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Thursday November 21, 2024

Ramazan begins in Saudi Arabia, parts of world

By News Desk
April 02, 2022
Muslims offering Taraveeh prayers at Masjid al-Nabawi Sharif on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan. - Twitter
Muslims offering Taraveeh prayers at Masjid al-Nabawi Sharif on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan. - Twitter 

ABU DHABI: The Holy month of Ramazan will begin on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and several other countries, where the moon was sighted on Friday evening.

According to the official Twitter page of Haramain Sharifain, the moon of Ramazan was sighted at various locations throughout the Kingdom. “The moon of Ramazan 1443H/2022AD was seen at various locations in Saudi Arabia, subsequently, the first Ramazan 1443H will be on Saturday, April 2, 2022,” Haramain Sharifain announced the news through his social media handle. Meanwhile, the moon-sighting committee met at the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD), after the Maghrib prayers and confirmed the sight of new crescent moon, the UAE official news agency Wam reported.

According to the committee, on Friday (April 1), will be the last day of Sha’ban 1443 Hijri and Saturday will mark the first day of Ramazan. Aside from the UAE, countries that align themselves with Saudi Arabian moon sighting, included Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Chechnia, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq (Sunnis sect), Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Palestine, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tatarstan, Togo, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

In Pakistan, the Central Reut-e-Hilal Committee meeting to sight the Ramazan moon will be held today (Saturday). The committee's meeting will be held in Peshawar under the chairmanship of Chairman Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad.

Azad said that the meeting will be attended by Peshawar's zonal committee members and officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, Met Department and Suparco, Geo News reported.

Meanwhile, the other zonal committees will also meet in respective cities including Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Islamabad, he added. The Ruet-e-Hilal Research Council had said that the holy month of Ramazan is expected to begin in Pakistan on April 3 (Sunday) this year while Eid-ul-Fitr is expected on May 3.

Ruet-e-Hilal’s Secretary-General Khalid Ejaz Mufti said: “The birth of the new moon of Ramadan is expected on April 1 at 11:24am. On 29 Shaban (April 2), the age of the moon should be at least 19 hours. In some parts of Pakistan, it would exceed 31 hours.”

In a statement earlier this month, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had said that there is a possibility that the Ramazan moon will be sighted on April 2.

"The new moon of Ramazan, 1443 AH, will be born on [the] crossing conjunction point at 11-24 PST on 01-04-2022," a statement from the meteorological department said. "According to astronomical parameters, there is a good chance of sighting the new moon of Ramazan, 1443 AH on the evening of [April 2] i.e. on 29th of Shaban, 1443 AH," the statement said.

The PMD said that according to climate records, the weather is expected to be fair or partly cloudy in most parts of the country during the evening of April 2.