3 replies to this topic

[Siarr]

Salamun Alaykum,
I have a question to all of the bro's and sisters. Is there any reason why the telescope cannot be used when sighting the moon. because there have been a lot of troubles even with the marja's these ramadhan's.
The telescope is accurate and we have the technology to sight the moon even if it is clouded. Why can't they make such a thing in for instance iran.

Wassalaam.

[SD2]

Some Maraj'a allow it and others don't. They have their own reasons, a few examples.

Some may allow it because

1) Increase in technology so why not? If we use technology to determine times of salat why can't we use it to determine when the moon is born (or w/e its called)

(that might be the stance of some maraj'a)

Some may not allow it because

1) There was no Telescope at the time of the Prophet and he never used one so for that reason we cannot use one

(that might be the stance of some maraj'a)

Other maraj'a may have their own reasons as to why telescopes are allowed or not allowed, whichever marja' you believe to be the most knowledgeable is the one whom you should follow, and you should follow their rule, if they are wrong then they will not be punished because that is geniunly what they believe to be the correct ruling from the years of research they have done on this topic, and you will not get punished because you are following them geniunly believing that they have more knowledge than the other maraj'a

Edited by SD2, 09 November 2011 - 06:20 PM.

[alimohamad40]

Siarr, on 09 November 2011 - 04:48 PM, said:

Salamun Alaykum,
I have a question to all of the bro's and sisters. Is there any reason why the telescope cannot be used when sighting the moon. because there have been a lot of troubles even with the marja's these ramadhan's.
The telescope is accurate and we have the technology to sight the moon even if it is clouded. Why can't they make such a thing in for instance iran.

Wassalaam.

assalamu alaikum

what needs to be understood is that the birth of the new moon happens on a cycle base,,,   first thing they say its born which means it has gone in the angle to be able to reflect the light to our eyes but obviously the light intensity will be very small at that stage so no one will see anything until many hours later.

this cycle repeats itself and hence the calendar has to rely on one set point of this cycle and stay consistent forever.....  
if you start the cycle at the full moon you need to always do that forever for your calendar to stay consistent otherwise if you change your point of reference each time you will have a "Phase shift " which will wreck your count.

therefore telescope could be used to locate the moon but the actual sighting needs to be with the naked eyes otherwise its too early as the telescope is stronger than the eye and detects lower light intensity and this can cause a shift in the sinusoidal phase

the point of reference that the people used to start this calendar needs to continue to keep the calendar consistent .

professor khalid shaukat from pakistan  made a programe that estimates the time that the different places are supposed to see and look and done a huge favour for this field , all he needs is the scholars to sit there and decide on a few issues namely

1) agree on the definition an exact point of reference
2) agree on wihdat al ufoq's (unity of the horizon) definition , is it like fadhallah? like khoie?

this was they can set up a world calendar

[3rd June]

SD2, on 09 November 2011 - 06:19 PM, said:

Some may not allow it because

1) There was no Telescope at the time of the Prophet and he never used one so for that reason we cannot use one