SCIENCE VS. FAITH
Technologists and traditionalists are split on when Ramadan ends
A religion devoted to both science and faith now faces a holy headache: When will this weekend’s crescent moon appear on the Bay Area horizon, launching the festive finale of Ramadan for tens of thousands of local Muslims?
Maybe Saturday. Maybe Sunday. It all depends on whether you trust computers, or the human eye.
The split between technologists and traditionalists — when, exactly, do you end a monthlong fast? — is amicable but complicates weekend plans for prayers, feasts, gifts, carnival rides, a petting zoo and even a mechanical bull.
Most years, every-
celebrates simultaneously. Computers say when and where the crescent moon should emerge from the sun’s shadow. And sure enough, there it is, right in plain view.
But this year, there’s an astronomical quirk: Computers say the whisker-thin moon will appear low in the Bay Area sky on Saturday evening — but will be visible only after first sighting with a telescope or binoculars, and may demand ideal atmospheric conditions. Not until Sunday night will it be easily seen.
“Digital Muslims,” many of them on the Peninsula, are confident that the crescent moon will be there, so they’ll spend Saturday night busily organizing Sunday festivities.
More traditional Muslims, including many in the South Bay and East Bay, will hold “moon-sighting” dinner parties, wait for news of sightings, or follow the tradition of their ancestors — climbing mountain trails to scan vast skies. Their celebration may need to wait until Monday.
Just to be safe, event centers such as the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds have been rented for both days.
“We are right on the cusp of whether we’ll see it — or not,” said Youssef Ismail, a Stanford-trained mechanical engineer who teaches astronomy and Islamic Law at Zaytuna College in Berkeley.
Islam is hardly alone in the debate over the role of science in religion. And many other major religious holidays — such as Judaism’s Rosh Hashanah, Christianity’s Easter and Hinduism’s Diwali — are also assigned dates based on positions of the sun or moon.
But while other faiths have invented strategies to reconcile ancient practices with the rigid secular calendar, much of contemporary Islam — its soul rooted in the desert and infinite sky — still cherishes “moonsighting” traditions.
Some modern-day Muslims take pride in updating their rituals to reflect scientific advancement. It was early Muslims, they note, who developed calculations in spherical trigonometry and algebra, fundamental to astronomy. The world’s first observatory was reportedly built in 8th century Baghdad.
This push and pull influences who celebrates when, said Hafiz Siddiqi of California’s Islamic Shura Council and professor of Islamic studies and the Arabic language at several Bay Area community colleges.
“Where you find the vast majority of Islamic scholars are members of the community, there you will find the sighting of the moon,” he said. “Where you find more science people, they will depend on the calendar.”
As science has sharpened, so has the debate. Visibility of the crescent is not simply a function of the age of the moon. Rather, it is determined by the angle between the moon, observer and the sun — which affects the crescent’s brightness. It is also determined by the altitude of the moon and sun, which affects the background’s darkness.
Leading the charge for unity is United Arab Emirates theoretical astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum, trained at UC San Diego, who calls the calendar confusion “an embarrassment” to Islam.
Calculations can prevent false sightings of a crescent so thin that it more closely resembles an arched hair, said Bradley Schaefer, an astronomer and science historian of Louisiana State University. “Someone is always guaranteed to see the moon — innocently but wrongly,” getting the holiday off to an early start, he said.
The Qur’an doesn’t mandate actual moon sighting, and even supports the use of scientific calculations, said Mohammed Nadeem, professor of marketing at University of San Francisco. Long ago, his Santa Clarabased Muslim Community Association planned a Sunday celebration for 5,000 to 7,000 members.
What matters is reverence for the holiday, not its precise timing, he said. “People work at places like Google and Microsoft. … They say, ‘I have to tell my boss,’” if they need a day off from work, he said. “We pray by looking at a watch. Why not follow the same criteria for the moon?”
At West Valley Muslim Association, which used web-based computer calculations to schedule their rental of a city-owned facility for a Sunday celebration, “science and religion are in perfect harmony,” said Kutub Mahmood, a microbiologist who works on polio eradication, funded by the Gates Foundation.
“Religion demands that we investigate, study science and understand the beauty of nature,” said Mahmood, who keeps the Islamic calendar on his iPhone.
But traditionalists note that computers just predict the crescent moon — they don’t confirm it. Visibility is affected by location and atmospheric factors such as turbulence in the air, humidity, dust and pollution. While computers are useful to guide the sighting and reduce errors, the human eye is essential, they say.
Sightings provide something else: a natural, sacred and communal end to Ramadan, said Zaytuna’s Ismail, who has permission from MidPeninsula Open Space District to take friends and family on a twilight walk atop Russian Ridge.
“The act of looking for the moon is a devotion,” he said. “As the sky darkens, and contrast builds, it just pops out. In an empty sky, suddenly the moon appears out of nowhere. It’s a very spiritually moving moment. … It’s belief in the unseen, to the seen. Creation.”
If the moon can’t be seen, plans suddenly change. There’s one more day of fasting. Pleasanton’s Muslim Community Center won’t host a Sunday carnival in its parking lot. The South Bay Islamic Association will instead hold its fairgrounds festival on Monday. The Islamic Society of East Bay in Fremont will delay its distribution of sweets.
“While all this seems like a lot of work and neoLuddism, it reminds us of the great Divine mystery, that we truly surrender to the Lord in all matters, letting Him decide when we can resume normal dining habits!” said Arif Khan, of the South Bay Islamic Association.
Whether pulled by science or tradition, the abundance of Muslims in the Bay Area make it easy to find a like-minded celebration, scholars and scientists agree.
“Difference of opinion is a mercy from God,” Siddiqi said. “We accept the various intelligent ways of people who look at the same thing.”