, we have various groups who 'outsource' their moonsighting decisions to different countries. Some groups, for example, follow Morocco, others follow Saudi, and so on. Different countries see the moon on different days, and have different ways of calculating their calendar. It is inevitable that each of these respective groups who follow different countries here in the UK will, as a result, start Islamic months on different days. The New Crescent Society hopes to work together with Muslims and institutions to remedy this problem, and eventually convene our own united calendar here in the UK.  We believe that if we are able to set up the infrastructure to sight the moon here in the UK (moonsighting locations with trained sighters, a reporting mechanism), we could have our own calen...

A New Year's Resolution Alhamdulillah we have been blessed to begin another new year in the Islamic Calendar, and have commenced 1441 AH. Another year has passed, and yet the problem of the Islamic Calendar  in the UK remains with us. Even for the month of Muharram this year, some people will commemorate Ashura on Monday 9 September, and local sighters will do so on Tuesday 10 September. This issue continues to cause much pain and division within the Muslim community, particularly around  Eid, where we can find areas, streets and even single families not agreeing on which day to celebrate Eid. This problem will continue to occur until we have a community based conversation about the way forward.  In our view, there is a solution: to revive the traditional sunnah practices of moonsighting here in the UK, and not outsource our Islamic Calendar to foreign countries. As long as we continue to rely on word from abroad, we will not achieve unity in the UK. Here is ...

An allegorical poem from the famed poet, Maulana Jalal al Din Rumi. It's based on a incident from the time of Caliph Omar, when a man had claimed that he had seen the new crescent, when in fact he had seen a strand of his own hair draped across his eyes. * IN THE TIME OF OMAR SOMEONE IMAGINED THAT HE HAD SEEN THE NEW MOON The month of Ramadan, in Omar’s reign People ran to a hill above the plain To greet the new moon as a hopeful sign -  One called, ‘Omar, come watch the new moon shine!’ But Omar saw no moon above, and said: ‘That moon’s an image dreamt up in your head! If not, explain how, with my better sight, I can’t see any moon tonight. First rub your eyebrows with a wet hand, then Attempt to look at the new moon again.’ The man did this, then couldn’t see it there; He said, ‘It’s disappeared into thin air!’ Omar explained, ‘Your eyebrow was a bow T hat shot false views at your just like a foe!’ A hair had veiled him – now he felt ashamed T hat vi...

Did Saudi Arabia see the moon? Sighting reports of the New Crescent have emerged from Saudi Arabia tonight, meaning that Saudi Arabia will now begin the month of Dhul Hijjah. Once again, Saudi’s moonsighting report tonight is mired in controversy. Those from the astronomy community have declared that Saudi Arabia’s alleged sighting was scientifically impossible. In other words, the moon was not yet large enough to be detected by the human eye, or even a conventional telescope.  As we can see in the image below, Saudi Arabia falls outside of the visibility curves, and it would not be possible to have sighted the moon there at all. The data used to create this image comes from HMNAO – Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office. You can read more directly from their website, which confirms the moon was not visible in Saudi here . Was the moon sighted locally? Here in the UK, the moon was not sighted anywhere ; nor indeed was it sighted in any of ou...