Why is pork forbidden in Islam?
13 April 2019Fasting: What Is Fajr Time?
05 May 2019
According to the Quran, when is the beginning of Ramadan?
The Quran was Prophet Muhammad’s teacher – thus Allah. The Quran opened new horizons to our Prophet who didn’t know about astronomy, with verses like: “They ask you about the crescents. Say, “They are timetables for people, and for the Hajj.” (Quran, al-Baqara 2:189). Allah the Almighty commands observing the times of prayer: “The sun and the moon (move) by precise calculation.” (Quran, al-Rahman 55:5; Yunus 10:5).
At the time of Rasulullah there were no scientists to do calculations in Makkah or Madinah. For this reason, the only way out was to see the Crescent of Ramadan:
“We are an illiterate nation (Ummi). We do not use writing or computation (in our fasting). A month is so and so and so…” (Hadith, Bukhari, Sawm 13 (23).
Nowadays, there are enough scientists to be able to compute the motion and reckoning of the sun and the moon. Therefore, the beginning of Ramadan and Eid have to be determined by the Lunar calendar from groups of scientists, not by trying to spot the crescent with the naked eye.
