Sighting of Ramadan crescent: When religion meets astronomy

Last week the Saudi Supreme Court called on all Muslims to look for the crescent moon signaling the start of Ramadan. On Saturday observers said that there was no sight of the crescent, meaning many Muslims around the world will begin fasting on Monday.

“The viewing of the crescent is a sensitive matter, because it is tied to both religion and astronomy,” Dr. Ayman Kordi, from the physics and astronomy department at King Saud University (KSU), told Arab News. 

“The crescent observer cannot be refuted. He is to be trusted, because it is a gift from Allah. So, from a scientific point of view, when mistakes are made we call them illusions.”

Kordi’s love of astronomy started by accident in 1984. He was at university, studying physics, when a miscalculation of the Ramadan crescent moon meant he and his Muslim colleagues fasted for 28 days.

“That year we were surprised that Ramadan was only 28 days. A huge error was made. We fasted, and Eid Al-Fitr came, but it stuck with me. It was still on my mind, that error.”

The start of Ramadan is determined by the lunar calendar which, unlike the Gregorian calendar, follows a 29- or 30-day cycle determined by the cycle of the moon.

Muslims anticipate the end of Shaaban, the month preceding Ramadan, by watching for the absence or presence of the crescent moon, which indicates the continuation of Shaaban or the beginning of Ramadan.