well said - I agree with you these religious rivalries only go to expose those stupid Mullah’s - if the ‘learned’ Maulvis decided that it was EID on 1st [regardless of the motivation] it is the duty of everyone to follow suit -

I believed the non-compliant maulvis should be tried, and exposed - they cant be expected to run their own form of religion [which they do]

first of all the contravery started these Rooyat Halal Commitee(RHC) members. after that these mullaaaz you just mentioned. even RHC had taken a wrong decision these other Mullaah should obey RHC decision. wo kiahai
pawesta reh shajar se ….
per yeh to apni ek eent ki alag masjid bana lete hain

@Teeth Maestro:

Exactly! This is so unfortunate, that every Mulla is creating their own mini sultanate in a mosque, doing whatever they like. There should be obviously a regulatory authority who should keep a check at these Maulavis. I think I gotta edit this article and should give a suggestion to the government to regularize these mosques and maulavies. As I am sure it will definitely eliminate hatred and religious discrimination. What say ?

@Duffer
Yes - I forgot the reference and exact wording of a prophetic hadith that says not to challenge state appointed mufti who takes reviews the evidences and takes the decision of sighting the moon.

Farhan, I don’t understand why our intellectual minds start seeking unity about moon sighting only when it’s not even possible scientifically as well?

Two years back I wrote a blog post in reply of a column by another ignorant Nazir Naji when He was babbling about Molvis. I tried to explain that scientifically it’s not possible neither Saudi calender, which is praised by _intellectuals_, could be considered 100% accurate.

Sometimes intellectuals go beyond imagination when they try to oppose something without any substance which is not a good sign at all since then they don’t sound different than jahil molvis of our society.

@Adnan Siddiqi

Adnan! first thing is I wrote nowhere about unity in moon seeking.

2nd thing: So you mean everyone should see the moon individually and those who sees the moon should celebrate, and others should wait?

or you mean there should be a moon sighting committee in every mosque?

Farhan, there are hadiths that if someone individually sights moon then Ramadan/EId is mandatory on that person that is, If I sight ramadan moon then Roza is MUST on me and I don’t seek govt’s evidences for my roza. Thelink I gave you above has hadith about this factor.

or you mean there should be a moon sighting committee in every mosque?

we have already a comittie wich collects witnesses from various part of Pakistan. That is another issue that like any other insititute Royat also have black sheeps who always ignored small provinces like NWFP or Balochistan and were baised towards Punjab,Islamabad or Karachi.

First time we witnessed that Royat accepted witnesses of NWFP area for moon sighting and see how most of Punjab cities today acted like “Pathans” and celebrated Eid today so its more political issue rather religious. All is required to _fix_ the comittie and get rid of guys like Munib.

unity in moon seeking

But usually we get turned on when it comes about Moons sighting and all of sudden we realize Qomi Ghairat,Hamiyat or what not while there are many other things where unity is required but it’s not displayed at all.

@Adnan Siddiqi

Sir I agree that if an individual sees a moon and govt announces, moon isn’t sighted. In that case it becomes obligatory for that individual to start or break fasting.

But when this responsibility is given to the state committees, especially under a Mufti(renowned scholar), it becomes obligatory to trust the evidences they gather.

How about this Authentic hadith:

NARRATOR AbuUmayr ibn Anas
ABU DAWUD
HADITH_No 1153
AbuUmayr reported on the authority of some of his paternal uncles who were Companions of the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him): Some men came riding to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) and testified that they had sighted the new moon the previous day. He (the Holy Prophet), therefore, commanded the people to break the fast and to go out to their place of prayer in the morning.

You see? Prophet PBUH trusted the evidences testified by those men. So shouldn’t these Maulavies have trusted those more then 15 evidences collected from various parts of Pakhtunkhwa and FATA ?

I’ll quote more hadiths in a while.

But when this responsibility is given to the state committees, especially under a Mufti(renowned scholar), it becomes obligatory to trust the evidences they gather

Bhai meray that’s why I said that why do we make a fuss out of it when we also know what Hadiths say? Now if Molvi Munib makes a wrong decision or right, let them suffer and govt. Why do we as a muslim doubt on their decisions. Agar ghalat hoga tu Khud un par wabal hoga. We as citizens will not be punished for that.

So shouldn’t these Maulavies have trusted those more then 15 evidences collected from various parts of Pakhtunkhwa and FATA ?

as I said, its more political issue rather religious.

@Adnan Siddiqi

OMG, Adnan saab you are NOT contradicting to my views at ALL. I absolutely agree with you on this.

I didn’t hit Maulana Diesel a.k.a Mufti Munib ur Rahman in my post, I rather talked about the maulavi of Bhaati gate Mosque Lahore, and few others maulavis who doubted the evidences and celebrated Eid on 2 Oct.