Eidul Fitr tomorrow, but in KP today

[BLS_1919v2.0]

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Eidul Fitr tomorrow, but in KP today

KARACHI / PESHAWAR, Sept 9: Eidul Fitr will again be celebrated on two different days in the country this year.

The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, headed by Mufti Munibur Rahman, announced on Thursday after a meeting in Karachi that since no evidence about the sighting of Shawwal moon had been received from anywhere in the country, Eid would be celebrated on Saturday.

But an announcement made in Peshawar by the zonal committee, headed by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai, said after a meeting at the Masjid Qasim Ali Khan that 20 witnesses, including two women, had recorded their evidence about sighting the moon and, therefore, Friday would be the first day of Shawwal.

Provincial Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour and Religious Affairs Minister Malik Nimroz Khan also attended the meeting and gave official approval to the announcement. Mufti Munib said that no reports about moon sighting had been received till sunset from any city and the committee had decided that Eidul Fitr would be celebrated on Saturday.

(According to APP, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar committees said they had not received any information about the sighting of the moon and it had been conveyed to the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee chairman.)

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government announced that Eidul Fitr would be celebrated on Friday. “We are announcing this in view of the Zonal Ruet-i-Hilal Committee’s decision that Eidul Fitr will be on Friday. The government will celebrate the festival with simplicity,” Mr Bilour told reporters in Peshawar. He appealed to the people to help flood victims on the occasion of Eid.

Mufti Popalzai said: “Twenty witnesses, including two women, turned up before the committee and recorded their statements about the sighting of the moon. Therefore, the committee has decided that Eidul Fitr will be celebrated on Friday.”

Local committees in tribal areas also announced that Eid would be celebrated on Friday.

[tor_khan]

BLS Jana,

I was going to wait until after Eid before sharing my comments on this, because this is just bubbling under my skin.

I had breakfast with some friends this morning and they flicked on the TV. The Pakistan media is having a field day - Geo TV have the gall to show Salatul Eid ul Fitr direct from Mecca and Urdu speaking women celebrating last night's Chand Raat in Dubai and yet question why Pashtunkhwa is going "separately" to the rest of the country.

It's almost always been the case, as far as I remember, but the subtext in the news feeds is about loyalty.

After the floods, and the recent terror killings, people needs some small dose of joy. For many in Pashtunkhwa and in other parts of Pakistan, Eid will be in a measured affair anyway.

Today of all days. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. For me the saddest thing is that if all the Muslim world declares Eid unanimously and Pashtoons follow that example, then because of it they've become traitors -it's an absurdity.

Hazara division is fanning the flames on this one and has opted away out of Pashtunkhwa's decision to celebrate Eid. On a spiritual level surely a sin is being committed since fasting and Eid don't happen on the same day, but to whom is Hazara division most loyal?

A couple of days ago, I joked and said Pakistan had a separate moon. Two things stand. The joke is on somebody and the matter of clear separateness.

I feel that I have no real right to comment until the passing of Eid (like I said at the beginning of this post). My thoughts are not about scoring points for the nationalist cause right now. It's just that I'm saddened by this. Clearly this a comment on Pakistan's obsession with itself. The troubled part of me wishes that Pashtoons don't just accept this, but ask the questions why.

[BLS_1919v2.0]

BLS Jana,

I was going to wait until after Eid before sharing my comments on this, because this is just bubbling under my skin.

I had breakfast with some friends this morning and they flicked on the TV. The Pakistan media is having a field day - Geo TV have the gall to show Salatul Eid ul Fitr direct from Mecca and Urdu speaking women celebrating last night's Chand Raat in Dubai and yet question why Pashtunkhwa is going "separately" to the rest of the country.

It's almost always been the case, as far as I remember, but the subtext in the news feeds is about loyalty.

After the floods, and the recent terror killings, people needs some small dose of joy. For many in Pashtunkhwa and in other parts of Pakistan, Eid will be in a measured affair anyway.

Today of all days. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. For me the saddest thing is that if all the Muslim world declares Eid unanimously and Pashtoons follow that example, then because of it they've become traitors -it's an absurdity.

Hazara division is fanning the flames on this one and has opted away out of Pashtunkhwa's decision to celebrate Eid. On a spiritual level surely a sin is being committed since fasting and Eid don't happen on the same day, but to whom is Hazara division most loyal?

A couple of days ago, I joked and said Pakistan had a separate moon. Two things stand. The joke is on somebody and the matter of clear separateness.

I feel that I have no real right to comment until the passing of Eid (like I said at the beginning of this post). My thoughts are not about scoring points for the nationalist cause right now. It's just that I'm saddened by this. Clearly this a comment on Pakistan's obsession with itself. The troubled part of me wishes that Pashtoons don't just accept this, but ask the questions why.

Tor khaana agha khabara che kachaa adathoona na shariif sarrae zaan saathii nu zamung dagha masalaa da. In the entire Pashtunkhwa( Khyber Pashtunkhaw, South Pashtunkhwa and FATA) Eid has been announced with the rest of the muslim world...but for some reason the governments in Panjab and Sindh are adamant about Saturday. Hazara division (not counting the Pashtun areas) are muslim leaguer strongholds so they have a huge chip on their shoulders. They were the only area to vote for Pakistan in the 47 referendum and the only area to really be antagonistic towards the name change. It is their cheap local political tactics of muslim league.
Khyber Pashtunkhwa did the right thing and most importantly it was done the Islamic way. As you know nearly every year we do it alongside (bar a few areas) Afghanistan and the rest of the muslim world, so why are we held accountable? Why don't they go and complain to the rest of the muslim world? Mufti Popalzai himself declared, as with the case in South Pashtunkhwa and Qibaeel. Ajjb khalk dee.

[Saifullah]

I think its good that KP is celebrating it wid majority of MUSLIMS in the world. That is more unity than celebrating it wid punjab, sindh and india....

[BLS_1919v2.0]

I think its good that KP is celebrating it wid majority of MUSLIMS in the world. That is more unity than celebrating it wid punjab, sindh and india....

Funny you should say that...I heard India is celebrating it on the same day as Pakistan. Allah u aalim.

Nation to celebrate two Eids | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

[Saifullah]

Yea India and Pak are united once again...LOL

[BLS_1919v2.0]

Yea India and Pak are united once again...LOL

You are on the ground there in Khyber Pashtunkhwa...do you know which areas are celebrating and which areas aren't? I heard that a good chunk of malakand division is doing it on Saturday...which is sad.

[BLS_1919v2.0]

`This is silly. 1 country celebrating 2 Eid days?

Correction one country and a half celebrate it on one day and the rest of the world on another.

[Saifullah]

You are on the ground there in Khyber Pashtunkhwa...do you know which areas are celebrating and which areas aren't? I heard that a good chunk of malakand division is doing it on Saturday...which is sad.

I am not on the ground, im in london but going there in a few days inshallah....my friends over there told me most of pukhtunkhwa is doing it on friday, i heard DI khan isn't...

[BLS_1919v2.0]

I am not on the ground, im in london but going there in a few days inshallah....my friends over there told me most of pukhtunkhwa is doing it on friday, i heard DI khan isn't...

Ye I heard parts of swat, Dir, Chitral and Hindko areas aren't. I can see why the Hindko areas aren't kho pa swatiyaano ao diroojiyaano bandae tsa dae?

[BLS_1919v2.0]

Maybe Swat is more faithful to Punjabs decision BLS.

Khudae khabr...some people say it is due to Army, others have some other reasons...we will have to get the low down from the members of Swat.

[Roshina]

I absolutely REFUSE to believe that the "entire [Muslim] world" is celebrating Eid on the same day and the ONLY countries celebrating it on a different day are Pakistan, India, etc. Yet, the focus is on "Pashtunkhwa is celebrating it on a different day than the rest of Pakistan." Tor Khan, excellent comments regarding this breaking news!

And we have never heard Muslims in ONE country celebrating Eid on different days? Seriously, when was the last time we all celebrated Eid on the same day? Never. There's never been a year (that we know of) in which all Muslims worldwide celebrated on the same day. And you really can't blame them, since it all depends on moonsighting and all.

Saddest yet funniest thing is this: Last year, the mosques in this CITY (not even state or country (USA)!) celebrated it on different days. We celebrated it on the day that the mosques we often go to announced it, and since it's the most prominent mosque in the city, we thought all the other Muslims would be doing the same. So we called this Pukhtun family to wish them a mubarak Eid, and some of them said, "Oh, ours isn't until tomorrow." OURS? What does that mean? What's worse, we called a family that's right next to them -- neighbors, literally -- and they celebrated it the same day we did!

So, yeah, why are we surprised to hear that we never celebrate it on the same day? There'll always be this division until we figure out (and it's really sad that we haven't figured this out in spite of our 1400 years of Muslimhood!) how to handle this.

But there's nothing necessarily wrong with different countries or distant states/provinces celebrating it on different days as long as the respective COMMUNITIES are celebrating it together. For example, it's silly and I believe wrong for one family to celebrate it on one day and the next family (same faith, same sect/denomination, and even same madhab) on a different day.

Meh ... Eid mubarak nonetheless, all Let's all be happy and stop deciding which day is the REAL Eid since we'll never figure it out and will never agree on it

Khwdey mo khushala ao abaad larai!

[Admin Khan]

I once had an interesting conversation with an American mayor at my University.

Me: How come schools aren't off on Eid?
Mayor: Why should we have another school day off? Millions will miss school work and you should know how Important school is.

Me: Well, I understand but we all have to make up for our studies by not attending school, we should have at least 1 Islamic holiday.
Mayor:But Hindus and Buddhists don't have a day off either.

Me: But we are almost equal in population as Jews here and Jews have many days off, why can't we have a day off?
Mayor: When you decide which permanent day Eid is, we will consider.

I silently kept it moving. Good excuse eh?

[spogmai shaglay]

Great conversation.... the biggest joke is that we saw the Shawwal moon and it was so thick, 2 day moon...which means Eid was suppose to be celebrated on Friday and we are going to celebrate on Saturday.....

haaaaaaaaaa...Fast the entire month and Eid namaz we couldn't pray... now Baasi Eid namaz...

[PFgulalai]

But its not the first time we celebrated Akhtar on a different day than the rest of the Pakistan.There was only one year when we celebrated Eid together with the rest of the Pakistan (in my lifetime) and that was also Pakistan's decision to celebrate with us,lol.I heard this time two women witnessess were also included in the Masjid Qasim Jaan's decision.

This was the akhtar SMS for me this morning from KP:

"Pa chath bande nasta wa Ruet-e-Hilal committee,
Moonga waele chi paas pa asmaan ba miyashth goory,
Ughwee da paas na lande jeenakoo ta katal"