Assalamu `Alaikum. Bismillah ar Rahman ir Raheem. Some of my local masajid use calculations for establishing hijri months and declared Eid ul Adha to be Sunday, Dec. 31st. However, they recommended we fast on Friday and told us not to fast on Saturday. I thought the day of fasting is Day of Arafah and day not to fast is Eid day. Also, Day of Arafah is 9th Dhul Hijjah and the following day, the 10th, is Eid. How come they at the same time defended having Eid on Sunday? These contradictions are confusing and making matters very difficult for us. What/who should we be following on this matter? Should we be following the hajjis, the local sighting, or the calculations, or something else? For myself, I prayed Eid prayers on Saturday with the local masajid who were celebrating Eid on that day. Jazakum Allahu khairan.

All praise be to Allah, and may his peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

 

These are some of the inevitable contradictions and confusions that emanate from the absolute following of the calculations in determining the times for the ritual feasts and acts of worship.

The day of al-Nahr (slaughtering the sheep) is the supreme day of the pilgrimage, which is also known as the day of sacrifice (udhiya). This is the tenth of dhulhijjah and the scholars maintain that the people must follow the pilgrims on that day. For the last 70 years or more, and until recently, the Muslims followed the pilgrims in determining the day of al-Nahr. If disagreeing may have any sense in Ramadan, then it is much less sensible in the feast of al-Adha, where the hearts of all Muslims are attached to the holy places and the rituals of hajj.

I agree with what you did by praying with the congregation that prayed on Saturday.

The people who supported the following of calculations did that with the good intentions of unifying the Muslims. It should be clear to them after trying that system that the use of calculations did not - and likely will not - unite the Muslims, but rather, added more disagreement by introducing an opinion of a very small minority that was abandoned by the ummah for fourteen centuries.

It remains to be said that we should be all forces of unity in our respective communities and work to mend the gaps between the Muslims. I would not encourage any heated debates over these issues, and would recommend didactic and scholarly debates in an overall environment of compassion and mutual understanding of each other`s motives.

 

Allah knows best.