On 9 Zulhijjah 10 AH (632 CE) from the last Khutba of the Prophet Muhammad (s) at Arafah, Islamic calendar was established on scientific non-political foundations. Colonization added to modern scientific confusions but great progress towards a modern scientific Unified World Islamic Calendar involving Muslim governments, national bodies, Islamic Organisations (OIC, COMSTECH, Rabeta, RISEAP), Ulema, and scientists and thousands of grass roots people has been made. Use of Advance calculations with 3 variations is now norm in all countries and communities.
I became interested in the astronomy of moon sighting while working in rocket-borne space programme at Adelaide University under an international Australian research fellowship starting 1970 but later moved to Malaysia to spearhead this project sucessfully.
I found a dozen criterion (conjunction, moon’s age, moonset time, expected visibility, etc.) and combinations and variations resulting in nearly 40 different criterion in use. Some countries used up to 4 different criterion in 12 month calendar!
Also, key cities and towns adding up to several thousand locations worldwide served as reference.
First I had to combine all the ‘criteria for expected visibility’ based on physics and observations developed over two thousand years (Incas, Chinese, Hindus, Babylonians and Muslims) into a single modern criterion using ‘’First’’ set of fast computers installed in Australia (CDC), Malaysia (IBM) and Italy (Euro).
These computers also enabled me to study expected global visibility of the crescent moon (Imkane Ruyah) on same evening on consecutive days, months, and years to understand this: if we sight the new evening moon at one place, what will happen to moon sighting to the east, west, north, and south?
The answer for the first time ever became a modern breakthrough enabling the development of a unified World Islamic Calendar shown in the illustration (growing dark and white circles) and global visibility line or the International Lunar Date Line (ILDL).
The ILDL visibility line is now used worldwide (UK Royal Observatory, US Naval Almanac Office, etc. and electronic portals) and led to scores of papers and books.
The 50-year old International Islamic Calendar Programme (IICP) was supported through much research and expositions to implement the ILDL system by:
- 3 major working fellowships by UK Nuffield Foundation (London University observatory), Kuwait Science Foundation (ICTP Italy), and Trieste Centre Fellowship.
- 5 working visits including 3 to Saudi Arabia via Science Centre (KACST Riyadh), one each to Iran, Turkey, and to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji through RISEAP.
- 40 expository lectures across North America, Europe, Africa-Middle East, Asia, Australasia, and Malaysia.
- Resolutions from 15 major conferences in various countries, via a three point implementation plan for unified Imkane Ruyah system.
So far, use of 40 criterion is reduced to 3, applied at 4 locations (down from 3000). We need to make a bit more progress inshaAllah.
I finish it with poet Majrooh Sultanpuri’s couplet (Mein Akela hi chala tha..):
I set off alone towards my goal but;
People continued to come along and carvan continued to develop.
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