{"id":2256,"date":"2014-06-28T09:40:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T13:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2014-06-28T09:46:52","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T13:46:52","slug":"ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html","title":{"rendered":"Ramadan is coming &#8211; or has already arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ramadan Mubarak!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/75\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"422\" height=\"632\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1031\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By the lunar Fatimid calendar, today (Saturday 28th June) is the 1st of Ramadan. The Mecca-centric calculations of The Fiqh Council of North America (affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.isna.net\/fiqh-council-of-north-america-announces-dates-for-ramadan-and-eid-al-fitr-2014.html\">also concur<\/a> with the lunar calendar in declaring today the 1st of Ramadan.<\/p>\n<p>Most moonsighting communities have not yet confirmed a positive moon sighting, <a href=\"http:\/\/moonsighting.com\/1435rmd.html\">according to Moonsighting.com<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crescentwatch.org\/cgi-bin\/cw.cgi\">according to CrescentWatch.org<\/a>. For communities that adhere to the moonsighting tradition, Ramadan begins tomorrow on Sunday, 29th June. <\/p>\n<p>Whether you begin fasting today or tomorrow, Ramadan Mubarak! Please do remember me and my family in your precious <em>dua<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Related: my contribution to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/azizpoonawalla\/2014\/06\/there-debate-about-moonsighting-and-the-validity-and-ubiquity-of-calculations\/\">moonsighting debate<\/a>, where I argue that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/08\/my-contribution-to-the-moonsig.html\">calculations are just as valid as moonsighting<\/a> and rebut some of the exclusivity arguments that moonsighters sometimes make (not to mention pointing out that moonsighters themselves also use calculations). Also, Dr. Muqtedar Khan has written a new essay in favor or calculations that is very thought-provoking, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/3626607\/On_the_Moon_Sighting_Debate_A_Maslaha_Based_argument\">On the moon-sighting debate: a Maslaha-based argument.<\/a>. Finally, an old brief essay of mine of some relevance: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/in-motion-the-believers-reflec.html\">in motion, the believers reflect the heavens<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramadan Mubarak! By the lunar Fatimid calendar, today (Saturday 28th June) is the 1st of Ramadan. The Mecca-centric calculations of The Fiqh Council of North America (affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America) also concur with the lunar calendar in declaring today the 1st of Ramadan. Most moonsighting communities have not yet confirmed a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[24,60,27,46],"class_list":["post-2256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-islam","tag-moonsighting","tag-muslim","tag-ramadan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ramadan is coming - or has already arrived - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ramadan is coming - or has already arrived - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ramadan Mubarak! By the lunar Fatimid calendar, today (Saturday 28th June) is the 1st of Ramadan. The Mecca-centric calculations of The Fiqh Council of North America (affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America) also concur with the lunar calendar in declaring today the 1st of Ramadan. Most moonsighting communities have not yet confirmed a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-28T13:40:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-06-28T13:46:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ramadan is coming - or has already arrived - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ramadan is coming - or has already arrived - City of Brass","og_description":"Ramadan Mubarak! By the lunar Fatimid calendar, today (Saturday 28th June) is the 1st of Ramadan. The Mecca-centric calculations of The Fiqh Council of North America (affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America) also concur with the lunar calendar in declaring today the 1st of Ramadan. Most moonsighting communities have not yet confirmed a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2014-06-28T13:40:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-06-28T13:46:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif"}],"author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html","name":"Ramadan is coming - or has already arrived - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif","datePublished":"2014-06-28T13:40:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-28T13:46:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2008\/08\/tasbihg.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/06\/ramadan-is-coming-or-has-already-arrived.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ramadan is coming &#8211; or has already arrived"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2256"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2260,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}