All these sidetalks of one ahlusunnah scholar called me to say this and that about moon sighting when you know it is not by the standard must stop. I am not placing Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, mni, PSS (+), DSS, CFR….side by side Prophet Muhammad (Saw) but I can tell you that he doesn’t do things by self volition. He doesn’t sight the moon by himself. Muslims not only in the North but cross-country sight and pass the information to National Moon Sighting Committee (NMC) headed by Prof. Usman El-Nafaty, which, together with the Sultanate Council’s Moonsighting Committee sit together in Gidan Sariki Sokoto to coordinate and process the information and then place their report before the Sultan… All of these take place within the period between sunset through 8.30pm on the 29th of Sha’ban; this year Wednesday the 16th of May and then the Sultan by his own personal staff of the Sultanate Council issue his statement, which he reads in a national press conference particularly picked by National Television Authority (NTA) and Radio Nigeria as well as all the print and online media across Nigeria.”
Insha Allah, I will not engage in Facebook argument because everything that my Ummah need to know, we have spent the last few years discussing it.
But before then, let me warn those who still doubt their religion by moving round helping amplify the fake news of “Moonlighting outside the official and Islamically justified news” by Sultan to desist. Or they will be adjusted in heavens and on the earth enemies of the Ummah.
If you want to start your fast by Saudi Arabia announcement, automatically, today you watch life on television five daily Solat as observed in Kaabah, so you should be ready to observe your Zuhr by 9.00 in the morning or your Magrib by 4pm here in Nigeria because those are times they are said in Saudi Arabia.
All these sidetalks of one ahlusunnah scholar called me to say this and that about moon sighting when you know it is not by the standard must stop. I am not placing Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, mni, PSS (+), DSS, CFR….side by side Prophet Muhammad (Saw) but I can tell you that he doesn’t do things by self volition.
He doesn’t sight the moon by himself. Muslims not only in the North but cross-country sight and pass the information to National Moon Sighting Committee (NMC) headed by Prof. Usman El-Nafaty, which, together with the Sultanate Council’s Moonsighting Committee sit together in Gidan Sariki Sokoto to coordinate and process the information and then place their report before the Sultan…
All of these take place within the period between sunset through 8pm on the 29th of Sha’ban this year Wednesday the 16th of May and then the Sultan by his own personal staff of the Sultanate Council issue his statement, which he reads in a national press conference particularly picked by National Television Authority (NTA) and Radio Nigeria as well as all the print and online media across Nigeria.
What else does any Muslim require of information about starting or ending the Ramadan fast as enjoined by Allah in His religion of Islam? To make it easy, Sultan has been announcing Moonlighting on monthly basis since Muharram. So if you are more Islamic than Muhammad (pbuh), you can help the Ummah by preaching that to yourselves.
Last bit not the least, to Muslim Journalists of Southern based media, who write in their reports that “According to the moonsighting of the North and moonsighting of the South”, if you repeat it this year, be sure that you are enemy of our Ummah.
Yes because, mist if these print media are owned but populated by Christian editors. Is it a Christian that you expect to help put news about Islam in the right perspective? Yes, the ethics of the profession does not expect it not to be so. But in those media, where Christmas, Easter news take front page lead, news of Ramadan moonsighting that should take very conspicuous position in front page of the newspapers are usually undertone to the extent that most cases, they don’t even appear. MN Muslim Journalists therein are therefore guilty.
*Prince Ade is a social media activist. This piece was first posted on his Facebook wall on Tuesday.
