BUKU FALAK ABAD 21

which they would have accepted to consider a moving Earth, and how much
Copernicus knew about such Muslim considerations.

Indeed, Hartner has convincingly shown 25 that Copernicus essentially copied
(with someone else’s help, since he didn’t know any Arabic) al-Tusi’s proof of his
‘couple’, replacing the Arabic symbols with Latin ones, without crediting the
Muslim astronomer; again perhaps Copernicus never read any of al-Tusi’s works,
that he found the Maragha astronomer’s theorem somewhere else and used it
without correct referencing.

Owen Gingerich has written 26: “Scholars are currently divided over whether
Copernicus got his method for replacing the equant by some unknown route
from the Islamic world or whether he found it on his own.” He adds: “I
personally believe he could have invented the method independently.”

Jamil Ragep has gingerly argued27 for the existence of some latent concepts of
non-geocentric astronomy in the ideas developed by al-Tusi and, two centuries
later, al-Qushji. Ragep recalls that al-Tusi, contrary to Ptolemy, believed it
impossible to decide either theoretically (mathematically) or observationally
whether the Earth was fixed or moving. More boldly, Qushji declared that
“nothing false follows from the assumption of a rotating Earth.”28 In the same
vein, George Saliba says29: “Aristarchos [and] Biruni… did acknowledge that the
same phenomena could either be explained by a fixed Earth at the center or by a
moving one.” Ragep goes on to emphasize Copernicus’s usage of al-Tusi’s
arguments against Ptolemy’s view of the Earth’s immobility, noting that al-Tusi’s
position was adopted by later Maragha astronomers, such as al-Qushji, thus
making this “a conceptual revolution that was going on in Islamic astronomy”30;
he adds: “The fact that we can find a long, vigorous discussion in Islam of this
issue intricately-tied to the question of the Earth’s movement should indicate that
such a conceptual foundation was there for the borrowing.”31

25 Hartner, W. (1973). Copernicus, the Man, the Work, and its History. Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society, 117(6), 413-422.; see also Saliba, G. (2007). Islamic science and the making of the European Renaissance. MIT
Press.
26 Gingerich, O. (1986). Islamic astronomy. Scientific American, 254(4), 74-83.
27 Ragep, F. J. (2007). Copernicus and his Islamic predecessors: Some historical remarks. History of science,
45(1), 65-81.
28 Ibid., p. 73; see also Ragep, F. J. (2001). Tūsī and Copernicus: The Earth's Motion in Context. Science in
Context, 14(1-2), 145-163.
29 Saliba, G. (2007). Islamic science and the making of the European Renaissance. MIT Press, p. 120.
30 Ragep, 2007, op. cit.
31 Ibid.

143

One crucial question that one should ask in this context, and especially
considering Saliba’s remarks that Ibn al-Shatir’s “geometrically unified model”
paved the way for Copernicus’s heliocentrism is simply: then why didn’t any of
the Muslim astronomers ever propose such a model? (In Saliba’s own words:
“None of the astronomers who worked in the Islamic world… had any interest
in such concepts as heliocentrism.”32) Saliba says that the physics of the times (up
to and including Copernicus) was Aristotelian, therefore it made no sense for
Muslim astronomers to propose such a schizophrenic system as Copernicus did.
Saliba “raise[s] the question of the scientific legitimacy of heliocentrism itself in a
pre-Newtonian universe, where no alternative cosmology was yet available.”33 He
adds: “without the benefit of the Newtonian law of universal gravitation, how
could [anyone] have hoped to maintain the system together?” But there are many
cases in the history of science where laws were constructed in a totally empirical
way without the slightest understanding of the physical principles that
undergirded them; Kepler’s laws were soon to be formulated in exactly that way.

It took over a century for heliocentric astronomy, including Kepler’s and
Galileo’s revolutionary contributions, to start appearing in writings of Muslim
intellectuals, such as Katib Çelebi (d. 1657) and Ibrahim Muteferrika (d. 1745). In
the 18th century, when the Ottomans realized that they had fallen far behind
Europe and military and other fields, they introduced educational reforms which
incorporation some European science, including modern astronomy, engineering,
and other subjects. Still, classical Islamic astronomy continued to be taught,
particularly in religious institutions, in Ottoman lands and elsewhere, up to the
twentieth century34.

Unfortunately, the above history, which is not overly complex, has been
misconstrued and misrepresented by many writers in the Arab/Muslim world;
indeed, Copernicus is now often presented as – at best – a synthesizer of earlier
Muslim astronomical developments or – at worst – as a plagiarizer. Those who
make such claims base themselves mostly on the similarities (and, in some
aspects, identities) between Copernicus’s and Ibn al-Shatir’s geometrical
arrangements, without stressing the central geocentric-heliocentric difference.
Moreover, the heliocentric hypothesis is sometimes attributed to al-Biruni, simply
because he referred to it as the Indians’ idea.

32 Saliba, op. cit., p. 215
33 Ibid.
34 Morrison, op. cit., p. 138, and references therein.

144

In a previous article35, I reviewed the main similarities and differences between
the planetary models of Ibn al-Shatir and of Copernicus. I showed that the
important similarities reside in the technical aspects of the orbits constructed by
the two astronomers and that the fundamental differences are: 1) Copernicus
adopted a heliocentric (Sun-centered) model while Ibn al-Shatir (and all Muslim
astronomers) insisted on a geocentric (Earth-centered) model, as strictly as
possible; 2) Copernicus followed a clear inductive method while Ibn al-Shatir
remained within the “Zij” (astronomical tables) tradition. I also insisted on the
fact that neither Ibn al-Shatir no any Muslim astronomer accepted, let alone
proposed a heliocentric model.

Why does this huge confusion prevail in today’s Arab-Muslim culture? I believe
that despite many efforts at unearthing and presenting to the public an accurate
account of the scientific works that the golden-era Muslim scholars produced,
there is still serious ignorance about what was done exactly. Most of the
discourse on the Islamic civilization has remained superficial and ill informed.
Gingerich could not have put it more clearly when he wrote: “The Islamic
astronomers would probably have been astonished and even horrified by the
revolution started by Copernicus.”

This is where Islamic astronomy today needs to work hand in hand with the
educational system and with the media to spread correct knowledge and spur an
Islamic scientific renaissance.

Islamic Astronomy Today and Tomorrow

What we have learned from the above succinct review of Islamic astronomy
during the golden age of the Islamic civilization is that it encompassed a variety
of fields, some closer to the religious practice in Islam and some much more
research and discovery related, such as the planetary orbits and the general
structure of the heavens. The philosophers (the scientists of that time) also hotly
debated whether the universe had a beginning or was eternal.

Today, unfortunately, the expression ‘Islamic astronomy’ is almost always
synonymous with the astronomical calculations and observations related to
religious practices, such as prayer and fasting, i.e. prayer times, new crescent
visibility (observations, calculations, criteria, etc.), calendrical tables, etc.

35 Guessoum, N. (2008). Copernicus and Ibn Al-Shatir: does the Copernican revolution have Islamic roots?
The Observatory, 128, 231-239.

145

The determination of the qibla is no longer problem today, even though many
mosques around the world are badly oriented; so perhaps what is needed in this
regard is a good communication effort.

And to a large extent, we can say that crescent visibility is also a problem that has
been solved. Thanks in part to efforts by ICOP (the Islamic Crescent
Observation Project36), which was established in 1998, and other similar but less
global projects, e.g. Moonsighting.com, a wealth of data on crescent observation,
including records (with naked eyes or optical aids, by age, lagtime, elongation
from the sun, geocentric or topocentric), have been gathered and new empirical
criteria37 have been formulated. For local and night-specific predictions, crescent
visibility criteria will never be highly reliable, for the simple reason that
meteorological conditions (including humidity and dustiness, which are critical)
can never be predicted well in advance. But for regional/zonal predictions, those
criteria are more than sufficient and satisfactory. And indeed, Islamic
communities need to move to a calendrical approach, whereby the beginning of
any month, including Ramadan and Shawwal, are determined regionally, instead
of the local, country-by-country crescent-sighting-based start of a month, which
would keep the Islamic world in a chaotic situation, where people cannot know
when Eid will be, hence when to travel and when to plan for meetings, exams,
etc.

So what topics will Islamic astronomy be addressing in the 21st century? In my
view, the calendar problem is not completely solved yet, perhaps better
formulations can be put forward, and certainly more discussions with the jurists
and the officials, nationally and internationally, must be conducted. Prayer times
are also largely solved, except for two problems, one minor and one major: a) the
times for Isha (end of twilight and start of night) and Fajr (dawn, i.e. first light)
prayers still suffer some disagreements and controversies in a number of places,
and this needs some effort and attention; b) prayer times at high latitudes, both
where the sun does not set or rise during certain periods of the year and where it
does rise and set but leads to unreasonably long fasting times (from Fajr to
Maghrib) – more on this below.

Surprisingly, we have seen a resurgence of disagreements and controversies over
the times for the Fajr and Isha prayers, both in moderate-latitude and high-
latitude lands, i.e. in majority-Muslim countries and in minority-Muslim

36 https://www.astronomycenter.net/icop.html?l=en
37 Most notably Odeh’s criterion (Odeh, M. S. (2004). New criterion for lunar crescent visibility. Experimental
astronomy, 18(1), 39-64.), which can certainly be improved upon in the future, but for all intents and purposes
is more than accurate enough.

146

communities (e.g. in the west). The main contention is over what constitutes
“end of twilight and start of night” or “dawn, first light”, that is how far below
the horizon (12, 15, 18 degrees, or somewhere in that range) must the sun be for
the prayer to be called? Moreover, in summer time, in many northern lands the
sun does not reach the (typical) 18 degrees below the horizon (where most
Muslim countries define Fajr and Isha), thus some Muslim communities
(particularly in Europe) have settled for 12 degrees (which corresponds to the
“nautical twilight”), and this has created controversies and disputes. In other
places, it is commonly agreed that the sun must be roughly 18 degrees below the
horizon, but several groups and researchers have set out to determine the precise
value of that angle (Nor & Zainuddin 2012 38, Siti Asma 2016 39, Ngadiman,
Shariff, & Hamidi 202040, Affendi et al. 202141, Hasan 202142).

However, as I have stressed, Islamic astronomy must not confine itself to Fiqh-
related topics. As in the past, it must concern itself with wider fields of discovery
and contemplation, e.g. exoplanets and the possibility of life elsewhere, or
modern cosmology, i.e. the history and future of the universe, and other such
fascinating topics. Islamic astronomy has always given observatories an important
place and role, and this aspect must be brought back.

Last but not least, there is an important role for Muslim astronomers to play in
education, both formal (through curricula) and informal (through the media,
traditional and social) – more on this below.

Crescent visibility and Islamic calendars

The Islamic nation adopted, from its early days, a crescent-based calendar, and
indeed it appeared to be a natural and simple choice, for it allowed the
community to set its religious dates rather easily. But this apparent simplicity in
reality hides an important problem, namely the insistence, by the majority of

38 Nor, S. A. M., & Zainuddin, M. Z. (2012). Sky brightness for determination of Fajr and Isha prayer by
using sky quality meter. Muslim World, 15, 15.
39 Siti Asma, M. N. (2016). A study of Fajr and Isha prayer times at high latitude regions between 48° to
67° (Master in Science dissertation, University of Malaya).
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/9663/6/A_study_of_Fajr_and_Isha_prayer_times_at_high_latitude_region
s_between_48%C2%B0_to_67%C2%B0..pdf
40 Ngadiman, N. F., Shariff, N. N. M., & Hamidi, Z. S. (2020). Quantification of Evening and Morning
Twilight Angle in Malaysia: A Suburban-Rural Areas Comparison. International Journal of Advanced Science and
Technology. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344246350.
41 Affendi, T.N.T. (2021). Measurement of Subh and Isha at Besut, Kuala Terengganu by using sky quality
meter. AIP Conference Proceedings 2368, 040002. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0058253.
42 Hasan, R. H. (2021). Astronomical Interpretation of Early Prayer Times (Study of Differences in
Determination of Early Prayer Times From The Text and Astronomical Prespective). Al-Hilal: Journal of
Islamic Astronomy, 2(2), 194-213.

147

Muslims, on the visual observation of the new crescent as the definition for the
start of the month; this condition introduces serious complications. Indeed, such
an insistence on the visual observation of the crescent, even on the part of
“trustworthy” or “honest” witnesses, negates the possibility of constructing a
long-term calendar, whether that condition of visual observation is applied for
the “religious dates” (Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul-Hijja) only or for all months of
the year.

And indeed, today we continue to witness unacceptable differences in the start of
the Islamic months from one country to another, sometimes within the same
country too, with newspapers carrying different Islamic calendar dates on many
days of the year. Moreover, recent studies (e.g. Guessoum & Meziane 199643,
200144; Odeh 199945, Gadi 200746) have shown that the rates of errors in the
official determination of “religious months” during the past half-century have
sometimes reached 90 %!

Furthermore, the confusion has reached unprecedented levels with Muslims
attempting to solve the problem by proposing “technological solutions” such
crescent observatories, high-altitude aircraft sighting and photography of the
crescent, a satellite dedicated to the observation and photography of the crescent,
and networks of telescopes, webcams, and real-time communication… The
reason why all these solutions cannot solve the problem fully is simply that they
all rely on the observation of the crescent in the “night of doubt”, which again
negates the possibility of building a calendar and knowing in advance the start of
any month.

Paradoxically, Islamic calendars were used during most of the history of the
Islamic civilization. The first and longest used one was the “arithmetic” or
“hisabi” 47 (“calculational”) calendar, so called because it is based on a simple

43 Guessoum, N. & Meziane, K. (1996). Estimating error rates in the determination of the dates of religious
occasions in the Islamic world – Algeria as a case study (Taqyim nisab al-khta’ fi tahdid al-munasabat al-diniyah fi
al-calam al-islamiy – mithal al-jaza’ir). Dirasat cArabiyyah, vol. 3/4, Jan./Feb.
44 Guessoum, N. & Meziane, K. (2001). Visibility of the thin lunar crescent: the sociology of an astronomical
problem (A case study). Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1-14.
45 Odeh, M. S. (1999). Estimating error rates in the determination of the start of Hijri months in Jordan
during the last half century (Taqyim nisab al-khta’ fi tahdid awa’il al-ashhur al-hijriyyah fi al-Urdun khilal al-nisf qarn
al-madi). https://www.astronomycenter.net/article/1999_error.html.
46 Gadi, A. A. (2007). A comparative study of the official and astronomical start of Ramadan in Saudi Arabia
between 1380 and 1425 Hijri (Dirasah falakiyyah muqaranah bayna yawmay al-dukhul al-rasmiy wa al-falakiy li shahr
Ramadan fi al-mamlakah al-arabiyyah al-saudiyyah 1380-1425 H). In Applications of Astronomical Calculations to
Islamic Issues, Proc. of the First Emirates International Astronomical Conference (N. Guessoum & M. Odeh,
Eds.), Abu Dhabi: Center for Documentation and Research, 2007.
47 http://www.anu.edu.au/asianstudies/ahcen/proudfoot/mmp/calendars.html

148

arithmetic rule. Helmer Aslaksen48 mentions that this calendar was most probably
first developed49 by the great Al-Battani (850-929) and was first implemented by
the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim (985-1021).

This calendar was used until late in the 20th century, but for civil purposes only,
not for religious ones, because it was obvious that it was often contradicted by
the actual observations of the new crescent. The reason for that is simple: lunar
months vary in length more than the calendar accounts for, because not the
moon’s orbit varies due to its ellipticity and inclination w.r.t. the ecliptic, and the
conditions of observation change from place to place and night to night.

The first serious attempts to address the problem of the Islamic calendar in
concordance with the crescent visibility requirement were made by the Malaysian
scholar Muhammad Ilyas during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Indeed among his
important contributions50, Ilyas introduced the seminal and crucial concept of
“Lunar Date Line” (LDL), which is a line that separates – each month – the
region where the crescent is going to be seen from that where it will not be; this
line, which is has a roughly parabolic shape, changes in geographical location
from month to month. Unfortunately, Ilyas’s works remained largely unknown,
especially in the Arab world, as his works were published mostly in English (and
in scholarly publications) or to a limited extent in South-Asian languages and
venues.

The next important step in the field came with the book published (in Arabic) by
Guessoum, El-Atbi, and Meziane (1993, 1997)51. It was the first scholarly work in
Arabic to review and critically present all the modern research on the dual topics
of crescent visibility and lunar calendar. It was the first book to insist that the
main issue is to construct a calendar and not just to establish the ru’ya
(observation) of the crescent, although it detailed various aspects of the latter, as
they relate to the former. It also proposed a multi-zonal Islamic calendar, which
divided the world into 4 regions and adopted Schaefer’s crescent visible
criterion52.

48 http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/calendar/islamic.html ;
http://www.amaana.org/history/history4.htm
49 http://eprints.anu.edu.au/archive/00002612/01/ahcen/proudfoot/Takwim.html
50 Ilyas, M. (1984). Islamic Calendar, Times & Qibla. Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): Berita
51 Guessoum, N., El-Atbi, M. and Meziane, K. (1993, 1997). Ithbat al-Shuhur al-Hilaliya wa Mushkilat al-Tawqit
al-Islamiy (The Determination of the Crescent-Based Months and the Problem of the Islamic Calendar).
Algiers: Dar al-Oumma; Beirut: Dar at-Tali`ah, Beirut.
52 Shaefer, B. E. (1988). Visibility of the Lunar Crescent. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society,
29, 511-523.

149

Around the same time, however, but apparently without any knowledge of the
progress and propositions being made by Ilyas, Guessoum et al., and others,
McNaughton (1997) proposed a unified calendar on the basis of the following
simple rule53: Identify the date on which the New Moon occurs; the next month
then starts at sunset on the following day. This proposed calendar makes no
mention of the crescent, whether observations or calculations. McNaughton,
however, insists that his approach is fully consistent with the Qur’an, basing
himself upon a particular translation of the verse 2:189 (a particular interpretation
of ‘New Moons’). This rule, however, does not produce a unified calendar.
Indeed, since “the date on which the new moon occurs” will be different in
different parts of the world, one quickly realizes that in some cases the new
month will begin on different dates in different locations.

Afterwards, the multi-zonal approach came back on the scene with Odeh (2001,
revised in 2005)54 proposing a tri-zonal calendar, similar to that of Guessoum et
al. (1993, 1997) but with the number of zones reduced to three. Odeh first
constructed his calendar on Yallop’s criterion55 and then, in the newer version of
his work, on his own recently published criterion56.

Another important calendar is the “Umm al-Qura” Calendar, which is regularly
used for civil purposes in Saudi Arabia. This calendar has known 4 different
formulations in different time periods57, adopting a different rule each time. One
must note that only the very first formulation of the Umm al-Qura calendar
concords with the visibility of the crescent.

In 2004 an important development occurred: the Moroccan astronomer Jamal
Eddine Abderrazik published a book titled “The Unified Islamic Lunar
Calendar” 58 in which he a unified calendar à la McNaughton, based on the
following rule: The new month begins (everywhere) if conjunction occurs before
12:00 UT; the new month is postponed by 24 hours if the Earth-Moon-Sun
conjunction occurs between 12:00 UT and 24:00 UT.

53 McNaughton, D. (1997). A Universal Islamic Calendar”, Hamdard Islamicus, vol. XX, no. 1, p. 77.
54 Odeh, M. S., “Al-Taqwîmu al-Hijriyyu al-`Alamiyyu” (“The Universal Hijri Calendar”),
http://www.icoproject.org/pdf/2001_UHD.pdf
55 Yallop, B.D., NAO Technical Note No. 69, HM Nautical Almanac Office, Royal Greenwich Observatory,
Cambridge, 1998.
56 Odeh, M., Experimental Astronomy, 18, 39–64 (2004)
57 Al-Mostafa, Z. & Hafiz, Y., “Taqwîm Umm al-Qura” (“The Umm al-Qura Calendar”), 2001;
http://www.icoproject.org/pdf/almostafa_Hafize_2001.pdf
58 Abderrazik, J.-E., “Calendrier Lunaire Islamique Unifié” (“The Unified Islamic Lunar Calendar”), Editions
Marsam, Rabat, 2004

150

Abderrazik has insisted that calendars must be unified, and he considers the
principle of “transfer of visibility” as guaranteeing this principle: if one accepts to
start the new month everywhere when the crescent is seen anywhere on Earth,
the calendar will be unified. In that case, Abderrazik tells us, the new month so
determined coincides with the new month obtained by visual observation in 92 %
of cases.

The challenge here, however, is that in very many cases the new month is made
to start while the crescent is impossible to see in the Muslim World (i.e Asia,
Africa, Europe). Indeed in a previous review59 of the dates produced by this
calendar, I found that it agrees with crescent visibility (determined using Odeh’s
criterion) in 58 % of the cases, contradicts crescent observations in 32 % of the
cases (where the month is declared but the crescent cannot be seen anywhere in
that region), and 10 % of cases will have a crescent that will be “difficult” but not
impossible to sight.

More recently, Odeh and I have independently adoptd bi-zonal calendars.
Indeed, we believe that it will be much easier to convince the Muslim public and
the authorities to accept a calculated calendar, if we show them that it agrees with
crescent sightings. People will still go out and observe the new crescent on the
night when the month starts (according to the calendar), and they will see the
crescent somewhere in the Muslim world. Perhaps later (in a few decades), they
will accept to start the month when the crescent can only be seen in the
Americas.

Others have insisted on adopting a unified calendar. Indeed, in May 2016, an
international conference was held in Istanbul, Turkey under the auspices of the
Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs. Proposals were presented by a number
of astronomers, and discussions were conducted, ending up with a vote on
whether to adopt a unified or bi-zonal calendar, even though the participants
were overwhelmingly from Turkey and Europe, which favored the unified
calendar (with a Turkish formula), and indeed this calendar was chosen.
Unsurprisingly, this has had almost no impact on the issue in most of the Muslim
world or among the Muslim communities in the west, and we continue to witness
the same disputes.

This too then is an important issue for Islamic astronomy to resolve and in the
years (hopefully not decades) to come.

59 Guessoum, N., “Progress in Solving the Problem of the Crescent-based Islamic Calendar”, Proc. of 1rst Emirates
(International) Astronomical Conference, eds. N. Guessoum & M. Odeh, pp. 77-86, 2007.

151

Prayer times at higher latitudes

In Islam, the five daily prayers are timed as follows: Fajr, i.e. dawn; Dhuhr or
Sun’s highest altitude locally; `Asr, when the Sun is such that an object’s shadow
has a length equal to the actual length of the object plus the length of the shadow
at Dhuhr60; Maghrib, i.e. sunset; ‘Isha, when the night turns black (twilight),
which is most often interpreted61 as the Sun reaching about 18 degrees below the
horizon.

The Qur’an instructs Muslims to start fasting at dawn (when “the white thread of
dawn appears to you distinct from its black thread”, Chapter II, verse 187) and to
break the fast at sunset.

One can then quickly realize that in some of the higher-latitude regions of Earth,
moments such as Fajr and ‘Isha, and in some cases Maghrib too, do get realized
or lead to overly long fasting times. For example, above the Arctic Circle, the Sun
does not set or rise during certain periods of the year, while in other high-
latitudes but less polar regions (places like Great Britain, Northern Canada,
Scandinavia, etc.) the Sun may set during the summer season but not reach low
enough below the horizon to the position which defines Fajr, in particular, the
highly important moment when fasting is supposed to start and the first prayer of
the day is supposed to be performed.

Indeed, in very high-latitude places (e.g. Scandinavia), daily fasting times can
exceed 20 hours in the summer (one uses the usual rule-of-thumb for “dawn” to
be roughly 90 minutes before sunrise, as real dawn will not occur), and even in
mid-latitude cities like Rome, the fasting period will exceed 17 hours. Needless to
say, this leads to serious difficulties (health, work, etc.).

This problem only surfaced in early twenty-first century when Muslims emigrated
to those places in large numbers. Muslim jurists (fuqahas) tried to come up with
solutions by applying Qiyas, reasoning and solving of problems by analogy; they
rarely if ever inquired about any astronomical solutions, considering the issue as
religious (as is also almost always the case with the crescent/calendar problem).

The jurists quickly split into two groups: those who insist that in places where
sunset and twilights do occur, the usual rules for determining prayer and fasting

60 This is actually the rule which the majority of Islamic jurisprudence schools go by; one minority school
takes the time when the length of the shadow is twice the length of the object; most recently, there has been
a reinterpretation of the Prophet’s injunction such that `Asr is simply timed at exactly the middle of the
Zhuhr-Maghrib time interval.
61 There are some minority opinions on this among Muslim scholars, some opting for values as low as 15
degrees and some for as high as 19.5 degrees.

152

times must be applied, even if they make the day/night overly long, and those
who argued that the spirit of worship, which is to be found in the practice of the
Prophet and his companions in Mecca and Medina, must be upheld, not any
literal application of the “rules”. For example, an adequate solution62 for the
high-latitude places could simply be to adopt the times of those holy cities, day by
day, or season by season. A conceptually similar viewpoint, but quite a different
one in terms of the results it entails, was advanced by Sheikh Zarqa (1996), who
suggested that one could consider the prayer times in the maximum geographical
extent (north) of the Islamic Empire, that is Bosnia-Herzegovina or even
Hungary, i.e. about 45 degrees in latitude.

In more recent times (the latter third of the twentieth solution), somewhat more
sophisticated solutions were proposed by Muslim jurists. As summarized by
Tariq Muneer (n.d.), the following propositions were put forward:

The “nearest day” principle (Aqrab al-Ayyam), which was due to jurists of the
Hanafi school, and which proposes to adopt the times of the most recent day
when prayer times could be determined in a given location and to keep those
times for the days when sunset and/or twilights do not occur.

The “nearest latitude” principle (Aqrab al-Balad), which was due to jurists of the
Shafi`i school, and where one either adopts the times of the “nearest Muslim
country” or determines the time difference between sunset and the evening
twilight (or equivalently, between the morning twilight and sunrise) at the
“nearest Muslim country” and applies it in the locality for which the times are to
be evaluated.

This solution, however, lacks precision and is inadequate. Indeed, the “nearest
Muslim country” for some communities meant North African states, and for
others Turkey; which country/city would Muslims of Bosnia or Albania follow?
Moreover, the latitudes of Algiers (36o 46’), Rabat (34o 1’), and Tunis (36o 48’)
would give maximum fasting periods of about 16 hours and 45 minutes, and
those of Istanbul (latitude 41o) would give fasting periods exceeding 17 hours in
the summer.

The “middle of the night” idea (Nisf al-Lail), which was proposed by latter
jurists and where the time period from sunset to sunrise is simply divided into
two halves, the first being considered as “night” and the other as “day break”,
but this simplistic solution joins the two twilights (and the corresponding prayer
times) and thus becomes rather strange.

62 Several Muslim scholars have advocated this idea, most prominently Sheikh Mustapha Zarqa 1996, and
nowadays Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the current Grand Mufti of Egypt – Hespress 2009

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The “one-seventh of the night” principle (Sabe` Min al-Lail), which is a more
sophisticated version of the previous idea and is obviously attributed to more
recent jurists: the period between sunset and sunrise (night) is divided into seven
parts; evening twilight (Isha) is set at the end of the first part (one seventh of the
night) and the morning twilight (Fajr) occurs at the start of the seventh (last) part
of the night. (See also Qasmi and Muneer, 1990)

We should add that a very simple solution was proposed in 1970 by the Muslim
scholar Muhammad Hamidullah (who was of Pakistani origin but spent the
second half of his life in France), the solution consisting in setting a maximum
and a minimum length for the day and the night: 16 and 8 hours. Anytime and
anywhere the day/night exceeds or falls below those two limits, Muslims should
– most especially for fasting – keep the length of time of either 8 or 16 hours
until the sun starts producing more “reasonable” times, at which date the real
prayer/fasting times would be adopted again.

We note from all these proposals that astronomical considerations only began to
slowly seep into the jurists’ considerations very late in their proposed solutions,
that is toward the end of the twentieth century.

For example, some jurists (e.g. Sheikh Faisal Mawlawi 63) inquired about the
reasons that made a seemingly moderate-latitude city like Paris not have
Isha/Fajr times (according to the conventional rules) during certain times of the
year (a few weeks in July/July). Realizing that this was due to the fact that Fajr
and Isha are defined as occurring when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon
(what astronomers define as twilight (and Muslim jurists have always adopted,
plus or minus 1 or 2 degrees, depending on studies), the more learned ones
remarked that there are other twilights in human culture, most famous among
them the “nautical twilight” 64 (at 12 degrees) and the “civil twilight” 65 (at 6
degrees). For the latter, the sky is much too bright for it to be called “twilight”
(darkness in the Islamic understanding), but the nautical twilight, although not
ideal, could perhaps be accepted. This is why we find the value of 12 degrees

63 Cited in Imam Mohammed Imam’s article: “Ayyam fiqhiyyah fi Stockholm (1) – al-Majlis al-Orobbi lil-Ifta’: al-
Muslimun al-yawm fi hajah ila ‘al-ijtihad al-mundabit’” (Jurisprudence days in Stockholm (1) – the European
Council for Fatwa [says]: Muslims today in need for ‘regulated’ ijtihad), al-Sharq al-Awsat, July 11, 2003,
Issue 8991. http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?article=181077&issueno=8991
64 The “nautical twilight” is when the sky is illuminated, but not enough to conduct normal activities without
usage of artificial lights, and the horizon tends to be rather indistinct; the “nautical” reference comes from
the fact that sailors often undertook navigational observations during this time, as the visibility then tends to
be helpful.
65 The “civil twilight” is the situation when one needs (or stops needing) artificial lighting to read outside.
Venus and the brightest stars appear in the civil twilight

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sometimes used for Isha and Fajr calculations, as the Union of Islamic
Organizations nowadays does in France66.

We also note that regions and their latitudes started to be looked at more
carefully during the same timeframe of the development of the problem. In
particular, the Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League (FC-MWL), starting in
the 1980’s, divided the world into three latitude regions: 0 to 48 degrees, 48 to 66
degrees, and 66 to 90 degrees67 (FC-MWL 1982). The FC-MWL long advocated
taking the latitude of 45 degrees as a reference and indexing higher-latitude
locations to that reference by, for example, determining the fraction of the night
that it takes there for the evening twilight to occur after sunset and implementing
the same fraction at other locations. The FC-MWL has also more recently (2007)
insisted that this solution be adopted only when the (canonical) astronomical
definitions for prayer times fail, and not when fasting times become too long or
prayer times become “unreasonable”. With its conservative mindset, the Council
has insisted that when twilights do occur, their times be adopted even if it makes
the day (for fasting, most particularly) extremely long (more than 20 hours).

The rule could then be a combination of these two considerations: the usage of
the global average period of fasting and a determination of the regions where this
constant value would be adopted by not allowing the fasting to exceed a certain
maximum, say 17 or 18 hours. This latter value would have to be determined by
the physicians on the basis of rigorous and extended studies.

It is interesting to note that the global average period determined here is almost
exactly (to within 1 %) the value obtained for Mecca, a result which is not
surprising since Mecca’s location is almost exactly halfway between the equator
and the northern latitude (48.5o) at which Fajr can no longer be calculated.
Consequently, with this rule we fall back on the one that some Muslim jurists had
suggested, namely for higher-latitude Muslims to simply go by Mecca’s times. We
here find astronomical justification for that proposition.

66 http://www.uoif-online.com/v2/spip.php?article672
67 In its writings, the council leaves out decimal figures, for it should be 48.5 and 66.5 degrees.

155

We (Meziane & Guessoum) have proposed68 a second, more ambitious approach,
by introducing a novel concept (the “artificial horizon”), which allows for the
determinations of all prayer and fasting times for any location on Earth, except
the poles.

Remarkably, the second, more systematic astronomical method converges in its
results with the first, simple approach as well as with some ideas put forward by
Muslim scholars.

Islamic observational astronomy and cosmology

As we have seen, Islamic astronomy during the golden age of the Islamic
civilization did not confine itself to issues that relate to the practice of Islam, i.e.
prayer times, qibla, crescent and calendar. Those were certainly topics of serious
work, and most or all of the illustrious astronomers contributed significantly in
that field. However, what truly elevated Islamic astronomy to historic levels was
the great observatories that were built (for non-practical goals) and the utmost
care in conducting observations in order to obtain accurate measurements, and
finally to critically and positively engage with the frontline cosmological
knowledge of the time (planetary orbits, solar and lunar motions, precession of
the equinoxes, etc.). New tools, e.g. new trigonometric functions, new types of
astrolabes, huge sextants, etc., were developed or built, and ingenious actions,
such as determining the earth’s diameter from the height of a mountain (al-
Biruni) or determining longitudinal separations from eclipse timings (al-Biruni
again, here with al-Buzjani).

Islamic astronomy in the 21st century needs to adopt the same spirit of frontline
discovery and innovation. First and foremost, the Muslim world needs to start
building observatories. A world map of astronomical observatories (Figure 2)
shows the dearth of such institutions in the entire Arab-Muslim region – a
paradox, considering that the Islamic civilization contributed such major
observatories as Mount Qasioun (Damascus, Syria) and Al-Shmasah (Baghdad,
Iraq) in the 9th century, Maragha (in today’s northwestern Iran) in the 13th
century, Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in early 15th century, and Istanbul (Turkey) in
late 16th century. Most importantly, all those observatories conducted advanced
research and measurements.

68 Meziane, K. & Guessoum, N. (2009). The Determination of Islamic Fasting and Prayer Times at High-Latitude
Locations: Historical review and New Astronomical Solutions. Archaeoastronomy, the Journal of Astronomy in culture, Vol.
XXII, pp. 96-111.

156

Today and tomorrow, Islamic astronomy needs to participate and contribute to
frontline research. There are many exciting topics, including some that trigger
philosophical and even religious discussions, e.g. the existence of life on other
planets or moons, the evolution of our universe (determining its expansion rate,
acceleration, its content, i.e. normal and dark matter, dark energy, etc.).

Figure 2 – A map of major astronomical observatories around the world,
produced by Nausicaa Delmotte using Google Maps:
https://tinyurl.com/kx8jmc7h.
Islamic Astronomy and Education
In order to show how much Islamic astronomy is needed today in the
educational arena, I will relate a few stories that have become famous and/or
make the rounds periodically.
In February 2015, a 3-minute video segment by a Saudi cleric went viral and was
discussed in all media (traditional and social) from London to Australia. The
topic and the statements were indeed quite shocking: “Earth does not move,”
Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari told an assembly listener, many of them university
students, in the UAE; it does not rotate around itself and does not revolve
around the Sun. Most amazingly, he claimed to have both religious and scientific

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“proofs” for his assertions: if the earth rotated, he said, a plane would never
reach China; in fact, a plane should just take off vertically and wait for China to
come under it! And if that were not enough, he added: “they say they went to the
moon, but it’s all Hollywood stuff…”

Needless to say, the media went gaga over this, with hundreds of thousands of
views for the video, hundreds of newspaper articles and TV news segments, and
countless social media posts and impressions. It was not all derision and sarcasm,
however; serious discussions did take place: Is this just one odd case or is this
viewpoint widespread? Is this kind of ignorance particular to the Arab-Muslim
culture or is it found elsewhere? Why is this lecturing sheikh so devoid of basic
science knowledge? What should be done to prevent such occurrences (students
being mis-educated in this manner)? Etc.

Another striking story is the following question that I have received many times,
by email or through social media: Is the sun about to rise from the west? It
displays a similar lack of scientific (astronomical) literacy, although not as extreme
as the previous example.

The question is usually formulated like this: NASA has “announced” that the
earth’s magnetic field will soon flip, therefore North will become South, and East
will become West; hence, the sun will be rising from the west! Of course, the
person asking the question then quickly reminds me that the sun rising from the
west is, according to Islamic tradition, one of the great signs of the Day of
Judgment; indeed, this is why this “NASA news” resonates among the Muslim
public and spreads faster than any typical rumor.

In response to the question, I first briefly explain that Earth’s magnetic field flips
every half million years, on average, so this is not something extraordinary, an
end-of-times type of event. The flips are due to irregularities and turbulences in
the electric currents inside Earth. And indeed, we have geological and fossil
records showing the planet’s magnetic field in different directions at various
geological epochs. Such a reversal has occurred hundreds, perhaps thousands of
times in our planet’s geological history (of 4.5 billion years). The last time this
occurred was 786,000 years ago; thus, Earth is due (perhaps overdue) for a
magnetic flip.

I then explain that geologists have recently been noticing a weakening of the
earth’s magnetic field, and so they forecast a flip sometime in the next 1,000 or
perhaps 10,000 years. Things took a sharp turn in June 2014, however, when new
measurements from European Space Agency satellites were presented at a
scientific conference in Denmark showing that the weakening of the magnetic

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field had accelerated: it is presently decreasing at a rate of 5 % per decade instead
of per century, as had previously been determined. Thus, a reversal could occur
in the next 100 years instead of thousands of years. The media then reported that
“the earth’s magnetic field may flip during our lifetime,” and someone
(incorrectly) inferred that the sun may soon rise from the west!

I should note, however, that a weakening magnetic field will not necessarily flip.
Indeed, geological records show that sometimes the field weakens but does not
flip. And when it does, the reversal usually takes about a century to complete!

But what if it does? Would the Sun then be rising from the west? That would
only be true if one defines East and West using magnetic directions. For
astronomers and almost everyone else, directions are set by the locations of stars
and constellations around us. And since the rotation of the earth will not change
in any such reversal, the Sun will still arise from the geographic – though not the
magnetic – east!

Indeed, we must remember that the Sun’s rising and setting is only an apparent
effect that is due to Earth’s rotation around itself. Hence, if and when the earth’s
magnetic field reverses its poles, Earth’s rotation will not be affected, and the Sun
will still rise and set in the same way as ever.

Another wrong connection between scientific misunderstandings and religious
beliefs can be witnessed every year or so, when the media announces that
“astronomers report that Mars is now moving backward”. My Twitter feed then
quickly fills up with questions about “the sun rising on Mars from the west” and
whether that implies that the Apocalypse is near… for Earth.

Here, people (laymen, reporters, and even educated persons) confuse “retrograde
motion” with “retrograde rotation”. The former is what Mars does very regularly:
it appears to be moving backward among the stars for a few weeks, before
moving forward again. Not only has it been doing this ever since the solar system
formed, with all its planets, some 4.6 billion years ago, this effect can simply be
explained by Earth revolving faster than Mars around the Sun (Earth takes 1 year,
Mars takes 1.8 years) because Earth is closer to the Sun than Mars. At a certain
point, Earth “overtakes” Mars, which then (relative to Earth) seems to be
moving backward. The bottom line is: Mars doesn’t do anything different than
Earth, and the Sun rises on the red planet from the East as it has always done.

On the other hand, Venus rotates backward (or upside down) around itself (this
is “retrograde rotation”) and thus the Sun rises on it from the west, and it has
always done so. Nothing unusual there either, and no Apocalypse to be expected.

159

Reforms of the educational curricula and contributions by Muslim astronomers
are urgently needed, whereby not only must basic astronomy be taught to
everyone, relevance to the Islamic culture (history, Fiqh, Kalam, etc.) must be
stressed. Had sheikh Al-Khaibari studied some basic astronomy, he would not
have voiced his “proof” of why Earth cannot be moving in any way…

Conclusions

I have reviewed the Islamic astronomy of the golden age and tried to characterize
it, in terms of topics, methods, and goals. In particular, I have tried to show that
it did not limit itself to topics that relate to religious practice, i.e. prayer times,
qibla direction, and crescent sighting and calendar, but expanded to cosmology,
i.e. planetary orbits and the structure of the heavens. I have also stressed how
valued were accurate observations, thus the great efforts to build big
observatories, from the 9th to the 16th centuries.

I then inquired about the topics that the Islamic astronomy of the 21st century
should take on. In the religious-practice domain, I noted that the qibla problem
has long been solved, even though many mosques are still somewhat badly
aligned. Also, to a large extent, I believe that the problem of crescent sighting
determination (criteria) is largely solved and what remains is to fine-tune and
agree on an Islamic calendar; this requires close engagement with jurists (fuqaha)
and officials, as well as inclusion in educational curricula around the Muslim
world. Prayer times are also, in my opinion, largely solved, except for two
problems: a) the minor issue of times for Isha and Fajr prayers, which still suffer
some disagreements and controversies; b) prayer times at high latitudes, both
where the sun does not set or rise during certain periods of the year and where it
does rise and set but leads to unreasonably long fasting times (from Fajr to
Maghrib).

More broadly, however, Islamic astronomy should also concern itself with
observational research, thus more observatories need to be built in the Islamic
world, and then participate in the discovery of exoplanets and exomoons and the
search for life elsewhere as well as cosmology (galaxy formation and evolution,
matter and energy content of the cosmos, expansion, acceleration, and fate of the
universe, etc.).

Finally, I explained through a number of recent examples, how important it is to
bring Islamic astronomy closer to and more fully engaged with education, at
various levels. Islamic astronomy can have a bright future if given the attention
and resources it deserves and if Muslim astronomers take on the plethora of
interesting topics that lay before them.

160

SYARAHAN ULUNG

YDH Orang Kaya Kaya Imam Paduka Tuan Perak
Dato' Dr Afifi Al-Akiti

PENDAHULUAN

Di sini di Oxford sekarang pukul 7.30 pagi. Di mana, apabila saya mula berhijrah
ke negara barat, dalam bahasa arab dipanggil gharb, gharib, maknanya aneh bin
ajaib. Memang negeri di barat ni memang aneh, it's a very strange part of the world
from where i came from, khatulistiwa, di mana our prayer times are always very regular,
daripada subuh to isya, memang tak bertukar, subuh around 6 pagi, isya dari 8.30
sampai 9. Selalunya tidak berubah. Tapi di negeri ajaib ini, kalau tertakluk pada
bulan tertentu dalam setahun, waktu solatnya memang berubah daripada sekarang
ini. Alhamdulillah syukur sangat, bulan September sekarang waktu solat sama
seperti di Nusantara. Kalau di bulan seperti Mei waktu solat subuh bertukar
kepada jam 2 atau 3 pagi. Di situlah di mana berlainannya, dan di mana kita
belajar bersyukur selaku rakyat dan anak Nusantara, bila ke negeri barat, bila kita
sedar waktu-waktu solat memang berlainan sungguh daripada waktu yang ada di
kampung halaman, masyaAllah .

Di sinilah di mana ulama kita ada kaedah terkenal,

‫ والنقمة بقدر النعمة‬،‫النعمة بقدر النقمة‬

‘nikmat dan keselesaan yang kita lalui ini sebenarnya adalah relatif
dengankesengsaraan yang kita mungkin rasai dan sebaliknya.’

Jadi mungkin kalau di Malaysia, di Brunei, di Singapura, selatan Thailand
dan selatan Filipina, kalau kita tinggal solat dalam kadar yang sangat regular,
selalunya pukul 6 pagi, waktu subuh, mungkin kalau ulama kata, beratnya dosa itu
mungkin lebih daripada orang yang tinggal solat pada waktu yang memang
terumbang-ambing dan selalu bergerak dan tidak menentu. Ada daripada pukul 3
pagi, sampailah pukul 7 pagi. Jadi di sinilah antara hikmah kaedah ulama kita
(‫ والنقمة بقدر النعمة‬،‫ )النعمة بقدر النقمة‬dan kita seharusnya bersyukur.

FUNGSI ASTRONOMI DALAM AGAMA ISLAM

Jadi di sini hadirin hadirat sekalian rahimakumullah, saya mampu kongsi sedikit
sebanyak pengalaman saya duduk di negeri barat, terutama dari segi falak, bila kita
mengaji di madrasah, di pondok-pondok dengan tok guru-tok guru kita mengaji
ilmu falak, dan pentingnya pengajian ilmu falak itu. Pentingnya kerana ilmu sains,
iaitu ilmu falak astronomi adalah sebenarnya berkhidmat untuk agama kita. Kalau
dalam bahasa orang putih, ‘astronomy in service of our religion’, dan agama Islam
adalah satu-satunya agama yang khusus di mana kita boleh nampak ajaran sains
yang sekuler itu, ajaran daripada tradisi ilmu sains yang duniawi itu menjadi
hamba abdi kepada penentuan ibadat kita untuk akhirat kita dan untuk tawajjuh

161

kita kepada Allah. Tidak patut kita take it for granted and it's something that we should be
proud of, especially as muslims, sebab dengan struktur dan falsafah itulah yang
membuat kepada satu waktu dulu umat islam terkenal dan hebat dalam dunia ini.

Itulah di mana pencapaian kita sebagai umat islam, sebagai the first world,
di mana negara barat, negara yang saya duduk sekarang ini di Oxford, di England,
dulu tidak ada pun United Kingdom, dulu zaman kegelapan, dark ages, zaman
memang macam tiada suluh untuk kegelapan yang membuatkan banyak
kegusaran untuk ramai orang. Pada zaman itu agama mereka memang tidak
sehubungan dengan tradisi sains. Tetapi bukan sahaja untuk orang Islam, bahkan
dalam tamadun Islam itu sendiri memang menggalakkan pembelajaran ilmu sains
contohnya, sampaikan orang yang bukan Islam belajar dalam tamadun kita
termasuk orang Nasrani, Yahudi Contohnya, mereka pun pandai dalam ilmu sains
itu. Dan dari situlah pelajaran-pelajaran dan ilmu-ilmu sains yang dieksport
ataupun nak guna bahasa moden, diciplakkan ke negeri barat melalui negara-
negara yang bersempadan dengan negeri-negeri Islam seperti dari Sicily dan dari
Andalusia. Di Universiti Oxford, adalah contoh di mana satu universiti yang
memang dapat kebaikan daripada kesan-kesan ciplakkan pengeksporan dari
negeri Muslim, dari negeri tamadun-tamadun silam yang terkemuka. Jadi di sini
saya nak mulakan syarahan ulung saya untuk mengingatkan diri saya sendiri. Di
mana semua ini dapat berlaku disebabkan oleh falsafah Islam yang memang
membawa minda terbuka. It comes with a very open mind. Sampailah Imam Ghazali
r.a. berkata,

‫فالعقلكاْلس َوال َّشْرعكالبناء‬

“Tradisi akal (sains) itu seperti satu tapak pembinaan. Syariah atau agama kita,
adalah seperti binaan atas tapak pembinaan saintifik itu.”

Inilah contoh yang menunjukkan sains dan agama tidak harus dipecahkan.
Kedua-dua unsur ini saling memerlukan antara satu sama lain. Pegangan ini
dipegang oleh Imam Ghazali dan selainnya terutama sekali tokoh-tokoh
selepasnya di madrasah-madrasah dan universiti-universiti yang bersejarah seperti
Al-Azhar, Nizamiyah, Qarawin. Di sana mereka mengajarkan ilmu sains, untuk
berkhidmat kepada agama kita. Lahirlah ilmu-ilmu seperti Ilmu Miqat - ilmu
mengajar kita supaya mengenali waktu-waktu solat, Ilmu al-Nayyirain - ilmu
mengajar kita tentang dua badan bercahaya iaitu pergerakan matahari dan bulan
untuk mengetahui ibadat-ibadat lain selain waktu solat yang berkisar dalam
pergerakan bulan. Firman Allah s.w.t dalam surah al-Baqarah maksudnya:

162

ۗ ‫يَ ْسـَلُْونَ َك َع ِن اْلَِهَلِّة ۗ قُ ْل ِه َي َمَواقِيْ ُت لِلَنّا ِس َواْْلَ ِج‬

Maka mereka bertanya tentang bulan-bulan (hilal-hilal itu) maka katakanlah
(wahai Muhammad kepada mereka) ia adalah untuk memberitahu kita akan

waktu-waktu tertentu sebenarnya untuk ibadat haji.
Al-Baqarah 189:2

KEPENTINGAN INSTITUSI RAJA-RAJA MELAYU
Di negeri ajaib bin aneh (UK), tidak ada Raja-raja Melayu, penyimpan mohor
yang mengumumkan contohnya, permulaan satu-satu bulan Islam. Ini boleh
menjurus kepada kekeliruan dan kekecohan. Di Nusantara, we take it for granted
bila nak raya dan puasa. Buka televisyen boleh dengar pengumuman rasmi
daripada kerajaan. Disinilah pentingnya institusi authoriti. Di barat sana, mereka
tidak faham kepentingan institusi raja-raja kita. Di mana raja-raja kita menjadi
ketua mengikut tradisi Ahli Sunnah Wa Jamaah, mengambil peranan sebagai
khalifah islam dan ketua agama kita. Seperti di Oxford, bila tiada ketua agama
Islam, maka akan berlaku (confusion) kekeliruan. Jadi bila ada kekeliruan ini, akan
menjadi kebiasaan mungkin, bila tiada Imam untuk umumkan bila mulanya
bulan-bulan Islam, bila tiada takwim itu sendiri. Hukumnya adalah fardhu kifayah,
bila datang ke tempat baru, bukan saja untuk mencari kiblat, tetapi untuk
mengetahui waktu solat yang betul, tetapi juga untuk mengetahui kalendar kita.

Apabila tidak dapat lakukan perkara fardhu kifayah, dah jadi fardhu ain
sebenarnya. Bila tiada imam itu sendiri, sebagai contoh di Oxford ini, bila tidak
ada autoriti agama itu, kebiasaannya di sini, dalam satu bandar akan ada dua hari,
hari raya. Maka ada dua kali solat raya dan ini disebabkan oleh kekeliruan dalam
menentukan anak-anak bulan. Pentingnya untuk kita faham penggunaan sains itu
supaya tidak bercelaru dalam hal ini. Disebabkan oleh orang-orang di sini, mereka
ingatkan penting utk tegok hilal (rukyatul) tetapi lupa akan rukun satu lagi dalam
rukyatul hilal. Pertama, rukyatul hilal itu, tetapi yang kedua yang orang sini lupa,
yang kita ada di Malaysia iaitu Syuru’ al-imam. Iaitu pengumuman suatu autoriti itu
sama ada bermula atau tidak anak bulan itu dan inilah yang tidak ada di sini, yang
membuatkan orang di sini bercelaru tentang hal ini. Memang sangat serius
sehinggakan dalam satu keluarga, ayahnya ingin raya esok kerana ingin mengikut
Mekah, tetapi anaknya ingin raya sehari selepas esok kerana mengikut falak
katanya. Jadi kecelaruan ini berlaku kerana mereka tiada ilmu falak dan ilmu
syariah mereka tidak mantap.

163

Rajah 1: Peta Kenampakan Anak Bulan 10 Januari 2005

ISU ANAK BULAN TIDAK NAMPAK TETAPI UMUM RAYA
Saya selaku Timbalan Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Tertinggi Majlis Raja-Raja Hal
Ehwal Islam Peringkat Persekutuan mengetahui Majlis Agama yang telah
membuat balai cerap yang lebih moden, serta dilengkapkan dengan peralatan yang
mahal. Itu perkara yang bagus untuk membangunkan lagi kapasiti amalan falak di
Malaysia. Seperti di Moroko mereka mempunyai 200 Marasid (Balai cerap).
Bukankah aneh bin ajaib sekiranya kita kembali kepada Rajah 1, malam melihat
anak bulan nengikut imkan al-ru’yah boleh nampak tetapi secara fizikalnya tidak
nampak walaupun langit cerah seperti Rajah 1, takkan nak umumkan nampak
anak bulan. Disini kita harus tanya diri sendiri sebelum kita umumkan boleh
nampak anak bulan akan tetapi menurut NASA, Ilmu Falak, Ilmu Sains menurut
aplikasi-aplikasi yang ada sekarang dalam dunia IR 4.0 memang sepatutnya tidak
nampak. Kita seharusnya insaf akan hal ini supaya kita tidak membuat agama kita
menjadi bahan ketawa seperti apa yang berlaku di UK.

164

Rajah 2: Peta Kenampakan Anak Bulan 11 Januari 2005

Di 2005, berlaku kecelaruan sangat besar, memang berlaku zulhijjah,
Saudi Arabia mengumumkan haji, tetapi tidak mengikuti ketetapan falak yang
sebenar. Bila dikatakan oleh satu-satu negara di timur, dalam kes ini, di UK,
mereka sudah nampak anak bulan, tetapi jika ikut ilmu sains, masih tidak boleh
nampak lagi di tempat itu, maka disinilah kecelaruan itu berlaku. Jadi saya dapat
banyak soalan dari orang-orang arab di United Kingdom (UK) tentang masalah
ini dan saya menjawab mereka dan keluarkan karangan saya, ‘The Meeting of Hearts
Concerning the Harmony Between Islamic Jurisprudence and Astronomy and The Correlation
of Computation and Sighting.’. Maka berlakunya perpecahan dalam satu keluarga
disebabkan oleh, tidak mengikut kata-kata Imam Ghazali, akal itu sepatutnya
menjadi tapak binaan satu bangunan. Bangunan ialah syariah. Tapak kena stable,
yang menggunakan sains .

Kisah 2005 itu, 11 jan 2005 (30 Ramadhan) baru nampak anak bulan
malam itu di Nusantara dan di Arab Saudi akan tetapi tidak boleh nampak di UK
kecuali jika atmospheric condition di UK langsung tidak teruk. Akan tetapi, di
UK mendung pada malam itu. Rasulullah s.a.w berkata dalam hadis ibn Umar

‫ فإ ْن غَُّم علَْي ُكم فَاقْ ُدُروا له‬،‫ وإ َذا َرأَيْـتُُموهُ فأفْ ِطُروا‬،‫ إذَا َرأَيْـتُُموهُ فَ ُصوُموا‬:‫ََِس ْع ُت َرسوَل اََّّللِ َصَلّى اللهُ عليه وسَلَّم يقوُل‬

Apabila mendung awan di depan kamu itu, maka kiralah (tetapkanlah)”
maka mengikut Imam-imam kita seperti Ibn Suraij berkata dalam syarahnya,
“Gunalah ilmu falak untuk menetapkan”. Jadi hilal tidak dapat dilihat oleh
populasi UK, jadi apa yang berlaku di sini? Jadi mereka sepatutnya mengikut
hukum syara’ yang sebenar kita, seperti Imam Subki berkata, “kalau ada positive

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sighting di timur kepada lokasi kita, akan sepatutnya boleh nampak kita di barat ini,
walaupun tak nampak kita boleh mengikut penentuan itu. Tetapi not the other way
around.” Di sinilah pentingnya untuk berpegang dengan kenyataan: jika sudah
positive sighting di timur UK, seperti di Nusantara atau di Morocco, ia adalah
mencukupi untuk negara UK mengumumkan bulan baru pada esok harinya.
Maka ini selari dengan kata-kata Imam Subki, dan kita boleh ikut (taqlid). Ada
dua hadis, hadis Ibnu Umar yang saya sampaikan tadi,

‫ فإن ُغَّم عليكم فاقْ ُدروا له‬، ُ‫ وْل تـُْف ِطروا حتى تَـَرْوه‬، ‫ْل تصوموا حتى تَـَرُوا الهلا َل‬
iaitu “Janganlah kamu mula puasa (bulan Ramadhan) sampailah kamu
nampak hilal dan jangan kamu mula beraya sampailah kamu nampak hilal itu.”
dan juga hadis Rasulullah s.a.w, “Tapi kalau cuaca mendung untuk kamu malam
itu, maka kiralah (tetapkanlah) perkara itu”. Jadi di sinilah ilmu falak itu menjadi
hamba abdi, satu perkhidmatan untuk agama kita. Maka kalau tidak praktikkan
dengan betul, akan berlaku kecelaruan yang amat sangat untuk umat kita. Dan
disinilah bila saya diminta untuk jelaskan perkara ini, di dalam karangan kitab saya,

‫مطلع البدور وجميع الصدور في التوافق بين الفقه والفلك وتظاهر اْلساب والرؤية‬
Moonrises and The Meeting of Hearts Concerning the Harmony between Islamic Jurisprudence

and Astronomy and The Correlation of Computation and Sighting (by Afifi al-Akiti,
Oxford University)

Huraian tajuk;

Tempat naik bulan atau zon-zon berbeza bulan, Meeting of Hearts, ini
mengingatkan kita walaupun mempunyai ikhtilaf Ma’la (perbezaan tempat terbit
Hilal) hati kita ada kesatuan. Kerana ada harmoni ilmu fekah dan ilmu falak, hisab
dan rukyah memerlukan antara satu sama lain .

Ada satu nazam di dalam kitab ini terjemahannya,

Adalah pentingnya satu-satu imam di satu-satu negeri untuk tentukan secara
pastinya, rukyah itu untuk mengelakkan berlakunya fitnah.

Peraturan pertama untuk tengok siapa yang memberi saksi. Dan jangan lupa
peraturan kedua iaitu pensaksian mereka itu apakah menurut yang sudah
ditentukan ilmu falak dan sains!

Huraian: Sekiranya orang yang memberikan saksi itu orang tua, matanya
hampir buta, atau orang yang tiada pengalaman dalam melihat anak bulan.
Mungkin dia kata melihat anak bulan sebenarnya kapal terbang. Maka kesaksian
itu perlu ditolak. Dalam Mazhab Abu Hanifah saksi anak bulan perlulah tawatur,

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jamahir (banyak orang yang menyaksikan anak bulan). Walaupun dalam mazhab
kita (mazhab shafi) minimun satu atau dua saksi sahaja tetapi saksi ini sepatutnya
orang yang boleh nampak anak bulan. Perlu lihat samaada saksi itu muwafaq atau
selari dengan ilmu sains. Sekiranya dia mengaku melihat anak bulan di ufuk timur,
mustahil itu anak bulan [kerana anak bulan diufuk barat]. Atau sekiranya dia
mengaku nampak pukul 11 malam 12 malam, ini menyalahi dengan konsep lag
time (qaus makh)- iaitu tempoh sela masa antara matahari terbenam dan bulan
terbenam. Sekiranya penyaksi tersebut tidak pernah lihat hilal sebelum ini, tiada
pengalaman, bukan ahli astronomi amatur, ahli astronomi maka kita perlu lebih
berhati mengambil penyaksian mereka. Qadi atau Imam, autoriti badan agama itu
perlu berhati-hati. Disinilah penting peranan autoriti badan agama syuru’ al-imam
dalam mengumumkan anak bulan tersebut. Kesimpulannya, peranan syuru’ al-
imam penting, kalau tidak ada syuru’ al-imam itu, maka kekecelaruan akan
berlaku.

ISU KALENDAR GLOBAL

Kita kena bezakan universal raya dan united raya. Maksud global di sini ialah, ada
satu waktu sahaja untuk satu dunia. Tetapi tidak boleh buat satu tarikh sahaja
untuk satu dunia, kerana mengikut akal dan sains ianya satu perkara mustahil.
Tetapi memang boleh untuk global calendar jika maksud global adalah seperti
kalendar di dalam aplikasi seperti Moonsighting.com atau kalendar ICOP, iaitu
kalendar yang menunjukkan kenampakan bulan di setiap negara dan
memberitahu adanya tempat yang tidak boleh lihat anak bulan manakala ada
tempat yang boleh nampak. Kalendar begitu memang boleh. Kita kena tafsirkan
apa maksud global di sini. Jadi kalau kita inginkan universal eid, kalau nk raya
contoh pada 10 Januari mengikut contoh tadi [diatas], boleh berlaku raya di
Hawaii, akan tetapi, secara hisab dan syara’ sepatutnya tidak boleh mula raya di
Arab Saudi dan Malaysia. Kita mesti menghormati wujudnya perbezaan
kenampakan anak bulan. Seperti hadis sahih Muslim,

‫أبافلخقبلشرانِميتحتفُكرأىرأيريينناهٌُكبتلمأياللَلهنَةلثأاالملَالجثاللمييفعنلِةَةأضفاِوللقنجابرناملهُعأُِةتفنقاثْلمَْتلقاُترأِرديأتمِثوهُ ُبتقْاعلاثلتملتهُدنكيإتعنلِفَةمىيفوميربآعراهُآؤويِايخلةِةَنِرابماالعُلساشوشيواهةَِمِرصاوقفامصسواليأالفموِقهِنصداقعماَمبلدُمتعْاالالللهِويشهةبُاَمكنفقذفااعقبألامضليٍرنساكنُثتامرسرذأحوياكنُلاَرجهُتااللللهيهِهاللةَاواَصالللستفىسهقباالللِلهتعمفلعلتَلياىيهنررأزاميوتُُلسمضلاناملُنهصلاووأمُنَلا‬

Dari Kuraib r.a., katanya dia diutus oleh Ummul Fadhal binti Harits
menemui Mu'awiyah di Syam. Kata Kuraib, "Setelah aku tiba di sana dan tugasku
telah selesai, bulan Ramadhan pun tiba. Aku melihat bulan terbit pada malam
Jumaat. Kemudian aku tiba kembali di Madinah pada akhir bulan. Lalu 'Abdullah
bin 'Abbas r.a. bertanya kepada ku: Kapan anda mulai melihat bulan?" Jawab ku,
"Kami melihatnya pada malam Jumaat." Tanya, "Apakah anda menyaksikannya

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sendiri?" Jawab ku, "Ya! Aku menyaksikannya sendiri, bersama-sama orang ramai.
Kerana itu mereka mulai puasa, begitu pula Muaawiyah." Kata Ibnu 'Abbas,
"Tetapi kami melihatnya malam Sabtu. Kerana itu kami akan mencukupkan puasa
kami tiga puluh, atau kami melihat bulan." Tanya ku, "Apakah tidak cukup
dengan penglihatan Muaawiyah dan mengikut puasanya saja?" Jawab Ibnu 'Abbas.
"Tidak! Kerana begitulah perintah Rasulullah SAW. kepada kami".

Huaraian: diriwayatkan oleh Quraib, ketika Quraib berhijrah dari
Damaskus (Syam) ke Madinah di zaman Umayyah, Khalifah Muawiyah.
Damascus seperti negara Hawaii, iaitu ianya lebih barat kepada Madinah dan
Madinah lebih timur kepada Damascus. Dan bila sampainya Quraib di Madinah,
dia berkata, “Kami mula berpuasa pada malam Jumaat”. Ibn Abbas kata. “Kami
mula berpuasa pada malam Sabtu kerana tak nampak anak bulan”. Quraib
berkata, “adakah tidak cukup untuk aku (Quraib) mengikut rukyah Muawiyah
yang ada di negeri Syam dan puasanya?” jawapan Ibn Abbas yang terkenal,
“ tidak boleh. Inilah apa yang Rasulullah s.a.w ajarkan kepada kita”. Ini ialah dalil
yang menunjukan kalau kita nampak anak bulan di suatu tempat, tidak semestinya
di tempat perlu ikut anak bulan itu terutama sekali tempat itu di timur kepada
tempat itu. Jadi inilah sebabnya kenapa kita tidak boleh ada universal raya,
maknanya satu hari raya sahaja. Memang tidak bolehlah, mustahil. Seperti solat
juga, kita mempunyai waktu solat berbeza.

Nazam kedua di dalam karangan saya, saya menggunakan hadis Ibnu
Umar tadi, “Janganlah kamu mula puasa (bulan Ramadhan) sampailah kamu
nampak hilal dan jangan kamu mula beraya sampailah kamu nampak hilal itu”
terjemahannya,

Tetapi kalau cuaca mendung, maka tetap perkara itu. Yakni kalau boleh nampak
di sebelah timur kita, maka cukuplah (ikutlah) kenampakan itu.

Tetapi kalau rukyah itu di barat kita, maka penuhkanlah bulan itu (maka jangan
ikut kenampakan anak bulan, hitunglah 30 hari).

Maka janganlah kamu mulakan puasa, kawanku, untuk memulakan bulan itu, dan
janganlah kamu berbuka puasa (beraya). Maka buatlah perkara2 ini!

Huraian:
Imam Al-Subki dalam Fatwanya syarat untuk melihat anak bulan ada tiga,

pertama Mumkin ‘Aqlan (mungkin dari segi ilmu falak), kedua Mumkin Hissan
(Mungkin dari segi fizikal), Ketiga Mumkin Sya’an (Imam yang mengumumkan).

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Kalau dinegara Turki, Libya (semasa zaman Pemerintahan Mu’ammar Qadafi)
mereka berpandukan kepada conjuction ijtimak semata-mata tidak imkan al-ru’yah.
Jadi apabila lahir sahaja bulan maka diumumkan tarikh kalendar. Sekiranya kita
berada dinegara tersebut maka perlu ikut syuru’ al-imam kerana imam telah
menetapkan takwim tersebut. Walaupun ia tidak sempurna mengikut falak, tapi ia
sempurna mengikut syarak iaitu syuru’ al-imam. Disini kita seharusnya mengikut
ibadat yang ihsan.

Dan saya ingin khatamkan dengan nazam saya yang terakhir, saya
ijazahkan kepada kalian semua, terjemahannya,

Hati-hati kita sebagai umat Islam masih lagi bersatu walaupun memang ada
perbezaan bulan-bulan Islam. Walaupun di dalam zon-zon yg berlainan, maka
hafallah (nazam) ini!
Maka bila ada perbezaan hilal di antara dua bandar, maka tahqiqkanlah.
Sepertimana kita ada perbezaan lima waktu solat tiap-tiap hari, tidak ada masalah
di antara fuqaha-fuqaha kita, seperti mereka sudah beritahu.
Tetapi apabila perbezaan itu berlaku di dalam satu bandar, maka janganlah ikut.
Maka beginilah apa yang sudah diperintahkan kepada Ibn Abbas (oleh Rasulullah
s.a.w), dan begitu juga yang diperintahkan kepada Khalifah Muawiyah, maka
fahamlah perkara ini.
Dan kalau kamu hafal nazam ini dan kamu faham bait ini, (insyaAllah) Allah akan
beri hidayah kepada kamu semua.
Jadi saya harapkan cukuplah untuk kita insaf supaya kita nampak sains dan agama
kita tidak akan berlawan antara satu sama lain, kecuali jika kita yang melagakan
antara mereka berdua. Wallahu A'lam.

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SISI PANDANG UTAMA

SESI SOAL & JAWAB

TIPOLOGI KAJIAN ILMU FALAK DI DUNIA ISLAM
ARWIN JULI RAKHMADI

Soalan : Mengapa sangat minimum perkaitan dengan ayat-ayat al-quran dalam
penulisan astronomi islam lampau seperti Ajaib Makhluqat Qazwini yang hanya
menyebut beberapa ayat al-quran sahaja?
Jawapan : Dalam tradisi penulisan sains secara umum dan secara khusus
penulisan karya-karya astronomi peradaban islam dahulu, memang tiada tradisi
selalu mengaitkan ayat-ayat al-quran dalam kajian ataupun penulisan mereka.
Tetapi, dalam kandungan penulisan mereka dalam dilihat adalah pemahaman dan
penerangan secara meluas daripada ayat-ayat al-quran tersebut. Jadi, menjadi ciri
tradisi penulisan sains karya astronomi peradaban islam dahulu untuk tidak
mencampurkan secara tekstual ayat-ayat al-quran tetapi dikaitkan di dalam
penerangan kajian secara keseluruhannya.
Soalan : Adakah sangat perlu agar jawatan muwaqqit ini diadakan di masjid-
masjid pada masa kini?
Jawapan : Secara idealnya, adalah lebih baik untuk diwujudkan jawatan muwaqqit
tersebut. Tetapi, dengan struktur organisasi di institusi masjid pada masa kini,
barangkali posisi muwaqqit tersebut telah digantikan dengan teknologi.
Sebagaimana yang dijelaskan tadi, fungsi utama muwaqqit adalah untuk
menentukan masuknya waktu solat. Namun kini penentuan waktu solat tersebut
telah dimudahkan dengan teknologi dan wujudnya jadual-jadual waktu solat yang
telah dikeluarkan oleh badan-badan autoriti di setiap negara. Jadi, sebuah masjid
atau institusi agama, harus ada pihak yang bertanggungjawab mengurus hal-hal
berkenaan penjagaan ibadah seperti waktu solat, arah kiblat, isu-isu gerhana dan
lain-lain yang berkait dengan ibadah.
Soalan : Adakah terdapat kajian lanjut berkenaan Rubu’ Mujayyab?
Jawapan : Buat masa ini belum ada kajian lanjutan berkenaan Rubu’ Mujayyab
tapi menurut hemat saya, adalah penting dan bermakna sekiranya kajian
berkenaan tersebut dapat dilakukan. Sebagaimana yang kita semua tahu, Rubu’
Mujayyab merupakan warisan instrumen astronomi dari peradaban islam yang
signifikan untuk dikembangkan secara bentuk digitalisasi atau software (perisian).

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ISLAMIC ASTRONOMY IN TURKEY

ÜMIT ERTEM

Question 1: Do you apply only one-time prayer zone for the whole country?
Without multiple state/district zones?

Answer: If the country has a different time zone, with this times zone to calculate
prayer times. If the country has multiple time zones, we consider those time
zones in every country so we calculate the prayer times with respect to different
time zones.

Question 2: Do seasons affect the earliest detection of fajr?

Answer: Of course, the condition on the atmosphere can affect for example
temperature, pressure, humidity there range in different seasons. So, there will be
a small difference. But in practice, this difference is very small. So in practice you
can use the same degree for the pressure in every season. Of course there will be
a very small difference but this will not affect the calculation of fajr times because
the difference is very small. So you can use the same criteria for all seasons
because of that small difference.

Question 3: Did you use techniques other than all sky cameras to determine fajr
and isha?

Answer: Sure. So we use all sky cameras but we also make naked eye observations.
And we also use different photography devices. And those techniques are used
(naked eye, photography devices and all sky cameras) and make observations in
different places and different times then combining all these observations. We
have those criteria of fajr and isha times.

Question 4: How does the sun angle/parameter evolve (changing) to determine
the present prayer criteria in Turkey? What sun angular was used before? If any,
how are the Turkish societal attitudes or perceptions upon readjustment/re-
correcting to the latest prayer criteria?

Answer: Okay of course. In previous years some different criteria for fajr and
these triangles were used in previous years. For example, before the 1980s, the
fajr angle 19° was used. And moreover that, after calculating 19° and 10 minutes
time margin also used in the calculation of fajr. After observation and
astronomical calculations. The presidency of religious Affairs adopts the 18°
criteria for the fajr time because the observation does that below 18° there will be
no white. In practice of course, you can use 19° for the beginning of fajr time.
but this case will not give the beginning of first light because if you observe in a
very dark place the eastern horizon there will be no practical light at the Eastern
Horizon before 18°. After those observations, we have made changes in the
calculation of the fajr observation relations. As I said before, in the 1980s, the
19° criteria was used in the calculations.

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Question 5: What is the basis for the addition of time for Maghrib, Zuhr and Asr
and why does this time period differ between those times?

Answer: Okay. Yes, in sunrise and Maghrib time we have sudden minutes
addition margin. But why 7 minutes? We have made some calculations
considering different cities in the world which are some different height and
width because we can make calculations by considering one height or one
position in the city but by considering different cities, different continents which
have different heights, different width. We observe that the extreme safety
margin can be 7 minutes and in some places can be 2 minutes, 3 minutes. But in
some other places it can be 5 minutes, 6 minutes, or 7 minutes. After those
calculations, we may decide that the best safety margin for all of the world is 7
minutes. So we made some calculations. And our result was a 7 minutes
difference. Both sunrise and sunset time, but in Asr time the 4 minutes is not that
strict rule. It can change by people to people. So the 4 minutes was not a strict
condition for the Asr time. But 7 minutes in sunrise and Maghrib times is the
result of our calculations for every place on Earth. So the 7 minutes including all
the cities safety margin. Since we use prayer times for all of the world, it is the
same criteria and our result gives us that 7 minutes is the best choice for the
safety margin in sunrise and Maghrib times.

Question 6: Why the results of the Istanbul in 2016/1436 International Congress
(global calendar) have not received a response from the Islamic world, what are
the obstacles?

Answer: Okay in detail, in that conference, there will be a consensus from all of
the world, but we don’t know the reason. But some countries did not adopt this
consensus and use their own calendars up to them. So we don't know the exact
reason for this. But the consensus of the calendar was usually kind, which is our
point of this problem. Because, since you already have one world and
connections in every time at every public position. So there must be a calendar
for all of the world. So this is our position but some countries adopt this
consensus of the congress. Every country has its reasons adopted at this point.
So we don't know the exact reason.

Question 7: Why is the qibla direction of almost in Istanbul all deviated by 14°
and the prayers remain according to the deviated Qibla direction.

Answer: Now, of course, these are the old historic mosques. So, some of them,
Yes. Has a different qibla direction. Since these are the old historic mosques, we
cannot change those. But the presidency of religious affairs has the position that
differences on the qibla direction should not be applied. So the position of the
presidency is that the small differences from qibla direction at all historic
mosques need not to be changed. This is the position of the historical mosque.
But I'm not sure that all the mosques are deviated part 14°. Maybe there is. Some
are variations with different degrees. But of course, the calculation methods in

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older times, maybe not as strict as in our times. So it is normal to have some
different qibla direction degrees in all historical mosques. The presidency did not
see this as a problem, if it is not a very big angle difference.

ISLAMIC ASTRONOMY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

NIDHAL GUESSOUM

Question1: We continue our session with QnA based on this chat. The first one
from professor Susiknan, how Muslim today can concentrate on vital issues
rather than prep in interfere the dispute issues so that Muslims can be united and
have back their excellence in science as we can see in the history, the golden age
of Islam. So perhaps you can enlighten us?

Answer: Yes, I think the key to this is collaboration, everybody sees what is
available with other people. So we can see, for example, in Malaysia, they have
made a lot of progress in terms of development, infrastructure, industry, even
universities. Somebody said in the chat, there are a number of observatories in
Malaysia. So we look at what is already advanced in Malaysia. And then Malaysia
looks, for example, to the UAE here and says, Okay, so what do you have here,
that we have not yet developed enough? What can we share? What can you give
us or show us? What can we do from you? Remember, for example, let's take an
example from my presentation, that collaboration between Biruni and Burjani,
and you make an observation over there, I make an observation over here, we
share the data, and we get a new result, if I make only my observation, I cannot
conclude anything, you make your own observation alone, we cannot conclude
anything. If we do it together. This is the famous one plus one is not equal to two,
this is how you contribute and collaborate and how the sum of the total is greater
than the sum of the parts. So you start with some parts, but you get a bigger, a
bigger total. So I think the key is just this mindset of collaboration, not
competition, not that I am going to be better than you. Too much in the Arab
Muslim world is competition, it's like we are the first we are, the better we are the
greater, and we're always comparing to the others. Whereas in principle, it should
be who has done something that I don't have, so I can benefit from it. And what
is it that I am doing very well, that I can share with others, and I'm happy to
share with others. So I think that spirit needs to be developed, there is too little,
what we call south south collaboration. We're always looking at North, north,
south, South north, we're always looking elsewhere, whereas sometimes
something is available and easier and cheaper next door. In my region here, if you
look at how many collaboration programs exist between universities, very often
in the same country, you'll find that there are very, very few, very, very few, even
universities that are in the same city, sometimes in the same location, nearby
neighboring universities. For example, there's a university which is barely three
minutes by car from where I am here. I have never been asked to give talks over
there and I have been here for 20 years, I have been asked to give maybe a
seminar in 20 years, maybe twice three times seminar I have given I think I have

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given more seminars to Malaysia like this, by zoom or in person than I have given
seminars to the university, which is next door to me. This just gives you an idea. I
have never been asked to supervise a student and one other university over there.
So these things need to be implemented. And we should not just, you know, go
with big slogans and big ideas. They are very, very simple things that can be done
on the ground, and we can all benefit from.

Question 2: So the next question Dr. Khadijah, can you share a suitable training
for astronomers in astronomy and astronomy, physics? Is there any training
provided in the UAE?

Answer: I'm not quite put it this way. Not quite so in the UAE what we have is
the following. What we have now is several Physics programs which many of
which now have a strong space or astrophysics component because as you know,
the UAE now has a strong space program. The UAE has sent a probe to Mars,
the UAE next year will be sending a rover to the moon. And the UAE, about two
years ago sent an astronaut to the space station, and is now training two more,
probably by next year, there will be another astronaut, go to the space station, so
that he now has a strong space program. And so it has, it has encouraged and
excited a whole generation that is interested in space, astronomy, astrophysics. So
many of the Physics programs now have an astrophysics or a space component.
In addition to this, the university next door to me has just started a Master's
degree program in astrophysics. So this just started maybe a few weeks back. So
we'll see. Sorry, it started a year ago, a year ago, a master's degree in astrophysics.
So we will see how this progresses. three in Georgia, also very near to where I
work, there is a small Center, which has an observatory with a telescope of about
45 centimeters. So the telescope is good. And it has two small solar telescopes.
But the location is very bad. It's altitude zero, next to the desert, next to the city,
all kinds of pollution and dust and humidity are very bad. So you cannot really do
good research with it. But it is good for educational outcomes. So there is some
progress. And there is now some training for students who now are interested.
For example, last year, I taught a course on satellites and space physics. Right
now I am teaching a course on introduction to astrophysics. And so there is now
some growth. We are building the sort of capacity building with a small
observatory with a master's degree program. It will take some time to grow and
to really make something. In other places, there is now growing interest in
astronomy, astrophysics, even though of course, the resources are not quite what
exists in the UAE. So there is some glow. But I think what I said, What is really
missing, whether internally or internationally, are these types of collaborations. So
we need to know and we need to benefit from all the progress that you have
made in Malaysia, or Indonesia, or Southeast Asia, or in Pakistan, or in many
other places, many other places. So I think what needs to be done, because the
question was the training for astronomy and astrophysics, in the UAE and
beyond. I think what is missing is two things. One is an understanding of the

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history and evolution of astronomy and astrophysics. This is almost never done.
So students, our students, any other students, and then the same in Algeria,
Algeria has a master's degree program in astrophysics, also. And I teach almost
every year, of course, for that program via Zoom like this, but they have no
knowledge whatsoever of the history of astronomy and astrophysics, Islamic or
non Islamic. If you ask them who Tycho Brahe was, of course, if you ask them
who Copernicus, or Galileo, they will know. But if you ask them even a little bit
more detail, who was Herschel or who was Fraunhofer, who essentially
introduced spectroscopy, a big revolution in astrophysics, most of them will not
even say, I don't think I have heard the name. Or maybe I heard the name, I have
no idea what this person did. And you cannot really build for the future if you
don't understand what happened and how things have reached today. So what do
we know today? And how do we know today, in order to go toward the future,
especially in the Islamic world, we need to really understand what was done in the
past? What is being done today, whether in Islamic astronomy, or astronomy in
general? And then what do we need to know in the future? What are the topics?
And what are the important ideas that our Muslim astronomers of tomorrow will
need to know and will need to develop? This, I think, is what the training of
astronomers and astrophysicists needs to do in the entire Islamic world, from
Indonesia and Malaysia all the way to Morocco. We need to do this. We need to
train them properly in astronomy, physics and space science, mathematics etc.
And we need to train them in the history of the whole astronomy going back to
the Babylonians, but also in particular, the Islamic astronomy. So they know what
our astronomers have done for centuries? Why did they do that? And what
should we be doing today for our own societies, so that our societies at the same
time are growing and benefiting, and at the same time, are not disconnected from
what the world is doing.

Question 3: So Prof, based on your explanations, do you agree that we can say
today's syllabus of curricula tends to be more enriched and organic? Meaning that
they are very weak foundations in terms of history and philosophy? Is that true?

Answer: Yeah, I agree with that. I think history, not just in astronomy, by the way,
even in other branches, history of science is almost never touched. And so
people graduate with bachelor's degree, master's degree, PhD and know nothing
about history of science, even worse, even philosophy of science. If you ask
people, what is the best explanation? And what is this method and that method?
And how does it apply and multiply? And how do you make sure that this is true
and not true? And you are certain This is a fact, this is a hypothesis, this is a
model? This is a law? What is the difference between law and theorem? principle?
And this? No idea? People have PhDs in sciences and have no idea what is the
difference between law and theorem and principle, so you know, conservation of
energy is that a law or a theorem or principle, they don't know, you teach, and
you use conservation of energy every day, but you don't know what it is. That's

176

problematic. So I think this is important, because we don't want just people who
can do technical science or technology, we want people who understand what
they are doing. And therefore when they communicate with their society, when
they advise the officials or the teachers, students, they know what they are talking
about. So I think I agree with you 100%, that the curricula need to be enriched
and need to become more organic, more lively. They are not just you know, some
ideas that you learn. And that's it. And then tomorrow, it's a different idea and
finish, you need to really understand and live with it and communicate it properly,
whether from teaching or lectures, or public or media or whatever.

Question 4: Okay, we have a question, are you involved in a mission to Mars?
What is the status of this mission today?

Answer: So I was involved for several years, but I am not involved now.
Although we keep, I have very good relations and contacts with the people in
charge of this so the emission I suppose this is the most mentioned we're talking
about? Yeah. So the Mars mission was launched a little bit more than a year ago,
in July 2020. And it arrived at Mars in February 2021. So about seven months ago,
it succeeded in taking an orbit first a transfer orbit and then a permanent orbit
across it's a highly elliptical orbit comes about 20,000 kilometers and then goes
very far more than 40,000 kilometers and takes a highly elliptical orbit in order to
observe and measure, because essentially three big instruments one is a digital
high resolution color camera. And one is an infrared instrument that measures
temperatures and loss and composition of the lower and higher atmosphere and
one is an ultraviolet instrument that focuses on the escape of some molecules and
some ions. So that's the program the whole basic program or objective of the
mission is to try to understand the dynamics, thermodynamics, if you like, of the
lower atmosphere and the higher atmosphere, so how are the gases going up and
down and some of them escaping and how the atmosphere does this and does
that and then how do you lose gases and so on. They are now beginning to
collect data. And so what they will do is there we'll do a first order sort of
cleanup of the data from the noise from data, from measurements that are not
correct or are in the noise background. Once they remove all the background
noise, and they are confident that what they have is real data, then immediately
they will put it on the website of the Mars mission. And then anybody in the
world can use it, including your students, if they are interested in doing, you
know, the Mars atmosphere, analysis of the data, it's immediately open to
everybody. So that's the status of the mission right now. Because my, so I was
involved at the beginning, because they needed people to advise and give
feedback, etc. but those of us that are very few people who specialized from a
long time ago in planetary science, so they continue to sort of be in touch and
follow the data and so on. But those people like me, whose research is far away
from planetary science, are no longer following developments like this, but we
have very good relations. I have students who do internships and summer

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research with the Space Center in Dubai, which is in charge of the Mars mission.
So I sort of continued to be aware of the developments.

Question 5: Okay, so another question from one of the astronomical phenomena
is meteor showers. So what is your opinion, the benefits of it to humankind? Or
what we can learn from it? Especially in Islamic perspective?

Answer: Interesting question. So first of all, what is the meteor also, so meteor
shower is done on specific nights in the year I will explain why these nights of the
year in particular, when the astronomers with the new look in a certain direction
of the sky, and you go to a dark place, then you will be seeing many meteos
depending sometimes like tens, sometimes hundreds per hour, it's usually
measured per hour. So how many over several hours, how many materials you
see, a meteorite is essentially a streak of light, you see. And it's essentially a rock
that enters the atmosphere and burns up through the friction and, and collisions
with the molecules of the atmosphere and so it emits light and heat. So we see it
for a few seconds like that. During those meteor showers, we see many, many,
many for hours, and sometimes for more than one night. The reason these
happen is because the earth as it goes around the sun, in its orbit sometimes goes
through a region where there is a lot of debris, a lot of rocks, these rocks are here,
so we go through them. And as we go through them, these rocks are entering
into the atmosphere and getting burned. So we see lots of meteorites like this.
And so we know where these groups of rocks are, they are in the millions of
rocks, where they are located in space, because we have detected them many
times before. So we know when the earth is going to be here and here. And
depending because the orbit of the Earth, as you know, is elliptical and has some
slight variations from year to year. So each year, the astronomers will calculate
more precisely and will tell you exactly which light of the year and how long and
whether it's going to be a strong meteor shower or not.

So the first importance and benefits of this is we need to observe these places, in
case there is maybe one big rock that will be entering. And it will not be
extremely dangerous. But if you remember that sometimes what we call fireballs,
big, like a big ball fire like this, going through the sky for several seconds. And
sometimes you get one big rock, when it goes through the atmosphere, it doesn't
burn completely. And some of it remains and it hits the ground. And a few years
back, there was one in Russia in a place called Chelyabinsk, where this fell in a
frozen lake and had a big sort of vibration of the ground. There were hundreds
of windows that got broken from the vibration from the wind. So if you have a
big rock and it falls, even hundreds of meters away from here, then it's going to
have a lot of it's almost like an earthquake, a big earthquake. And sometimes
many, many windows get broken. And if you have many buildings where the
windows get broken, those arrays can indeed be in that place. There were more
than 1000 people who got injured, not from the rock itself, but from the effect of
the rock on the buildings and the windows. And so we need to sort of keep track

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of what's happening. The shower was strong, weak, the rocks in those places
were small or big and so on. And so we need to understand all of this in order to
be ready for you know Any occurrence? It's also good that it expands. So, by the
way, why are there these rocks in these places? We think that it is because in the
past, millions of years ago, there were some asteroids or comets that were passing
by and not broken, not broken up through tidal forces. So there's forces on the
front and the back. And so this rock sort of disintegrates into many pieces. Or
sometimes it's a comet, and the comet gets evaporated, and you get a lot of
pieces coming out. So we want to understand the solar system. And we need to
understand all these rocks and all these asteroids and the comet. So what
happened in the past, and the present, and future, and all this. so meteor showers,
the interesting thing about meteor showers is, it's, it's a very nice event for even
amateurs. Many, many amateurs, you know, they like these meteor showers,
especially the big ones, there's one in December, and there is one in August, and
they prepared for them and go, you need to go to, you know, a dark place in the
desert or somewhere to observe meteor shower, we spend the night there and we
count how many. I was two, three years ago, I was with a number of students,
high school, high school students, and you can't believe how excited they were.
And I was happy for them because you know, they were observing the sky, and
they were getting excited, and they wanted to understand what was happening.
And then tomorrow, they will want to observe, you know, eclipses or
occultations or, you know, conjunctions, two planets coming close together or
something, which is all, of course, fantastic. Now, somebody said, what about the
Islamic perspective, Islamic perspective is this universe has been created, in an
extraordinary precision, extraordinary laws, the precision is in the laws. The laws
that regulate all of this are absolutely extraordinary. The fact that we can predict
meteor showers and eclipses and occupations and know what the plan is going to
be and all of that is because the laws are extremely precise. And this universe is
like clockwork. And so because we wouldn't be seen and we get impressed with it,
we look at it and say this is extraordinary. And in fact, even the non believers, if
you listen to somebody like Carl Sagan or someone, even the non believers, they
admit that the universe is just extraordinary. And it fills them with awe, they said,
this universe. And they say, that's enough spirituality for me, they didn't define it
as spirituality. I say, okay, that's spirituality, it isn't spirituality is too bad that we
don't see the creator behind it. But at least you see that this universe is
extraordinary. And it fills you with awe and spirituality as you define it. So I think
that's sort of one of the benefits of this type of event that we see in the sky in
astronomy.

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SOUTHEAST A sa r a sOMY SEMINAR

SIA-REGIONAL ASTRON

Buku Ilmu Falak Abad ke-21 merupakan perbincangan
pelbagai dimensi ilmu falak/astronomi yang menjadi
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Disamping itu, banyak cetusan idea-idea boleh
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e ISBN 978-967-16077-7-0

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