Calling knowledgeable sisters. No Ramadan Moon Sighting in UK - but still fasting today.

[defuse]

Happy Ramadan to everyone. Calling all muslim sisters to enlighten me about the whole moon sighting thing. I am fasting today. But apparently there was no moon seen last night. So it leaves me wondering why i am fasting today, but because my mosque has declared it, therefore i am. I don't want to join the other mosque as their aqeedah is so different to mine, but i am also not happy with fasting despite there not being a moon sighting. What should i be doing?

Where is your mosque?
It eas sighted in saudi and qatar

in UK. But the sighting is not local or neighbouring countries.

alifta.net/Fatawa/FatawaChapters.aspx?View=Page&PageID=3491&PageNo=1&BookID=7

alifta.net/Fatawa/FatawaChapters.aspx?View=Page&PageID=3491&PageNo=1&BookID=7

What would you do if you were in northern Norway, where you get 24 hour sunshire at this time of year?

I actually asked someone that (I'm not muslim) and they they would follow the times in the nearest city for sun down and sun set.

I imagine it would be the same for sighting the moon. In the UK you can have weeks of cloud / fog / rain and not see the moon, but you can be somewhere else in the UK a few miles away and the moon be seen.

Sorry not much help.

As an outsider, the Ramadan fast seems quite sensible, with the people exempted and the way that if you have to break your fast you can do another day of fast after Eid.

If you are comfortable with the teachings of your mosque then can you accept their teaching on this?

The earliest day it would've been possible to see the moon in the UK was on the 21st of July (Saturday). Hence the earliest start date would logically be the 22nd or Sunday which is the day my mosque started. The following link from the Royal Observatory shows this quite clearly blogs.rmg.co.uk/rog/. It also shows the earliest dat for Eid in the UK will be the 20th August.

It makes no sense to follow the moon of Saudi Arabia to determine the start of fasting in the UK and then use the UK sun to determing the times for opening and breaking the fast!

crescentmoon this is what upsets me so much. We don't do it properly. I am seriously contemplating starting ramadan 2013 when I am satisfied that the moon has been seen in UK. I am not exactly affiliated to a mosque anyway but just use one of the local mosques as guidance as it is on the aqeedah that i follow.

But if its een sighted its been sighted,the difference is huge. As for sunday you realise this will affect hajj and eid al adha not to mention the day of arafat.

The way i see it if they are wrong its upon them.

Fast the reap the rewards of this month

Thanks crescentmoon and mama . You are both right, essentially i should focus on ramadan and not on the moon sighting. :-)