Before you plan to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha, either on November
16 or 17, please read the following article which is worth reading
before you decide.?
I have gone through the article of ISNA and with the utmost respect
for their sentiment for Muslim unity, I am forced to say that the view
expressed in the article (Eid al-Adha on next day of
Arafat) is in total disagreement with the teachings of Quran and
Sunnah, and with the Shari’ah position recognized throughout the
centuries. This is an unprecedented view which has never been
adopted by any of the Muslim jurists during the past 1400 years, and
it has a number of intrinsic defects and anomalies, some of which are
summarized here.
The article admits that the celebration of Eid al-Fitr should be
tied to the sighting of the moon in each country and should not be
linked with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr in Saudi Arabia. At
the same time, however, the article calls for celebration of Eid
al-Adha according to the Saudi Calendar regardless of the local dates,
which means Eid al-Adha will be celebrated in North America
on 8th or 9th of Zul-Hajjah. It is thus clear that the theory
proposed in ISNA’s article is impractical.
The article has laid much emphasis on the concept of unity of the
Muslim Ummah, which no one can deny. At the same time, however, one must
appreciate that unity does not mean that the entire
Muslim Ummah throughout the world should perform their acts of
worship at one and the same time, because it is physically not possible.
It is evident that when people in Saudi Arabia are
performing their Fajr prayers, those in North America may still have
not completed their Isha prayers of the previous day. Similarly, when
Muslims in Los Angeles offer their Fajr prayers, those
in India and Pakistan are offering their Maghrib or Isha prayer of
the same day.
If it is made obligatory on all the Muslims in the world to offer
their acts of worship at one and the same time for the sake of unity,
such unity can never materialize (because of the time
differences). It is, therefore, obvious that offering one’s acts of
worship at different times do not affect the concept of Muslim Unity.
What does the Muslim unity mean?
It means that all Muslims should treat each other with brotherly
sympathy and affection and should not spread disorder and dissension
among them. Nor should they invent new ideas foreign to the
teachings of Quran and the Sunnah which may lead to division and
conflict among Muslims.
It is also astonishing that the article views the celebration of Eid al-Adha on different days as being against the concept of Ummah while in the matter of celebration of Eid ai-Fitr, this concept is dispensed with. If the celebration of Eid al-Fitr on different days does not affect the concept of unity, how can it be said to harm unity in the case of Eid al-Adha?
It is also astonishing that the article views the celebration of Eid al-Adha on different days as being against the concept of Ummah while in the matter of celebration of Eid ai-Fitr, this concept is dispensed with. If the celebration of Eid al-Fitr on different days does not affect the concept of unity, how can it be said to harm unity in the case of Eid al-Adha?
It is true that Eid al-Adha falls immediately after the day of
Arafat in Saudi Arabia, but it is not necessary that the Muslims in
every country should follow the same dates in their respective
areas. Hajj, no doubt, is tied with a particular place but the
celebration of Eid al-Adha is not confined to that place alone. It is
celebrated everywhere in the world and cannot be tied to the
Saudi calendar.
The article admits that the celebration of Eid al-Adha in other
countries was never linked with its celebration in Saudi Arabia
throughout the past 14 centuries. This, the author’s claim was
because of a lack of communication facilities. With vastly improved
communication today, they argued that everyone almost anywhere can find
out the day of Hajj, and should celebrate Eid al-Adha
based on Saudi calendar.
There is a clear admission in this argument that it is not
obligatory according to Quran or the Sunnah to celebrate Eid al-Adha
according to Saudi calendar. Had this been so, Muslims would have
tried their best to find the exact date of Hajj in Saudi Arabia. It
is not correct to say that it was not possible in those days for people
living outside Saudi Arabia to know the exact date of
Hajj, because this date is normally determined on the first night of
Zul-Hijjah. There is a nine day period until which is more than
sufficient to acquire this information. However, no jurists
has ever stressed that such information be collected in order to
celebrate Eid al-Adha according to Saudi dates.
Further, if the argument of the article is accepted and it is held
that the real intention of Quran and Sunnah was to link the celebration
of Eid al-Adha with the Saudi dates, as a mandatory
provision for all Muslims in the world, it means that the Shari’ah
has stressed a principle which was not acceptable for 1300 years. Is it
not against the Quranic declaration that Allah does not
make a thing mandatory unless it is practical for the human beings.
If the authors argue that the celebration of Eid al-Adha was not
linked with the dates in Makkah in the past but it has become a
mandatory requirement of the Shari’ah now, then the question
arises, who has abrogated the previous principle and on what basis?
There is no provision in Quran or the Sunnah which orders the Muslims to
celebrate Eid al-Adha according to their local dates
up to a particular time and to link it with the dates in Makkah
thereafter. Whoever considers this and similar questions arising out of
this unprecedented theory advanced in the article can
appreciate its fallacy.
Finally, I would like to inform you that the question of sighting
the moon for each lunar month including Zul-Hijjah was thoroughly
discussed at the annual sessions of the Islamic Fiqh Academy
(held in Jordan, October 11-16, 1986) attended by more than a
hundred outstanding scholars of Shari’ah. The academy adopted the
resolution recommended that all Muslim countries should determine
all the lunar months including Zul-Hijjah on the same basis for both
Eid al-Fitr as well as Eid al-Adha.
This resolution represents the consensus of Muslim jurists
throughout the world. The proposal contained in the ISNA article,
however, goes totally against this consensus – (see note below).
Before parting with the subject, I would like to emphasize that such
unprecedented proposals can never advance the cause of Muslim unity.
Rather, they may create a new point of disunity and
dissention among Muslims. Before venturing such opinions as definite
“Fatwa”, these should be discussed at some responsible international
forum of contemporary Muslim jurists like the
International Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah.
