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ISNA's Position on Eid-ul-Adha

Reported by: ISNA Headquarters

2/27/2001 (President's Office) :: 

For the last several years ISNA held the position that Eidul Adha is to be celebrated
according to the announcement of Hajj and not according to our local moon sighting
as we do for Ramadan and Eidul Fitr. But there were many scholars who criticized
this position. They said that this position was not according to the Sunnah. Eidul
Adha is to be on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah according to the moon sighting. Muslims in
distant lands such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Central Asia, etc., have always
been celebrating Eidul Adha according to their own moon sighting. There is no report
that Muslims waited for the announcement of Hajj or made special effort of find out
about the Day of Hajj in order to make their own announcements.

We checked the books of Fiqh, we did not find any support for the assertion that
Eidul Adha decision should be made on the basis of Hajj decision. The Hadith of the
Prophet -peace be upon him-that "al-Hajj yauma yahujju al-nas" is for those who
make Hajj. Of course those who go to Hajj they must go to 'Arafah according to the
decision of the authorities there, even if that is contrary to the astronomical data or
someone's own moon sighting. But people in far away lands do not make Hajj in their
locations. They have to make Eid prayer and make Qurbani. They cannot have Eid
on 9th of Dhul Hijjah, if the moon was not sighted in their location and sighted in
Arabia one day before. They cannot have Udhhiyahaa day earlier.

ISNA's position was under strong criticism from the scholars. No Fiqh Scholar from
any country came to the defense of ISNA's position. We have the North American
Shura that brings major organizations together. ICNA and Imam Jamil al-Amin's
group separated from us last Eidul Adha because of this position. We asked the
'Ulama in Saudi Arabia whether there was a special case for Eidul Adha. Do we have
to celebrate Eidul Adha with the Hajjis? Their answer was that there was no special
case for Eidul Adha according to the Shari'ah. If you celebrate your Ramadan and
Eidul Fitr according to your own sighting then also celebrate Eidul Adha according to
your own sighting. They told us that we must be consistent and should not play with
this 'Ibadah according to our own desires. There are only two positions recognized in
Fiqh: Ittihad al-Matali' (if crescent is sighted in on locality, then all localities should
follow it) or Ikhtilafal-Matali' (each locality should see its own moon and decide
according to its sighting). The 'Ulama' told us that we should adopt one position:
either Ittihad al-Matali' or Ikhtilaf al-Matali.' We cannot have both or have one for
Ramadan and Eidul Fitr and another for Eidul Adha. There is no basis for this
inconsistency in the Shari'ah.

ISNA invited a conference on this subject on the weekend of November 18, 2000.
Many scholars presented their papers and after long discussions we came to the
decision to change our earlier position. This issue is purely religious and 'ibadah
issue and is based on the understanding of Fiqh. If some trustworthy 'Ulama and
Fuqaha' prove from the authentic sources of Shari'ah that our earlier position was
correct, we shall go back to that position. We must follow what is right and should
change ourselves when know better.

May Allah bless all of us to follow the rules of Allah. 
Wassalam.

Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi

President of ISNA

Source: ISNA

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