Kashmir’s grand mufti Nasir-ul-Islam has constituted a moon-sighting committee for J&K, with the Valley’s chief cleric and Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq as its member.
This comes in the wake of a controversy over the moon sighting last year, which split local Muslims over the commencement of the Islamic month of Ramzan. Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and the two main festivals of Ids are subject to moon sighting.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Islam said the move to form the committee was to put to rest controversies erupting on moon sighting. “We have nominated members in every district. Any decision about the moon sighting will be taken with the consensus of all these members. This will help to avoid any controversy,” Mr. Islam said.
Besides the Mirwaiz, Kashmir’s top religious scholars from different sects, including Maulvi Rehmatullah Mir Qasmi, Maulvi Ghulam Rasool Haami, Agha Hassan Al-mousvi Al-safavi, Fayaz Ahmad Rizvi, Syed Shabir Geelani, Masroor Abbas Ansari etc.
Mr. Islam said the committee was framed by the Muslim Personal Law Board. This committee will collect witnesses about crescent across the region and “the members are supposed to testify the reliability”.
The first ever moon sighting by the committee will be carried out on March 10 to decide on the commencement of the Islamic month of Ramzan.
Mr. Islam faced several controversies in the past. However, he was in a precarious situation in 2023 when the moon sighting in Pakistan saw many in Kashmir commencing the Islamic month a day ahead of the rest of the country.
The controversy was sparked when the grand ‘mufti’ on the night of March 15 announced that the moon was not sighted anywhere in Kashmir and set the date for the first of Ramzan for March 17. However, the Anjuman-e-Sharian Shian, a religious body and the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Pakistan, set the date for the first of Ramzan as March 16. This was followed by locals thronging to mosques in defiance of the grand mufti and organising special Ramzan prayers in the night to start fasting from March 16, a day ahead.
