A girl celebrates Ramadan decorations in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip (French)
The Arab world is awaiting the announcement of the legitimate sighting of the crescent of the month of Ramadan on the night of Sunday to Monday, amid official and popular preparations to welcome the holy month, in light of the tragic circumstances that the Gaza Strip is experiencing as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression.
According to what Anatolia monitored in 8 Arab countries, preparations to welcome Ramadan varied between official efforts to prepare mosques to perform Tarawih and Tahajjud prayers, issuing decisions to pardon convicts, and charitable and popular works, which appeared with a large demand in the markets to buy the month’s supplies and hang decorations and lanterns in the streets.
On Friday, the Saudi Supreme Court, the Emirates Sighting Committee, the Qatari Ministry of Endowments’ Crescent Sighting Committee, the Egyptian Fatwa House and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Bahrain announced that the Ramadan crescent sighting will take place today, Sunday.
The Mufti of Jordan, Ahmed Al-Hasanat, announced on Friday in a statement that the Ramadan crescent will be surveyed today, Sunday.
While the Ramadan Crescent Sighting Survey Committee in the Sultanate of Oman announced the same position yesterday, Saturday, according to what was reported by the official Omani News Agency.
Last Thursday, the Sharia Vision Authority in Kuwait announced, in a statement issued, the Ramadan crescent moon survey today, Sunday.
Impossibility of seeing the crescent
For its part, the International Astronomy Center - a scientific center based in Abu Dhabi - says that seeing the crescent moon today is impossible anywhere in the Arab and Islamic world, whether with the naked eye or using a telescope.
The center adds that seeing the crescent moon is possible using a telescope in parts of the Americas, especially on the western side.
In the same context, the Sirius Society, an Algerian astronomical society, said that the possibility of seeing the crescent moon is non-existent, because “the crescent will not live long enough to be formed, and rather to be observed with the naked eye when investigated after sunset on that day in Algeria and all Arab and Asian countries.”
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies