Avoidable Eid day controversy- every time.

CHITRAL: Yet again the usual controversy has erupted whether to observe Eid ul Fitr on Monday or should it be on Tuesday. This phenomenon has continued in Pakistan since it’s birth. The underlying reason for this raucous is the differences between the different religious school of thoughts that prevail in the region. The Barelvis and Deobandi do not like to agree with each other, whenever given a chance. A former Chairman of moon sighting committee was an avowed detractor of the Saudis and would make all his efforts to not allow Eid to be celebrated with them, regardless of any other consideration.

Even within the Deobandi clerics, personal differences have caused divided decisions on when to observe Eid. According to a well known anecdote the meeting at a Charsadda mosque was in progress for moon sighting and declaration of Eid, when a witness came running in and swore he had seen the new moon. The cleric said “announce that it will be Eid tomorrow” but then as an after thought he asked ” hagha bul mula se woiee” (what does the cleric of the neighbouring mosque say) to which the audience replied that the said mulla had already announce Eid. On this the cleric immediately said “bia ba zamoong roja wee” (in that case we will be fasting tomorrow).

The controversy over sighting of moon for both Ramzan and Eid will never end. There are two easy solutions to this problem, if there is a will to solve it.
1. We should leave the decision to the Meteorological and Science ministry to determine the position of moon and announce the dates in advance and have strict punishment for those who do not agree with it, like in most Islamic countries. This way there will be no need for any cleric committees and thus no controversy
2. If at all we have to have a Ruet e Hilal committee meeting, the day it is convened it should accept any witness from any where and declare the verdict accordingly without wasting time. This again will eliminate further arguments and controversies.  It is a well known fact that when religious matters are put to debate, nobody wins.  .. CN report, 02 May 2022

5 thoughts on “Avoidable Eid day controversy- every time.

  1. Fully agree, nautical almanac give the precise moonrise and moonset times and exact age of the moon. These hard line hard headed mullahs of several sects wont agree to it. Time and conditions have changed so we must follow precise scientific data values

  2. So is Eid in Chitral going to be today, as announced by DC Chitral on his official Facebook page, or not.
    We still don’t know.

  3. We can not agree on even when to celebrate a religious festival like Eid. As a nation it is a matter of shame for us that this year Pakistanis will celebrate three eids on three different days. This all happens because of lack of writ and will of the government. The proposal put forth by you is a good solution but the govt does not have the will nor the capacity to enforce such an easiest and simplest solution.

  4. The best option would be to allow Eid celebration on whichever date a person feels like according to their local mula. The government should not interfere in it. It should only proceed with it’s central announcement with provision to people to follow their local mula like they say while announcing Azan on TV. No issue would be created and no arguments and waste of time on this self created issue.

  5. This is tantamount to challenging the writ of the state. Rule of law must prevail and maverick clerics need to be restrained from taking solo flight when it come to sighting of shawwal crescent.

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