Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia the United Arab Emirates and 15 other countries have announced an end to this year’s Ramadan Fast.
President-General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, announced this evening that the crescent moon of Shawwal has been sighted in Borno, Adamawa and other places.
Nigeria and the countries where the moon has been sighted to mark the end of the fasting period have, therefore fixed Sunday as the first day of Eid-el-Fitr 1438.
Eid al-Fitr is usually commemorated to mark the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
According to Al jazeera television, “Turkey and Muslim communities in North America, Europe and Australia had previously announced they would celebrate Eid al-Fitr from Sunday June 25 based on astronomical calculations.
“Oman, however, has not sighted the moon, and thus declared Monday June 26 as the first day of Eid al-Fitr.
“Bangladesh, Pakistan, India will be sighting the moon on Sunday. These countries started Ramadan on May 28 and so Sunday will be the 29th of Ramadan for them.”
All the countries who have confirmed Sunday as Eid-el-Fitr are Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Iraq (Sunnis), Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Malaysia, UAE, UK, United States and Yemen.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that Nigeria is yet to announce the sighting of the moon.
However, the TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Federal Government on Thursday declared Monday and Tuesday (June 26 and 27) next week public holidays to mark the 2017 Eid-El-Fitr celebrations.