The New Moon and the Path of Certainty 1
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
ِ
In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful
Bismillah. The crescent moon is the beginning of the path to certainty.”What does that mean?”, I hear you cry! Well every smallest aspect of anything we do in our lives is to increase us in our certainty in what is right according to the Quran and Sunnah. Through our knowledge (ilm) and action (aml), we seek greater certainty, ultimately in the existence of Allah. We already know that Allah exists but we are dinguished as believers according to the degree of certainty we possess, the greater the certainty, the greater our efforts to strive for and please Rabb-il-Alimeen. But there is also anther criteria which demonstrates the degree to which we possess certainty, which is the metaphysical quality of purity. On the Day of Resurrection, only those who come to Allah with a healthy heart will be saved. Allah says:
يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
“The day on which neither wealth nor sons will be of any use,
except for whoever brings to Allah a sound heart”. (Quran, ash-Shua’ra, 26:88-89)
From a sound heart comes sound intentions. Thus if we seek to acquire greater knowledge, then it is for the purpose of being more certain about what we already, and to be granted greater understanding of what we do not yet know or understand. Our actions, in much the same way, confirm what we know, and affirm what we hold to be true, and furthermore what we know to be sacred. But what has certainty to do with the crescent moon?
يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الأهِلَّةِ قُلْ هِيَ مَوَاقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَالْحَجِّ وَلَيْسَ الْبِرُّ بِأَنْ تَأْتُوْاْ الْبُيُوتَ مِن ظُهُورِهَا وَلَـكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنِ اتَّقَى وَأْتُواْ الْبُيُوتَ مِنْ أَبْوَابِهَا وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
“They ask thee concerning the New Moons. Say:They are but signs to mark fixed periods of time in (the affairs of) men, and for Pilgrimage”. (Quran, Baqarah 2:189)
Each month begins with the sighting of the cresecent moon, and this faint but beautiful sight can only be obtained by those that have been granted certainty by Allah. That certainty is a light that illuminates the breast and directs the believer towards searching for sacred knowledge in the right place. The moon, a sacred symbol, is analogous to sacred knowledge, the means by which the light of Divine guidance enters into the heart. If one does not know where to look for the new crescent in the sunset sky then he will not be able to find it. So he not only needs to be in the right location, but gazing into the right portion of the sky at the right time. And only then will the light of the new crescent be made known to him. Those that seek the crescent in ways other than prescribed by the Quran and Sunnah, are those that lack certainty in their heart, and hence they are not among those invited by Allah to witness the new crescent at the beginning of every month. As Allah says:
“See you not that to Allah bow down in worship all things that are in the heavens and on earth,- the sun, the moon, the stars; the hills, the trees, the animals; and a great number among mankind? But a great number are (also) such as are fit for Punishment: and such as Allah shall disgrace,- None can raise to honour: for Allah carries out all that He wills”. (Al-Hajj, 22:18)
It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for her; that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time). Nowise did Allah create this but in truth and righteousness. (Thus) doth He explain His Signs in detail, for those who understand. (Quran, Yunus, 10:05)
A Light of Beauty
In Surah-al-Hajj, Allah subhanhu wa ta’ala begins with the heavens first, the sun, moon and stars, stating that all are subject to His will then referring to the earth, the hills (mountains), trees and all other creatures, all the way down to and including a large number of the Bani Adam. If we work back from mankind (in the verse), we can deduce that, given his granted powers of observation, mankind is able to observe the submission of the heavens which are submitting to the same laws and same order ans he is subject to. Now if he understands the power contained in the heavens, in the sun, moon and stars, and the amount of power these bodies possess, and yet are in complete submission to this force. Then those of intellect should be able to decipher that in comparison he does not possess the power of the sun, let alone the galaxy, and if the sun is in obedience to Allah then so should he be. These are believers that Allah honours because only He can grant honour. But then Allah refers to those that seek to follow another order, their own order by which they seek to elevate themselves to a position of honour, honour amongst those that too seek to change the natural order. But they only succeed in disgracing themselves through their disobedience to God. Allah also says in the Quran:
وَمَا يَتَّبِعُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ إِلاَّ ظَنًّا إَنَّ الظَّنَّ لاَ يُغْنِي مِنَ الْحَقِّ شَيْئًا إِنَّ اللّهَ عَلَيمٌ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ
But most of them follow nothing but conjecture: truly conjecture can be of no avail against truth. Verily, Allah is well aware of all that they do. (Quran, Yunus, 10:36)
If a person debates about matters in which there is no doubt, then it is a sign of the state of his heart. He lacks certainty, certainty about what he ought to be certain, which is the Quran and Sunnah. And it truly is conjecture, because the orbits of the moon and stars have already been fixed by Allah and are subject to His laws and commands. If people are in doubt about its beginning then we must question what exactly they are in doubt about? The Quran and Sunnah?
There is another consideration that should increase our reverence and awe for what Allah is educating us in. This consideration further places into context the relationship between the new crescent, our level certainty and degree of adab for sacred knowledge, which is that, to be in the right place at the right time is not necessarily in the power of the servant. The mere fact that he is there at all, to witness the hilal is his response to the invitation of Allah to visit this heavenly body at the time and moment prescribed by the Quran and Sunnah of the prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So to be here is just the beginning, an invitation to those pure of heart that are sincerely seeking their Lord. Thus the beginning of the journey is with sincerity (Ikhlas), certainty (yakin), pure intention (niyah), all emanating from a pure heart. Here, Allah is teaching us that one must begin, for His sake, with these noble qualities as a pre-requisite to the path of sacred learning, otherwise we will not be able to sight the new crescent, and neither will we possess the requisite ettiqutte (adab) to gain sacred knowledge. Thus greater certainty begins with a lesser certainty, and that lesser certainty is the desire to follow what is right. Belief does not begin with belief, it begins with submission, as Allah says in the Quran, ‘do not say you believe, say you submit, for belief has not yet entered into the heart’.
Faith and Submission
قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا قُل لَّمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَإِن تُطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ لَا يَلِتْكُم مِّنْ أَعْمَالِكُمْ شَيْئًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
The desert Arabs say, “We believe.” Say, “Ye have no faith; but ye (only) say, ‘We have submitted our wills to Allah,’ For not yet has Faith entered your hearts. But if ye obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Quran, Hujurat, 49:14)
And how could belief have already entered into the heart when, as narrated by Abu Hurairah, the prophet, salallahu allayhi wasallam, said:It is related by Abu Hurairah that the Apostle of God said: “Faith is composed of seventy and odd branches of which the highest is belief in La Ilaha Il-Lalah [i.e., the testimony of Divine Oneness] and the lowest is the removal of a hindrance from the road, and the sense of modesty is an important branch of Faith.”
The prophet, salallahu allayhi wasallam, did not specify an exact number, ’seventy and odd’ according to the scholars refers to a multitude, and hence there are a multitude of the branches of faith. Given this knowledge we cannot begin from a point of certitude but instead we begin with humilty and submission, submission to the truth that we lack knowledge hence our need to seek it, an affirmation also of our state of ignorance before our Lord, and our helplessness before His power. Hence to begin with submission is how the believe begins to situate himself according to the stars, aligning himself with the Divine Decree, Allah Who then situates the believer correctly at the beginning of the lunar month ready to begin a new journey. And what may we say is the beginning of a new month, but the beginning of new journey, the beginning of a new discovery, the affirmation of our need for the light of Allah, His guidance and His knowledge.
Therefore the crescent moon is indeed the beginning of the path to certainty.That path begins each month with the sighting of the new crescent which in itself is a beautiful reminder to each believer seeking sacred knowledge that had Allah not granted them the knowledge of where to seek this most beautiful of heavenly bodies they would not know. Those that seek the crescent moon in ways other than the Quran and Sunnah are rejecting sacred knowledge and Divine guidance, and hance as a result they are not to be found amongst the faithful that observe the new crescent when it is born, present at this sign of their Lord, and placing themselves, right at that moment at the beginning of the journey, not a day before, nor a day after but precisely at the right time. And what else is precision but certainty.
Certainty is faith and faith has a multitude of branches. One does not begin with faith but with submission to the Quran and Sunnah. A person cannot create certainty, but certainty enters into the heart as a blessing from Allah for the believer’s desire to submit to His will, to follow the Quran and Sunnah. With this desire to submit Allah begins to orientate the believer towards Himself, slowly turning the heart of the believer in His Hand and placing him of the path of certitude.
If we begin to pay careful attention to the moon and begin to orientate our lives according to its movements as prescribed, then we begin to follow the natural order for which we have been so intimately made. The two become one, and we become inseparable from the order of the heavens, we become part of the Divine Decree. We have chosen to submit to none other than Him, the One that created the heavens and the earth and everything in between.
وَسَخَّرَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالْنَّهَارَ وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ وَالْنُّجُومُ مُسَخَّرَاتٌ بِأَمْرِهِ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
“He has made subject to you the Night and the Day; the sun and the moon; and the stars are in subjection by His Command: verily in this are Signs for men who are wise”. (Quran, an-Nahl, 16:12)
