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I'm double-checking a list of holidays for 2011 for work, and I'm having trouble finding a good source to verify the Islamic holidays. Can someone help me find a good, reliable resource that will be accepted in the US and Canada?
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I'm looking around. Do you know if the Islamic calendar corresponds to the Hebrew Calendar? Because I know there are english sites that have that. But the Hebrew Calendar employs a complex algorithm of leap years.
A lot of what I'm finding deals with whether it is even proper to use astronomical calculations to determined the start of Ramadan.
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Islamic Holidays are based on the lunar calendar. But, no matter how accurate a calendar you find, things like the beginning of Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr won't necessarily be so. There are many schools of thought on the proper way to calculate the days for each. Some think it depends on the actual sighting of the new moon (and if there's fog, that could be delayed by a day or two), while others go by astronomical calculations, others will go with whenever the new moon is sighted in Saudi Arabia, and there's probably one or two others.
Here, the beginning of Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr is by the sighting of the new moon, so we'll know that Ramadan is likely to start on this day or this day or maybe this day, we don't know which it'll actually be until 8 or 9 or so the previous evening.
None of which actually answers your specific question, but may help you understand the, ah, complications involved.
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Thanks, quidscribis. I knew it was complicated, but I was hoping there might be some sort of standard, at least in North America. The dates listed at When-is.com reportedly come from the Fiqh Council of North America. Does that sound like a good source to you?
Also, do you know if Isra al Mi'raj and Lailat al Miraj are the same thing?
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What is the purpose of this list, and how detailed does it get with other cultural holidays?
It's considered kind of secularist to count on a calendar. It's kind of like "Allah could change when the moon shows up if he wanted to".
I think it's been a while since I related the case of three men who said they could see the moon and so embarked on or ended a holiday a day early. Under inspection, it came out that they had taken medical exception to military service for bad eyesight, so they wound up getting drafted.
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This is part of the regular database of holidays that go into our day planners. It has all the federal holidays, several national holidays, and the basic Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holidays.
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They don't have a record of where the got prior years' information for? You'd think they'd have some kind of reference source.
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Yeah, and our previous sources were Indoflorist.com, Moonsighting.com, and some other site. I don't know what it was because the URL isn't on the printout, and anyway it has a bunch of stuff crossed out. I don't think I'd trust a florist website (even one that claims to be the best way to send flowers to Indonesia), and the other one looks a little iffy, too, though it could just be the atrocious web design.
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quote:Originally posted by Jon Boy: Thanks, quidscribis. I knew it was complicated, but I was hoping there might be some sort of standard, at least in North America. The dates listed at When-is.com reportedly come from the Fiqh Council of North America. Does that sound like a good source to you?
Also, do you know if Isra al Mi'raj and Lailat al Miraj are the same thing?
As far as standards go, there isn't one that applies to Sunni & Shi'ite and the other groups. My understanding is that the calendar depends, at least in part, whether it's Sunni or Shi'ite, and there are further divisions from there.
The Islamic holidays show up on calendars here, with the full knowledge that, with Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr, those are approximate dates only. Everyone knows and understands this and accomodations are automatically made for changes. The best you can do is likely something very similar - approximate dates based on an astronomical calculation with a notation that, due to variances in how the dates are calculated, these are approximate only and may change depending on the specific sect or some such caveat thereof.
As for the Fiqh Council:
quote:The Fiqh Council is encouraging all Muslims throughout North America to consider using the new methodology for the sake of unity and to avoid the confusion and disputes that have occurred in the past. However, the Fiqh Council does not intend to force its decision on anyone or any Muslim community.
You should follow the decision of your Imam and your Masjid. Moreover, you should do so with great respect and avoiding unnecessary disputes and discussion. It is not expected that everyone will embrace this decision immediately. As with all changes, it will take time for people to understand and appreciate the new method. But, Insha’Allah, once people see the new methodology as a more objective and accurate standard, it will serve to unite us in the near future.
That tells me that their methodology is not widely accepted. They rely on astronomical calculations, not sightings, and the sightings are the more traditional.
BUT the bottom line is that you're never going to come up with one set of dates that is a. 100% accurate for everyone and b. that will make everyone happy. So, sure, go with it, but add the caveats and disclaimers to avoid confusion when the dates don't pan out exactly in reality.
ETA: I realized I needed to clarify this. Astronomical calculations are, in my understanding, used for all approximations for calendar purposes. This group seems to want to take that a step further and use the astronomical calculations for the firm date as well and not use sightings of the new moon anywhere to firm up the date. If that makes sense? So yes, use the astronomical calculations as the date to go in the calendar and add the disclaimers. I hope I'm not making things less clear.
Isra al Mi'raj and Lailat al Miraj are apparently not the same. Isra al Mi'raj is the journey of the prophet, and Lailat al Miraj is the night of the journey. Not exactly the same thing, but closely related. Read up [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi'raj]this entry[/url] in Wikipedia and also this one.
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