Eid: Friday or Saturday?

New Delhi : At the Jama Masjid, here in New Delhi, the central moon-sighting committee will convene on Thursday night to decide whether the moon is visible. And that will in turn determine whether Eid falls on Friday or not.

The Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia, perceived as the crux of Sunni Islam, on Thursday ruled that Eid will fall on Friday which, by tradition, indicates that Eid in India should fall on Saturday since Islamic authorities in India are more interested in what the heavens have to say.

The Saudi apex court?s decision came after not even a sliver of the moon was visible on Wednesday night and since Thursday was the 30th day of fasting for the Middle Eastern nation that started Ramadan on August 11, Eid ul-Fitr has been decided to fall on Friday.

Marking the first day of the month of Shawwal, Eid is the day when Muslims worldwide break a fast undertaken during the holy month of Ramadan and thank Allah for the help and strength that he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practise self-control.

Across the world, Muslim scholars wait patiently with telescopes to spot a new moon crescent at sunset as most Islamic authorities believe that according to their holy law, the first day of Shawwal begins with the physical sighting of the sliver of the new moon.

Factors like geographical location, cloud cover, often end up creating differences between the authorities over when Eid should fall.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and many other Middle Eastern nations, Eid is usually declared a day ahead of South and South East Asian countries since most of their authorities believe that the month of Ramadan should last not more than 30 days irrespective of the physical sighting of the moon.

Progressive Islamic authorities have been consistently voicing support for this scientific method of evaluating on which day Eid falls, but most orthodox groups are staunchly against it.

For the people watching out for the moon at the Jama Masjid, the physical sighting is the surest sign of Eid. They do not go into the ?30 day theory?. But in some other parts like Kerela, Eid is likely to fall on Friday since they reportedly follow the Saudi way of deciding things.

The disagreement is universal. For 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, it only transforms into celebrating one of their biggest days without unison.