Mohammad Elshinawy – Clarifications On The Lehigh Valley Moonsighting Agreement
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The importance of following the Prophet's words and following the local people's mas mastermind to inform decisions is emphasized in the holy month holy month approach to moon sighting. The importance of fasting during the month and respecting the Prophet's statement is also emphasized. The need for unity in political and cultural context is also discussed, along with the potential reward for Laylatul Qadr if they approach them with questions. The importance of unity and respecting the Prophet's word is emphasized, along with the need for unity in political and cultural context.
AI: Summary ©
After consulting with my, fellow imams in the
valley and also after a a pattern of
several questions,
I wanted to sort of clear the,
the air
regarding some of the,
questions that have been presented
regarding the beginning of Ramadan and our approach
to moon sighting here in the Lehi Valley
because,
of course, it will
arise again when does the last day start
and arise again on Eid Day. So I
want to try my best inshaAllah, 'azza wa
jal, to dispel any uncertainties you have that
could discomfort you because that's important to me.
And also to,
detract, that could potentially detract from any of
the sweetness you're enjoying in this month due
to that uncertainty.
So a little bit of a background.
Any city in the United States
that has
noteworthy Muslim presence,
the month of Ramadan is beginning and there
is a whole spectrum of disagreement that is
spawned. Right?
You have
some masajid
sort of following a global moon sighting approach.
That's their approach.
However, of course, it gets complicated when they
start getting into the details of is that
a verified report or not. So even they
are not one group.
Then there is a second group of people
that follows a local moon sighting approach
And that also is complicated by what is
the cutoff for local,
and was this a verified sighting or not.
And then there is a third group of
people that follow a calculations approach.
We're going to calculate based on feasibility and
visibility and all of this,
and they'll predetermine the beginning of the month.
By the way, all three of these approaches
have scholarly precedent
meaning they are valid approaches full stop.
Okay? But it doesn't end there. I want
to add to you a few more layers.
Then there are the masajid
that will follow the approach of
the country of the majority of my constituents.
So I'm the Egyptian Masjid, whatever the Egyptian
wazara,
Ministry of Endowments or Islamic Affairs says, we're
doing that here in
Brooklyn, York. Right? And we are a Turkish
masjid, so whatever the Diyanet of Turkey Turkiya
says, we're going to sort of make that
operative for us. And then there is another
class of people that says whatever Saudi Arabia
says because they are under the understanding that
they represent every Muslim considering they house the
sacred sites or 2 of the 3 sacred
sites.
At the end of the day, the net
sum of this is what?
That you have Masjid
within the same city,
rather within the same mile,
rather Not an exaggeration,
within the same block
that are starting and ending Ramadan on different
days.
And of course, this means and I know
examples of this
that people within the same household
are celebrating
Ramadan and Eid on different days.
Because some of them want to go pray
behind this imam or prefer that masjid, others
want to go pray behind that imam and
that masjid.
So,
what do you do with this?
So the
religious leadership and also the management
of the Lehigh Valley said, What can we
do to make this better?
Because the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
Your fasting is the day that you're all
fasting.
And you're firtu the day you break your
fast, the day everyone's breaking their fast.
And your abha, your day of sacrifice is
the day that
you're making the sacrifice, the people are making
the sacrifice. This religion is not sort of
individualized
in that extreme notion of the word, right?
To the extent by the way that our
scholars would say, pay attention here, that if
you started Ramadan
a day late compared to another country a
day late. I don't mean actually sort of
unacceptably late. And then you travel to a
country that started
a day earlier than you, like you're gonna
make umrah in Ramadan.
And then their Ramadan ends due to their
sighting a day earlier,
which means for them it was 29 days,
but for you it's 28 days and that's
unacceptable
because the month is either 29 or 30,
that's a verbatim hadith of the prophet shalallahu
alaihi wa sallam. What do you do? The
scholars for a 1000 years they've said, You
break your fast with everyone breaking their fast
because your fitr is the day that everybody
does fitr.
And you make up a day because the
minimum is 29. You're not sort of wrong,
or sort of penalized or anything but you
owe a day but you are not allowed
to fast that day
on the day of fitr when everyone around
you is celebrating fitr. So the imams of
the valley got together and said, What can
we do? The first thing we're able to
do is to tell everyone,
your fasting is the day you fast.
Meaning your masjid.
Respect your masajid and the opinion they followed
so long as a valid opinion.
If you're truly not convinced of the opinion
being stronger or sometimes the opinion being valid
depending on what we're talking about here, then
at least don't
crack the community.
Hide it.
Right? Fast on your own or break your
fast on like that.
The least we can do is to tell
the communities respect your your masjid,
and follow at least outwardly the position of
your masjid. But then we said, But we
can really do better. Can we spare our
community of even the conversation of how come
the masjid down the block is doing it
differently?
Can we spare
our households the conversation of did it actually
start here or not? I'm really fasting from
the 1st day, this is really the 27th
night. Can we spare the so that we
can focus on the ibadah of this month
and be even closer in our application of
the Prophet's word sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, your
fast and the day you all fast. So
we said, You know what? Listen,
Everywhere in the Muslim world,
because technology would not allow communication instantly like
today, or even today because we're subdivided into
nation states, they have their own sort of
umbrella, top down that says for our country
it's happening this way. So we said, can
we at least do for our valley?
And so instead of saying
follow your masjid, what if we got all
of the masajid
to do it at the same time?
And there's scholarly sort of precedent in the
local moon, so I think valid view. We
already said this, the Shafi'i position, traceable to
the cousin of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam. This was the understanding of
ibn Abbas Already valid, right? But what was
the idea? The idea is can we get
them all at least here,
and who knows? Maybe Allah will bless and
the circle will get wider and wider and
wider. Maybe all of the Muslims in the
United States, not on the same block anymore.
And this has, by the way, become a
national conversation,
not inspired solely through us. I want to
make that disclaimer. But there is conversation about
this taking place soon, make du'a,
right. But at the very least know that
Allah has favored
us with having this. And when we made
this agreement
We were fully cognizant, we were fully aware
that it may not align with everyone all
the time. It's a different approach, so it's
gonna have different outcomes. It's gonna have one
day off sometimes, right?
For some, by the way not everyone started
on Monday. There were countries who started on
Tuesday. Yes?
But this was the 1st year that it
didn't align with the sort of universal global
sighting and so it made some people uneasy.
I hope you're not uneasy anymore. I hope
this is clear. We have now, alhamdulillah, some
harmony across masajid which means across our homes
that go to different masajid and
across other factors and fronts as well because
how else do you approach the school board?
How else do you get official holidays? How
else do you get sort of days off
and otherwise for the Muslims without bringing them
all together? How do we
sort of book joint Eid events? How do
we mobilize our resources so we can see
and feel our numbers and our unity?
That was the second point regarding the approach.
They are all valid approaches, the local and
the global and the calculations,
which means the scholars who differed
did not differ on these all being valid.
They differ on which one in their interpretation
was stronger, which means it is
unacceptable
for anyone
to hold a suspicion
or a criticism against someone else's religious commitment
when they're following any of these views. We
were just trying to level up to something
even better insha Allahu ta'ala. Is this part
clear? Great.
Lastly,
I just want to say that
Allah azza wa Jal is certainly capable of
giving you the reward for Laylatul Qadr, no
matter what night,
it's actually on in your head, right? Don't
let that detract from any of your drive,
your momentum, your inspiration.
Number 2, the ummah has always
been subjected to sort of this
in their in their days of greatest strength
and unity, they were not having all Ramadan
and Eid on the same day. So it
doesn't necessitate this unity.
Alright?
And the last thing is,
if I haven't answered any major questions for
anyone, please approach me. I'm at your service.
You will not offend me. And, you know,
like one of the brothers said to me
last year in in our in our group,
Umrah, that, you know, I've always appreciated sort
of your talks and, you know,
but I never thought you were approachable. And
he's known me for, like, 5 years. I
was just like, what in the world? Like,
how?
Like, I'm glad we traveled now and you
saw that, but, like, is my beard too
big? Do I need a gold tooth? Like,
what do I need to do to break
the ice?
So please approach me, I'm at your service,
there's nothing you're going to say inshallah, ta'ala
that will offend me, and I wanna make
sure you maximize your Ramadan experience for you
and your family. We try to do that
as a valley
to harmonize,
and alhamdulillah, the majority became pretty much the
entirety, and it's even growing beyond the valley
now. And I wanna make sure if you
have any questions, I address them for you.
That's your right upon us.