ISNA Makes Zabihah Slaughtering of the Sunnah!
August 25, 2006 — ibnabeeomar
It is with great distress, agony, and malaise that I share what I found in regards to the main representational body of Muslims in North America’s practice with the legislated act of Moon Sighting in Islam.
The screenshot from their page says it all.
Here is what ISNA has posted on their official website:
The Fiqh Council of North America is an independent body, comprised of qualified Islamic scholars in North America. The Council communicates with experts and consultants to meet expected needs for rulings and advice in various areas of Islamic life in North America.
ISNA’s Majlis Ash-Shura, the highest policy making body of ISNA, has resolved to follow the Fiqh Council’s position on the issue of determining the beginning of the Islamic lunar months for North America.
Position of the Fiqh Council of North America
According to the calculation criteria for determining the Islamic Lunar dates adopted by the Fiqh Council of North America, following are the dates for Ramadan and Eidul Fitr for the year 1427.
Ramadan 1427 - First of Fasting September 23, 2006
Eidul Fitr 1427 - First of Shawwal October 23, 2006
Laa Hawla wa laa Quwwata illa billah. I really don’t know what to say. This is literally something that has been unknown to the ummah of Muhammad(saw) for literally over 1,420 years. It has never been done before, and especially not on this scale. Its August, and they have already announced Eid. They’ve zapped all of the fun, excitement, and most of all the SUNNAH of anticipating Ramadan and Eid!!
ISNA then defends this premise by saying,
Sighting the Hilal (ru’yah) is not an act of ‘ibadah in itself; it is rather a means to know with certainty about the beginning of the new month related to Islamic ‘Ibadat.
If it is not an act of worship, then why did the Prophet(s) talk about it, and tell us how to establish the dates? This is the 3rd Pillar of Islam, it’s no joke. Everything in the Quran and Sunnah points to commencing the Month of Ramadan with seeing the moon with the naked eye, and the resulting issues from that constitute its Fiqh. By their logic, almost anything in Islam can be secularized and removed from the deen! Is establishing the start of Ramadan the way that the Prophet(s) did not an act of worship? Establishing it the way he commanded us to is not an act of worship? Subhanallah…
So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadan i.e. is present at his home), he must observe Saum (fasts) that month (2:185)
Then they mention
Ru’yah as a means was indicated and used by the Prophet –peace be upon him- because he himself said that the Ummah at that time was not literate and did not know how to write or to calculate (complicated astronomical data).
And this is just well.. i will stop just short of calling this a lie because there might be another version of the hadith that says this that I don’t know of. The version of this hadith that is in Bukhari and Muslim though, is general, and doesn’t mention a specific time. This hadith is explained here. Lastly, the way they squeezed in “complicated” astronomical data, is at the very least extremely disrespectful to the Prophet(s) and His Companions (ra). We should only wish and hope that Allah(swt) can give us half the intellectual capacity and understanding they had in regards to the deen, that is why they were the most successful generation of mankind.
I wonder how then, the “Fiqh Council” concluded that,
Use of calculations in determining the Islamic dates is not against the Sunnah.
This is really a disgusting precedent, and completely contradictory to clear ahadith. I have personally heard Syed Sayeed, Secretary General for ISNA, say about this issue, that “inshallah one day we won’t even have to go out and sight the moon anymore, we will already have it calculated” in the context of speaking about the perfection of calculations, the impossibility of there being mistakes in them, and the “backwardness” (audhubillah) of scholars such as Bin Baz (rahimahullah).
This stems from a corrupted and wicked mindset of man’s scientific arrogance. Due to their pretentiousness in thinking they have infallible calculations, they have abandoned the guidance of the Book and the Sunnah for their own intellects, may Allah guide them for I fear they will be left to that which they have chosen. This issue has been analyzed well by Shaykh Waleed Basyouni in his CD set regarding Ramadan.
There’s too much to say about this issue, but I will stop here. It is just too sickening to think about the ramifications of this. Which sunnah will they kill off next?
Related Reading:
August 25, 2006 at 4:33 pm
Which sunnah will they kill off next?
my vote goes for hijab
August 25, 2006 at 4:55 pm
assalamu alaykum ya ikhwan, please contact me at my email with an answer to this. I really don’t understand the controversy behind this issue, because I don’t have even a basic knowledge of my Deen, and every year I dont understand why people debate, I am really ignorant about this and everything else. Please, can you explain this issue to me step-by-step, it has been confusing me for several years now.
August 25, 2006 at 5:16 pm
I truly am saddened that people are using such techniques in making islamic rulings. In short, this would be considered bidah. The Prophet upon him peace and eternal blessings commanded that we look, not calculate.
August 25, 2006 at 5:35 pm
JazakAllah for all the points why this was a bad idea. Allah SWT is the one who set the celestial bodies in motion, and He is the One who keeps them in motion. To say for sure that you can ACCURATELY predict the phases of the moon I think it’s just like saying you know the future. It is indeed an example of our arrogance. Next they might give us a date when the sun is going to rise from the West. N’audhibillah.
August 25, 2006 at 6:07 pm
lol! alhamdulillah nicely said faizan, i actually want some1 to pose the question to ISNA asking them to calculate when the moon will rise from the west.
August 25, 2006 at 9:20 pm
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August 25, 2006 at 11:54 pm
Who is this fiqh council they talk about???? Who is in this fiqh council?? Wouldnt it be surprising to see someone liek Sayyid Saeed in thsi fiqh council?? We shoudl maybe contact each of these scholars and see what they have to say that are in this fiqh of bida council.
It was narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “We are an unlettered nation, we do not write or calculate. The month is such-and-such or such-and-such – meaning sometimes it is twenty-nine and sometimes it is thirty.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1814; Muslim, 1080)
August 26, 2006 at 2:04 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiqh_Council_of_North_America
The current members of the Council are:
1. Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, chairman,
2. Dr. Sherman Jackson
3. Dr. Ahmad Shleibak
4. Dr. Akbar Muhammad
5. Dr. Deina Abdulkadir
6. Shaikh Hassan Qazwini
7. Dr. Ihsan Bagby
8. Dr. Jamal Badawi
9. Dr. Muhammad Adam Sheikh
10. Shaikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti
11. Shaikh Muhammad Nur Abdallah
12. Dr. Salah Soltan
13. Dr. Taha Jabir Alalwani
14. Shaikh Yahya Hindi
15. Shaikhah Zainab Alwani
16. Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah
17. Dr. Mukhtar Maghraoui
18. Dr. Nazih Hammad
August 26, 2006 at 2:15 am
I guess the only question that remains is…. CAN I STILL GO TO ISNA TO GET MARRIED??!
August 26, 2006 at 7:05 am
lol @ post above…I’d say sure go ahead man; it won’t hurt.
August 26, 2006 at 11:08 am
Alhamdulillah, we have leadership in North America, the only problem I can see is that we as a community refuse to follow and thereby only increase in disunity. The members of the Fiqh Council of North America are learned individuals who are residents of this land have taken upon themselves the thankless task of trying to provide answers to fiqh issues here in North America.
I wrote the following on another blog:
When we studied this issue in an AlMaghrib seminar the topic was called “Moonsighting or Moonfighting”. We learned the three major opinions namely sighting in each locality, following Saudi, and using calculations and then some of the subsections under these opinions. All three opinions derive some of their proof from a single hadeeth.
Some advice from our instructor Muhammad Alshareef: - Determine who is your leader and follow their decision - Try and follow the widest body of leadership (such as ISNA over ISYH Islamic Society of Your House) - Have mercy for all three opinions because they derive from valid ijtihad
I intend to follow ISNA but if my local masjid differs from ISNA as they have in the past then I will go with my masjid because I trust their leadership and it would not make sense to differ from them.
August 26, 2006 at 2:28 pm
assalamu alaikum almaghribi,
honestly, i dont think much of a fiqh council that takes a stance that is bid’ah, destroys the sunnah, and takes a stance that has been unknown to the ummah for over 1400 years.
jazakallahu khayr for the advice from muhammad alshareef, i dont think its an issue of not following them, i mean no one is advocating doing their own separate eid or anything like that. thats not the issue. the issue is them adopting a stance that in all reality brings them under a very real threat of bringing the curse of Allah on them.
i have written to AMJA for clarification on this issue also inshallah if/when i get a response i will post it here.
anyway, if you refer to the additional reading material i provided, there is plenty on this issue from the scholars. its not an issue of celebrating eid with them or not, but how they arrive at their decision. obviously, we celebrate with the majority, even though we might disagree with them, however, it doesn’t mean to overlook the fact that they are very obviously slaughtering the sunnah.
August 26, 2006 at 2:39 pm
I have not studied the moon sighting issue in depth. I understand the an Alamghribi’s point about following leadership. However, I would imagine that when Muhammad Al-shareef was telling you to follow leadership of your masjid or locality the following circumstance was in place.
1) ISNA had a moon sighting council of North America at that time. The reason for this was ISNA felt that each locality should start Ramadan based on when that particular locality sights the moon.
2)Although Muhammad Al-Shareef mentioned the third “method” of using calculations to determine the beginning of the month of Ramadan, I am not sure he discussed the validity of using such a method in detail. So at the time it was really a debate between sighting the moon in your locality or can you commence Ramadan if anyone reliable in the world saw the new moon.
So keeping these circumstances in mind, we could say the debate that Muhammad Al-Shareef was really talking about was a totally different one than the one we have today. The debate between sighting the moon in your locality or anywhere in the world is probably a legitimate difference of opinion. But now we are having a debate between do we have to sight the moon at all or can we just use calculations?
How reliable are calculations? I mean astronomers can’t even agree on the definition of Planet, so do we really want to rely upon them for calculating the beginning of Ramadan?
Which method is more pleasing to Allah (Swt)? If we mistakenly commence and end Ramadan on the wrong dates, which method will give us a bigger excuse in front of Allah (Swt)?
August 26, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Wa salaam alaykum Muslim,
Obviously, the fiqh council does not believe that calculations are bidah as that it was one three opinions that can be derived from the most famous hadeeth about sighting the moon of Ramadan. Each opinion has its proofs and reputable scholars.
My point is simply that it is fine to hold any of those opinions individually but when a national body like the Fiqh Council has made a decision rather than saying we hear, and we obey the usual response from most Muslims here is we hear, we disagree, we are following other scholars, and we think you are doing bidah. I do not see how this is beneficial for the ummah and this is one reason we can never reach consensus in North America over when to begin or end Ramadan. Even before this latest ruling we did not have consensus so it is much more than this particular fatwa over which the people disagree.
May Allah increase us in mercy for the other valid opinions. Ameen.
August 26, 2006 at 3:35 pm
actually this matter is extremely simple:
1. their opinion is NOT a “legitimate” third opinion. why? name a single scholar, name a madhhab, name anyone/anything before the year 1420AH that held this opinion. rather, the major scholars have all been in agreement on the prohibition of using calculations.
this is actually something we learned in almaghrib purification act with shaykh abdulbary, that its impossible for someone to now come 1400 years later, and hold a fiqh opinion that didn’t exist before, and think that its correct.
2. isna is actually the cause of the disunity when they rely on calculations and oppose, belittle, and destroy the sunnah of the prophet(s). there is no hearing and obeying when they are doing something thats clearly bid’ah.
again i refer everyone to the cd’s and articles mentioned in the post. i dont think most of this discussion on here would be taking place if we understood what was contained in that material inshallah.
August 26, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Asalmau alaykum Omar,
Br. Muhammad did not actually tell us to follow our local masjid rather that is my opinion because I trust their leadership and that is the most practical thing for me because that is where I attend tarawih, suhur, iftar, qiyaam, itikaaf, and eid. This masjid is also the one Br. Muhammad belonged to before moving to Canada. What he told us was that even after moving to Canada he continued to follow our masjid in Maryland because he also knew and trusted their leadership. But last year, the masjid in Maryland differed from his local community in Ottawa that was following ISNA and so he also followed ISNA.
He said that it is better to find a group or organization that has the widest spread like a national organization rather than a local one. And also I remember him saying that all three opinions are derived from valid ijtihad and have their proofs and scholars. In the AlMaghrib Institute, we learn our fiqh according to the Shafi’ee madhab although we do learn the other opinions as well.
Then he told us the advice I stated in my earlier post. The key he wanted to emphasize to us was each opinion is from valid ijtihad, the moonsighting issue is only a problem in North America not because we do not have leaders but because we do not follow our leadership, and to increase in ourselves mercy for all of the valid opinions even if they differ from our personal opinion.
May Allah increase us in mercy for valid ijtihad. Ameen.
August 26, 2006 at 3:53 pm
What Abdulbary Yahya said is correct and I benefitted much from his class and lectures as well.
One can say the use of calculations goes back to the hadeeth about sighting the moon, there is more than one valid way to understand that hadeeth and thus is forms part of the basis for more than one opinion.
As I said before, I intend to follow ISNA but if my local masjid differs I will keep my difference of opinion to myself and follow them.
I do not wish to argue with my dear brothers and sisters in Islam and for sure Allah has promised a house in jannah for the one who leaves arguing even if he is correct. Please forgive me if I have said anything which has caused offense.
Wa salaam
August 26, 2006 at 4:48 pm
jazakallahu khayr, those are some good points.
August 27, 2006 at 3:17 am
“1. their opinion is NOT a “legitimate” third opinion. why? name a single scholar, name a madhhab, name anyone/anything before the year 1420AH that held this opinion. rather, the major scholars have all been in agreement on the prohibition of using calculations.
this is actually something we learned in almaghrib purification act with shaykh abdulbary, that its impossible for someone to now come 1400 years later, and hold a fiqh opinion that didn’t exist before, and think that its correct. ”
There does exist one schoalr form the 7th-8th century hijree who had the opinion of calculations for moon sightings, refer to shaykhw aleeds Cd about ramadan for this inshaAllah. I dont agree witht hsi opinion, i dont even consider it valid, and i actually consider it against the sunnah. Allahu Alim
its really weird, the departments and services of ISNA doesnt include the Fiqh council in on the page, and also i am having a hard time locating it on ISNA’s website. And also Hassan Qazwini #6 is a sheeah and he is on the fiqh council, where are we heading with this???? Need i go any further????
do yall think we need to confront each of these menbers fo the fiqh council on a personal basis to see where they stand and see if thsi si actually the view of the fiqh council???
Allahu Alim…its sickening.
I am hanbali when i comes to ramadana nd eid and fasting - i recommend listening to Br. Salim Morgan’s lectures on fiqh of ramadan in which he explains ad daleel or actuallyt he commentary manar as sabeel fi sharh ad daleel, a hanbali text, also shaykh waleed’s lectures on the fiqh of ramadan, also yasir qadhi’s and definitely refer to islamqa’s fatwa regardign this issue.
Allahu Alim
August 27, 2006 at 12:33 pm
jazakallahu khayr.. i didnt remember that point in waleed basyouni’s lecture.
August 28, 2006 at 1:57 am
[...] The “R” stands for Ramadaan and there are approximately 28 days remaining (I dotn care what ISNA says, my Ramadaan starts with the sighting of the moon on the global scale, refer here and here for more info on what I am referring to, insha-Allah I will post something up regarding this soon from a few notes from lectures on fiqh of Ramadaan, as we approach Ramadaan) [...]
September 1, 2006 at 5:17 am
Assalamualykkum,
It has been a practice in our part of world that some groups reject the hilalsighting if it is against calculation but they stricltly adhere to sighting with regard to starting fasting/eid!!
And why do there is no difference of opinion for using clock time for prayer and breaking fast ??
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Once night comes from there and the day disappears from there, and the sun has set, the fasting person should break his fast.”
Here setting of the sun is the criteria for breaking fast ??
Are we justified in breaking the fast depending on the astronomical calculation ??
There is a chance that sun might had set earlier or not had set as per the astronomical calculation of sunset !!
Allah knows best
rgds
September 1, 2006 at 9:13 am
[...] Shaykh Bin Baz, alhamdulillah, was someone who really lived the life of a real alim. In fact, the effects of his works can still be felt to this day. I still find myself looking up his fataawa to see what his opinion was on certain fiqh issues to see what the correct position was. Even his enemies have no choice but to refer to him. I mentioned about an ISNA board member speaking about science prevailing over the sunnah, and even then he felt the need to make fun of Bin Baz (though he was already dead) in order to give legitimacy to his position. [...]
September 1, 2006 at 11:44 am
[...] Zabihah Slaughtering of the Sunnah [...]
September 5, 2006 at 1:23 am
The simple answer to all this fiasco is that convenience does not justify the abandonment of Shari’ah. The question that arises is that why is it that some are trying extremely hard to counter the Sunnah? What is the real agenda?
September 5, 2006 at 12:57 pm
[...] In the same vein, they often use the fact that we use prayer time calculations for maghrib, etc. when breaking our fast, so this should be ok. Well first, that doesn’t make it correct. Second, there is a hadith specifically prohibiting the use of calculations for the start of the month (post1, post2). Third, not everyone uses calculations, in fact I have seen many people who go out at Maghrib time and watch for the sunset to break their fast. Fourth, Khalid Shaukat himself admits some prayer time calculations have problems. The point here is, they admit there’s problems with calculations, so how can they prove the calculations are perfect? The only thing perfect we have is the Book of Allah and the preserved authentic sunnah of His Rasool(saw). 500 years ago if you didn’t think the earth was flat you were a heretic. What makes them so sure of themselves that they are infallible? [...]
September 6, 2006 at 9:39 am
Assalamualaykkum ,
Is it permissible to use clock time for adhaan and especially for breaking fast when there are texts telling other methods to estimate the same ??
Are we looking for hilaal to start each month ?? Or from shabaan onwards till dhul hajj ??
Here the Khadi and hilaal commitee request for report of hilaal sighting from rajab onwards !!
Allah knows best
rgds
September 10, 2006 at 2:06 pm
[...] ISNA Makes Zabihah Slaughtering of the Sunnah [...]
October 23, 2006 at 5:44 am
Assalamu Alaikum,
So, people have been praying on faulty broken schedules for the past 50 years…
(Think 5 x 360 x 50 prayers…
And we’re riled up about moon-sighting? What does it matter if you miss a day (or two) in Ramadan each year when you’ve been praying prayers at the wrong time all your life?
My point is… Let’s give these scholars some respect. They know what they are doing, they give clear and honest estimates to the scholars of religion and the scholars of religion determine what is acceptable.
If you want to discredit their work, then go out at noon with a stick and measure it’s shade before you pray noon. Go out at sunset and sunrise to check for the sun. Stop using the prayer times tables cause they were made by clueless (or evil) scientists who do not know what they are doing and have less care (than us, the holy ones) about getting their fast and prayers right.
Salam.
October 26, 2006 at 1:28 am
thats kind of an extreme assessment. do 2 wrongs make a right? we should fear Allah(swt) as much as we can
August 10, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Hahaha..Tarek..Well Said…The problem with Islam today is that whenever someone or a group of people try to adapt to the 21st century, we say its “Biddah” and maybe some of us even label these people as commiting “Kufur”. Your point about the calculated timings of daily prayers is an excellent example. With apologies to the Saudi’s and Wahabi’s in general, look where their version of Islam has led the Muslim world today. Dont they claim to brand every thing modern as “Biddah”? No wonder Saudi Arabia is still a 3rd world country inspite of being the largest oil exporter. They Shun Change. May Allah help us all.