A brilliant article by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson Al Maliki detailing the debate between using different methods for new moon sighting.
"The scientifically impossible and hence clearly unverified reports of sightings in places like the Arabian Peninsula are a travesty to modern science not to mention classical jurisprudence, which acknowledged the role of science in negating moon sightings. Our classical scholars were, almost without exception, well versed in the cutting edge sciences of their age. And while astronomy has developed greatly since the advent of the telescope and calculus, its ability to predict eclipses or new moons has not advanced in any significant way. This aspect of astronomy was surprisingly developed even in the Babylonian period. Granted our precision, which now is down to minutes, seconds, and even nanoseconds, has evolved significantly, but the prediction of the actual events within hours has been known for centuries."
Muslims were capable of calculating the moon’s birth centuries ago to a highly accurate degree. They used sophisticated charts to determine when and where the moon could be sighted......
The astronomer, mathematician, engineer, and Egypt’s peerless jurist, Imam al-Qarafi, stated that while science negates moon sightings, it does not assert them. In other words, if natural science tells us it is impossible to see the moon, the reports of sightings are therefore dismissed as the result of other phenomena or possibly the dodgy character of the claimant. However, if science tells us that the moon can be sighted, it is accepted only when naked eye sightings have confirmed it.
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