Eid Mubarak!!!

Eid Mubarak!

Well, there was the usual confusion of when because everyone has their own method of deciding if the moon has been sighted. HEre in Houston, some of the masjids changed their minds, I think. It gets on my nerves every year, just like the first day of Ramadan, this group says Monday, that country says Tuesday, Shi'as wait a day after Sunnis.

So I decided this year, once and for all, what my own method will be. My husband and I used to live in Arkansas, where there is no community, so we always relied on his parents in Bahrain, and Bahrain always goes with Saudi Arabia. From what I understand, unless I am mistaken, Saudi Arabia accepts a reliable sighting regardless of where it is. I seem to recall my first Ramadan in 1996 started after an imam in Japan saw the moon, and that community was mostly Saudi. I might be wrong, but that is what I have decided from now on, and I was told that first Ramadan that is the way it should be done. If it is sighted anywhere and the source is reliable, we will accept it as the new moon and do what we got to do.

I know others will wait for the majority of their own community, I have heard that you should do this.

Others will wait until the moon is sighted with the naked eye instead of with the high powered telescopes that can spot it a day before, I have heard you should this, also. I have heard so many different methods, it can get really confusing! So I told myself JUST PICK ONE, so for me today, Eid Mubarak.

I was not able to go to the prayers. I really have not been going to any masjid for a while. And the big prayers they have at the Reliant Center, with ISGH (Islamic Society of Greater Houston) is going to be on Wednesday, anyway. My husband had to go to a class down town and could not take us. So I think I will dress up and walk the three blocks to the big fancy mall. Get out of the house for a while before it gets too hot.