Identifying The Roots Of The Problem In Achieving Unity
Moon Research Centre (M.R.C) took upon itself to find a sensible solution to the problems associated with the crescent sighting but firstly, its task was to locate the roots to the problem and it held discussions with religious leaders in Rochdale, Manchester and some other towns and cities. It found that most of the time the problem was created by the clouds in the sky not allowing the moon to be sighted at the beginning of the lunar month. The outcome of these discussions were regularly published in the monthly Aina Newsletter. It also researched into any articles published in some Urdu and English newspapers regarding this issue.
One thing was clear from the investigations that this issue cannot be resolved by astronomers alone, as one particular formula was difficult to apply throughout the world and therefore different formulae were necessary in different parts of the globe. Therefore, this can only be resolved by the religious leaders adopting only anyone formula in any one country.
Britain is a non-Muslim country and the laws of Muslim countries do not apply here and therefore there is no directive from the government as for which formula to adapt and hence there is no unity in the different factions of the Muslim population in Britain. This has lead to different religious leaders enforcing different formulae and each has the backing of a mufti, so according to sunna all the formulae must be correct and no one can doubt them.
Call it stubbornness or enlightening, the differences in opinion from Ulama' are both to be thought about. This allows one to see the other side of the argument but stubbornness can cause damage to unity and raise question marks about certain aspects of Islam. According to all Ulama' the policies adopted by them are according to Islam. Some Ulama' believe that unity does not come before Islam. So the question arises is unity part of Islam and important for the Muslim Umma?.