Abu Daoud: The reason that doesn’t work is that there is legitimate basis for both global and local sightings. Some madhahib go with global, some local. I don’t see it as a unity issue, per se, I see it as a weasley issue. (Although it is a unity thing in the West, b/c there is no Shari’i basis for “Doing what they’re doing back home.”) Like the time Ramadan was declared even though there was an eclipse that prevented the hilal from being seen. But within global vs. local, there needs to be consensus. Hence, Bob can’t say “I saw it, so I’m making ‘Eid tomorrow by myself.”

Maha: LOL at your first comment. Re: NASA (or rather, calculations): aren’t they already used for prayer times and such? But the Sunnah of the beginning of the months is for the moon to be sighted. I don’t think this is a Sunnah we should abandon, even as we consult calculations to get an idea of when it will happen. Besides, Allah can say “Be!” and it is. It is entirely within His Power to command the hilal to appear the day before or after NASA says it will. Unusual? Yes, but then so is the fact that Sayiduna ‘Isa was born without a father.

Dave: It matters b/c if it is declared too early, then there is a day of obligatory fasting that has to be made up. In a country like Jordan, we (the ‘awwam) are not responsible for a wrongly declared ‘Eid, the mufti is. That is why we hope these guys have more taqwa — they would not want to bear the responsibility of millions of us missing a day of Ramadan because of political games…

Why we’re debating this anyway ? why we always assume that something going on the in background, someone is cheating, bribing or it’s a political reason ?

Are we as qualified as Helayel ? why we always assume that we know better than the one who has been doing this for years and is actually getting paid to do it.

allah yer7amna bera7mito

But I guess a further question is this: since the Eid is determined by a visual citerion shouldn’t the average Muslim be able to determine it on his own without some national council? And also: is Islam is as united as it is in theory–one Umma–then why not have one council that determines this instead of dozens (hundreds?) of them around the world?

Nas…why are you spreading rumors? the real story is that Jordan is Anti-semitic and didn’t want to celebrate Eid on Saturday. Hilayel is obviously a 3ameel isra2eely

Last year, Jordan didn’t go with KSA on the Eid decision, so I’m thinking maybe KSA didn’t give Jordan as much oil/$$$ so the Jordanians wanted to ‘take revenge’.

It’s politics, not religion.

Love your post. I wouldn’t be surprised! Now when did Syria call Eid… Ah yes, Saturday.