It is that time of the year again. Taking cue from yet another controversy about moon being sighted and therefore the advent of Ramazan, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, the federal minister, lately of science and technology, has raised the question once again of a lunar calendar based on the objective position of the moon in the sky rather than actual moon sighting.
Through a tweet the minister announced that a five-member committee had been set up by his ministry to issue a 10-year calendar for all feasts and occasions subject traditionally to the appearance of moon. The initiative, he hoped, would resolve the controversy for all times.
Asked whether religious scholars had been consulted in this regard, the minister said, some religious scholars tended to have rather peculiar views. He said he did not feel constrained by their opinions.
The minister also said however, that further action was up to the government (read federal cabinet) and (or) the ministry of religious affairs.
The minister said he saw no reason why one should not benefit from the latest available technology. In using telescopes, he said, the clerics were agreeing to use technology. However, it was inferior technology and better means of ascertaining the fact were now available.
Also, he said, in a later tweet, governance decisions could not be left to some religious scholars. Technology alone, he said, could take the country forward. He said the country was about the youth, who would go their way and not bother too much about the clerics. Had the nation heeded their opinion too much, he said, the country would not even have come into existence as most contemporary clerics had been opposed to the Quaid-i-Azam.
Talking to the BBC, moon sighting committee member Allama Sheikh Shifa Najafi was categorical and spot on. He said, one, that he did not see the need for another committee after the government had already constituted a moon sighting committee in which religious scholars of all Muslim schools of thought were represented; and two, after everything is said and done, the government and the people would have to go by what the religious scholars said.
On another plain, it may be argued that the issue is basically political. The state can and should leave it to the people to celebrate their religious feasts as and when then see fit. It does not have to worry beyond deciding the holidays that would be available. It needs neither moon sighting committees nor to bring pressure to bear on the unwilling to agree to its calendar. There are multiple Eid celebrations almost every year despite all its efforts. It might as well accept the fact and let people be. *