No chance of sighting the moon in any part of the world tonight

Based on reliable astronomical calculations, there is no chance of the moon being visible today at sunset in any part of the world. The new moon of the month of Shawwal will appear tonight (Tuesday night) at 0251 local time, which means that there would be a lapse of about eight hours between sunset and the appearance of the new moon.

Today, the moon will set about 29 minutes before sunset in Jakarta, Indonesia; 27 minutes before sunset in Male’; 35 minutes before sunset in Makkah; 37 minutes before sunset in Istanbul; and 29 minutes before sunset in Rabat, Morocco. Indonesia is the easternmost Islamic country, while Morocco is the westernmost and Turkey is the northernmost Islamic country.

For countries like Maldives, where 9 July was declared 1 Ramadan, this Ramadan will be a 30-day month. For countries where 10 July was 1 Ramadan, this Ramadan will be a 29-day month. The day after tomorrow, or 8 August, will be Eid.

Tomorrow, 7 August, for most Islamic countries, the moon will set after sunset. In Male’, the moon will set 17 minutes after sunset, in Makkah 11 minutes after sunset, in Jakarta 18 minutes after sunset, and in Rabat 6 minutes after sunset. As such, for all these countries, the day after tomorrow (8 August) will be 1 Shawwal.

As it turns out, this year, the only country in which people started fasting on the same day as Maldivians was Turkey. Most other countries started one day later. From a legal perspective, there is no problem with declaring 9 July as 1 Ramadan this year. Because, based on reliable astronomical calculations, on that day, the birth of the moon came long before sunset. However, for most countries, the moon set within between 3 and 8 minutes of sunset. Therefore, the moon would neither have been visible to the naked eye, nor sighted using binoculars, after sunset in any of those locations. Nonetheless, even though the moon set shortly after sunset on that day, since it was undoubtedly a new moon, there is no legal problem with declaring that night as the beginning of Ramadan.

A question some people might ask this year is, if someone started fasting on 9 July in Male’, and then travelled to another country such as Singapore or Malaysia, where people started fasting on 10 July – what should they do? The answer is, in the Hijri calendar, the number of days in a month never exceeds 30. As such, regardless of your location, you would not have to fast for more than 30 days.