Those who search for the moon

The dates of Ramadan are set according to the lunar calendar, with each month starting when the moon is sighted.

However, without an established network of moon sighters in the UK, there was no Islamic calendar. British Muslim communities would instead fall back on the calendars of other nations – such as Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.

In Ahmed’s neighbourhood, this led to mosques on the same road recognising Ramadan and Eid on different dates. Ahmed’s classmates would take different days off school for Eid festivities.

“It created a lot of friction in the community. I know of Imams who have been sacked from their job, because they didn't agree with their mosque's method of working out when Ramadan and Eid should be held,” he said.

“I've heard of fights breaking out. But even if it's not that acrimonious, it just never feels good when you’re celebrating a different day from your neighbour,” Ahmed emphasised.

Ahmed, who is now completing a PhD at Cambridge University exploring the history of the Islamic calendar and its connection to the lunar cycle, founded a network of moon sighters in the UK seven years ago.

The New Crescent Society now has hundreds of members in a diverse range of locations, from the Shetland Islands to Jersey, who regularly go moon sighting.

Before the pandemic, Ahmed would drive around the country delivering in-person training on the lunar cycles, the phases of the moon and the history of the Islamic calendar.

“Then we would go out and I would show them practically how to tie it all together,” Ahmed shared.

A shift to online sessions has made the training more accessible to people living in remote locations.

In the process of establishing a network of moon sighters, Ahmed has managed to overcome a hurdle that early moon sighters in the UK faced.

“In the past, Muslims in the UK had tried to look for the moon. But they encountered a very British problem, which was the weather,” he shared.

“What we found with the New Crescent Society, is that it's not too cloudy, as was previously believed. It might be cloudy in London but clear in Birmingham or Cardiff,” Ahmed explained.

“Moon sighting is very much a team sport. When we all work together, we can have a perfectly functional calendar here in the UK,” he said.

Ahmed is now hopeful that the collaboration between moon sighters could lead to the development of an Islamic calendar in the UK.

“We’re in a position now where we feel very confident to say, ‘actually, we don’t need to outsource the moon sighting to other countries now. We can take back control, we can bring the moon back home’,” he emphasised.

The significance of astronomy in Islam

In partnership with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Ahmed delivers a monthly planetarium show titled, Astronomy and Islam. The regular event is one of the best selling programmes at the observatory.

Explaining the high levels of engagement, Ahmed highlighted that many aspects of Islam depend on astronomy.

“The time of prayers depend on the sun. The months depend on the moon. In the past, people would navigate using the stars,” he shared.

Ahmed shared that aside from the religious and practical significance of moon sighting, many people are drawn to the activity because of the sense of togetherness.

Families and people of all ages attend moon sightings. They may bring their prayer mat for evening prayers or food to share.

“It is open to anybody and everybody. You can be a child. You can be an older person. But there is a sense of cosmic wonder, looking into the skies and seeing something as beautiful as that,” Ahmed said.

It’s an anchor in the sky that brings them together with other people

Before advancements in technology, people would use smoke signals and light candles in mosques to confirm that the moon had been sighted.

Now moon sighters use messaging platforms to communicate sightings and use online data that assists in the location of the moon.

However, when Ahmed sights the moon he prefers to use the same technology that people across the world have used for hundreds of years – the naked eye.

“When you look at the moon, you are connecting yourself with history,” he shared.

While he respects the different methods people use to view the moon, he thinks that keeping equipment required to a minimum enhances its accessibility.

“To me the spirit of what we’re trying to do is to make the moon for all of us. For the many not the few,” he said.

Ahmed has now ventured out in search of the moon 81 times. He has learned lessons from moon sighting that apply to everyday life.

“You can’t control when the moon appears. You can’t control the weather. You try your best, but you have to learn to let go,” he shared.

“There are phases in life as there are phases of the moon. When I see the moon, I always remember that before this crescent appeared there was a moment of darkness,” Ahmed said.

The word for crescent in Arabic is hilal – which means ‘to scream out in joy.’

Moon sighting in Scotland

Mohammed Bin-Shabbir, 20, was born with around 5% vision as a result of the genetic condition, Leber congenital amaurosis.

He started moon sighting in 2022 with his father, Ghulam Shabbir. When he goes moon sighting, his father will capture images and his mother will later describe them to Bin-Shabbir.

“I like the idea of being part of such a revolutionary organisation – something that can bring people together,” he said.

Bin-Shabbir shared that he enjoys the suspense of waiting for the moon. One night he went out moon sighting with his father on the outskirts of Glasgow as the sun was setting.

“We waited and waited but nothing came. Then, as we were walking down the hill, my dad saw it. I could tell by his body language that it must be a powerful experience,” he said.

Bin-Shabbir observed that while he will never know exactly what the moon looked like, he can picture it in his mind’s eye.

“I imagined it to be a very fine light in the sky like a wire,” he said.

Bin-Shabbir added that the moon sighting network is not as established in Scotland and he does not know of other moon sighters in Glasgow. He sometimes wishes that he could be part of a group that meets to view the moon.

“I look at the photos and videos and think ‘If only I could be there’,” he said.

“The problem at the moment is that it is too far to travel. I am hoping that we can replicate that in Scotland,” Bin-Shabbir said.

Reflecting on what it is like to search for the moon as someone with sight loss, Bin-Shabbir, shared that there is more to moon sighting than its physical appearance.

“You have a sense of doing something good, regardless of whether you can see the moon or not. You are reviving something that was practised on a monthly basis 1400 years ago,” he said.

The roaming sighter

As a child growing up in Gujarat, India, Juned Patel has vivid memories of standing behind his elders as they observed the moon.

More than three decades on, each month Patel will take two days annual leave to travel from his home in Bolton in search of the crescent moon.

It is a pastime that has seen him scan the skies in the north of Scotland and in the south at Land’s End. He has invested in five binoculars, six cameras and three telescopes.

You have a sense of doing something good, regardless of whether you can see the moon or not

Patel has had policemen knock on his window while parked close to a traffic island, and kind hikers hold his tripod down on windy clifftops.

“Sometimes I start my journey by going south but then I end up believing I’m chasing the clouds, so I will go north. I can go full circle in a single day,” he shared.

As Patel is travelling around the country, he is breaking new scientific ground – documenting lunar visibility at a latitude where observational data has previously been scarce.

He has taken photographs of galaxies, the milky way and, perhaps the most challenging to capture, the zodiacal light.

This phenomenon is known in Arabic as Al-Fajr ul-Kadhib – which translates as a ‘false dawn’ (an image of a ‘false dusk’ – a related phenomenon – captured by Patel is included in the photo gallery above).

“It can be extremely, extremely faint, depending on the location, season and weather. That is amazing to see,” he shared.

Patel’s attitude to moon sighting can be summed up by a 300-mile journey he made in July 2023.

With the whole country blanketed in cloud, and the forecast predicting that only a sliver of Margate Beach would have visibility, Patel had initially decided not to go out in search of the moon.

But after he could not sleep, he got his keys and began a long, rainy car journey south.

“I thought ‘If I don’t go, how will I know?’,” he shared.

When he reached Margate, Patel was thrilled to spot the moon through binoculars.

“All the odds were against me, but I still went and had success. I cannot forget that day,” he said.

Patel’s eldest daughters, aged nine and 11, will occasionally come with him on his moon sighting expeditions.

While Patel often has his head turned towards the clouds, he is quick to acknowledge the contribution of his wife and four children in accepting his hobby.

“Without the support of my family, I couldn’t do it,” he said.

“They know that for around two or three days around the moon sighting, I will be occupied. That’s a part of our lives now,” Patel shared.

Families coming together

Uzma Asghar first attended a moon sighting in Walsall in 2019 after her eldest daughter, then six, developed an interest in astronomy.

“She could pick out the constellations in the sky and name them. She was fascinated by the moon,” Asghar shared.

During 2020, Asghar, her two daughters and her husband began making monthly outings to different Birmingham locations in the hope of sighting the moon.

It took 18-months, and several evenings spent standing in the rain, before Ashar’s eldest daughter spotted a crescent on the horizon.

“The feeling was really overwhelming. We’d spent so long trying to find this elusive moon,” Asghar.

Asghar and other families now meet on a regular basis at Oakland Recreation Ground. Pakoras, samosas and – fittingly – moon cookies are shared. Asghar’s husband, an amateur astronomer, will have in-depth conversations with other fathers about the latest sky gazing gadgets.

Children play hopscotch on squares with the phases of the moon drawn in coloured chalk.

Asghar explained that even when they are busy playing, the children will keep one eye on the horizon, eager to be the first one to spot the moon.

“For them, it’s an anchor in the sky that brings them together with other people,” she said.

Main image: families come together to scout for the new crescent for the Islamic month of Shaban at the Oaklands Recreation Ground, Birmingham in February 2024.