to see or not to see pdf

8/8/2019 To See or Not to See PDF

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/to-see-or-not-to-see-pdf 1/10

1

“ To See or Not

To See ”

By Umar Al Mujahid Abdur-Rasheed A.K.A.

Anthony Navarro



2

بسم الرحن الرحيمBismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Al- Hamdulillahi Rabbil „Aalameen Lam Ashrik bi Rabbi Ahada Was Salaatu Was Salaamu Ala Habibuna Mustapha Nabi Muhammad (sallahu alayhi wasallam) ma ba‟ad, Ameen.

First and foremost, I am not a Sheikh, an Imam or a Scholar in Islam. I am just a Muslim concerned about the way I see things going in my own religion and Ummah. When I first came into Islam seven years ago, by the grace of Allah, I was amazed at how simple, but yet precise and effective Islam was. The scientific facts in the Qur‟an could rival even the most prestigious and decorated science texts. Yet, as I started to meet more and

more Muslims and saw how they practiced Islam, I soon began to see how the simplicity of Islam was made difficult and confusing by the “ modern ” Muslim and all of his “new” ideas and desires. Many Muslims might attack my views, but remember… this is just my opinion from what I have witnessed.

In the Qur‟an, Allah informs us about the Earth, how He made it a dwelling place for us and in it is everything we could ever need. A perfect balance of every necessity needed to sustain a comfortable life. It contains fruits, vegetables, herbs,



3

meat, poultry, fish, and natural medicines from plants, trees and even healing from the foods I mentioned before. It has wood for shelter, fire for cooking and warmth, water to drink and to purify, the sun and moon to calculate time and dates and even the stars for navigation and

direction. Any and everything a human could need is here in this dwelling place created for us by Allah, the creator of all things.

“ He it is who created for you all that is in the earth. Then He turned to the heavens, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things.” (Qur‟an 2:29)

“ O mankind! Worship your Lord, Who hath created you and those before

you, so that ye may ward off (evil). Who hath appointed the earth a resting- place for you and the sky a canopy; and causeth water to pour down from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you. And do not set up rivals to Allah when ye know (better).” (Qur‟an 2:21-22)

“ And He it is who hath outstretched the earth, and placed on it the firm mountains, and rivers: and of every fruit He hath placed on it two kinds:He causeth the night to enshroud the day. Verily in this are signs for those who give thought.” (Qur‟an 13:3)

Allah, through His immense mercy, has also given us perfect examples on how we should live our lives here on Earth and to teach us the functions and meanings of everything. The last of these examples was our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be upon him). The Prophet Muhammad taught us how to pray and fast, how to give charity, how to deal with others, whether it be relatives or strangers, how to purify ourselves, how to protect ourselves from harm and evil. He also taught us

how to calculate each new month using the moon, which is the basis for this article.

Leading up to every Ramadhan and Hajj, Muslims find themselves in a heated debate on whether or not the crescent moon has been sighted



4

properly. If there is a report of a sighting, then by who and from where? What is the credibility of these people? Where is the proof of an actual sighting and have others spotted it, in or around that area? In an era where technology has taken over “primitive” methods, science and

predetermined calculations have made way for the “lazy” Muslim. A Muslim that feels no need to go out and take part in any of these traditions taught by the Prophet Muhammad, but only trusts that the “experts” will handle it correctly and follows whatever verdict is given regardless of what it is. This is a dangerous game we play, when we leave OUR deen in the hands of unknown people.

Narrated by Abu Hurayrah, Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said:“ Whenever you sight the new moon (of the month of Ramadan) observe fast, and when you sight it (the new moon of Shawwal) break it, and if the sky is cloudy for you, then complete fasting for thirty days.” (Sahih Muslim #2378)

In this Hadith, the Prophet M uhammad clearly says, “Whenever YOU sight the new moon”, meaning to me that it is a duty of all

Muslims to physically try to sight the crescent moon themselves on the 29 th night, in order to know when to fast and when to stop for Ramadhan. If you do not see the moon on the 29 th night, then

continue fasting and return the next night. If it is still not visible for whatever reason, then the new month starts anyway, because no month is more than 30 days. This is a simple way for all of us to figure out when the new month starts with out the need of others, just look to the sky. In the rare case of extreme locations, for example, near the north and south poles, you should follow the nearest country that has had a confirmed sighting. The sun has a perfect daily cycle for us to follow for our daily prayers and the moon a perfect monthly cycle for us to follow our months and to determine our years.



5

Abu Huraira reported t hat Allah's Messenge (SAW) said: “ There is for every Salah, its initial and final time. The initial time for Zuhr is when the sun declines and its final time is when Asr commences. The initial time of

Asr is when it sets in till when the sun turns yellow. The initial time of Maghrib is with sunset and its last is when redness on the horizons disappears. The initial time of Isha is from then and its final time is at midnight. The initial time of Fajr is from true dawn till sunrise." Hadith # 151

Here is my problem with this situation and with the Muslim world today.Due to the invention of computers and clocks, we now rely on these rather than following the accurate way of the Prophet. Clocks can be set at wrong times and waiting exactly 2 or 3 minutes to call the Adhan is ridiculous when the sun is already telling you that it‟s time for prayer .These are all bidah and the Prophet told us not to use calculations.

It was narrated from Ibn Umar (ra) that RasulAllah (saw) said: “We are an unlettered nation; we do not write or calculate. The month is

such-and-such or such-and-such – meaning sometimes it is twenty-nine and sometimes it is thirty.” (Bukhari; Muslim)

Why have we ignored the traditions of the perfect example for mankind for these new technologies that can be flawed? Don‟t get me wrong,advancement in communications, healthcare and other fields have help many, but for something like this, I think it‟s rather unnecessary and is a cause for much confusion. We have countries that follow the Sunnah of the Prophet and send groups out at the end of every month to go and spot the moon. Then we have countries that choose to follow Astronomical calculations and then you have countries who just do whatever Saudi Arabia does.



6

This past Ramadhan, I was one of those who went out and tried to sight the crescent moon, but wasn‟t able to on the first night. Many people were on roof tops and on the beach waiting to see if Ramadhan started the next day. No one saw anything. I went home to write to some brothers back in

the U.S. and came across a moon sighting website run by Muslims. They had a list of which countries were trying to spot the crescent moon. It was a list of 25 different countries, each country having one or more committees reporting back to this website. 48 committees in 25 different countries reported NOT seeing the moon, BUT Saudi Arabia made the official announcement for Ramadhan anyway.

This was funny I thought to myself. How did Saudi Arabia see it when no one else could see it? The brothers on the website even provided and Astronomical graph to show where in the world the moon would be visible and it was impossible for 70% of the Earth, INCLUDING Saudi Arabia to see it. So my question is … who spotted the moon and where is their

proof? Because afterall, we need proof don‟t we?

Personally I feel that all of these technological advances have just made things more complicated. If there were no phones or internet to relay messages across the world in an instance, then we would have to rely on a physical sighting within our own area and not have to worry about who



7

said they saw it in another corner of world. Wouldn‟t it make more sense to do it the way it was taught to us and not to change it with the times? This would be the simple route, I would think. Really, there is something a lot more deeper and darker going on here. The Prophet Muhammad warned

us about things in the future that I really don‟t think we‟re paying any attention to.

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri the Prophet said: The Hour (Day of Judgment) will not be established till the Hajj (to the Ka'ba in Makkah) is abandoned. Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 26, Number 663:

Now the scary part is that the Saudi royal family helped over throw the Caliphate in Turkey during World War II, in exchange for having control over Hejaz (Western Arabia) and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, which was given to them by the U.S. and their allies to which they gave their name (Saud) and turned it into a

“Kingdom”, which the Prophet spoke negatively about.

'Ali Ibn Abi Taalib reported that The Prophet specified that the period of the Caliphate was to last for thirty years after his death and then the era of Kingdoms would begin. (Sahih Muslim)

Abu Ubaidah ibn Al-Jarraah and Mu'aadh ibn Jabal related that the Prophet said: "Indeed Allah has commenced this matter upon Prophethood and mercy; it will become Khilaafah and mercy; it will become honor and sanctity; then it will become Kingdoms, great oppression, and corruption in the nation - people will deem private parts, alcohol, and silk to be lawful.(Sahih Muslim)



8

If this family would go as far as to help the enemies of Islam get rid of the Caliphe and turn Makkah and Medinah, the two holiest cities in the world, into part of a Kingdom, then I can‟t believe that they are Muslim and care much about the Muslims of the world. I know I‟m going to hear

a lot about that comment right there, but the facts are there if anyone cares to look. Now, back to the Hajj being abandoned… is it possible that by proclaiming the month of Hajj (Dhul Hijjah) a day early, that they are throwing the entire Hajj off? Allah says in the Qur‟ an that Hajj is on the 8 th , 9 th and 10 th of Dhul Hijja, so if we start Dhul Hijja a day before the moon is spotted then really we‟re making Hajj on the 7 th , 8 th and 9 th missing the most important part of Hajj which is the day of Arafat.

Standing at Arafat is one of the greatest pillars of Hajj as stated by the prophet (p.b.u.h.), He said, "Hajj is Arafat." (Ahmad)

Could this be the fulfilment of the prophecy made by the Prophet Muhammad? If every year the confusion of the moon being sighted

or not causes us to miss the day of Arafat,then has not the Hajj been abandoned? Why aren‟t more Muslims around the world concerned about something this big? Is it because they don‟t know, or is it because they just don‟t care? We live in an a ge where people don‟t want to have to work for anything and to be quite frank, ignorance is

bliss . People want everything hand fed to them. Now if you‟re not feeding yourself then how do you know what you‟re eating? Muslims need to open their eyes and see the enemy within. Islam has been infiltrated by people we have been told to trust and they are turning Islam into the opposite of what it originally was.



10

Adi B. Hatim who was a Christian, came to visit the Prophet at Medina.When the Prophet saw Adi wearing a cross he said "The Jews and Christians worshipped their rabbi‟s and their Priests. Of which Adi ret orted and said that they did not. Rasulullah said indeed they did because whatever Allah

made legal, the priest and rabbi‟s made illegal, and otherwise, hence it amounted to the worshipping of the other man. (Tirmidhi)

In closing I will say this… we are not fools or an Ummah of unintelligent people. We are smart enough to know that Allah created us and that Islam is the way of life He chose for us. Allah has made everything clear, but it is us who make it difficult. If the Prophet said to spot the moon to know when the new month starts, then don‟t wait for someone to tell you THEY saw it and go see it for yourself. Don‟t use clocks and precalculated times to determine when it‟s time to pray, get up and go look to see where the sun is to know for sure that it‟s time to pray . In the end times everything will be opposites, but the one thing that always sends a chill down my spine is hearing that “the truthful will be ignored while the liars will be believed”,and then looking at the world we are living in today.

To see or not to see… that is the question. The answer is simple though … just open your eyes.

As Salaamu Alaykum Alaa mani taba'aalhudaa,(Peace be upon those who follow the guidance)

to see or not to see pdf

Documents