SAUDI ARABIA (Web Desk): Ramazan will commence in Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries from Monday (tomorrow) as the new moon of the holy month was not sighted in the region on Saturday, Arab News reported.
In Pakistan, the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee will meet in Karachi today for the sighting of the crescent of Ramazan.
Last week, the Ruet-e-Hilal Research Council had predicted that the Ramazan moon is likely to be sighted in the country on Monday and the holy month is expected to commence from Tuesday.
The Muslim world follows a lunar calendar, and the traditional moon-sighting methodology can lead to different countries declaring the start of Ramazan a day or two apart.
This year, Ramazan will fall on long summer days for the Muslims in the Northern Hemisphere.
The longest fast this Ramazan will be for 20 hours and 45 minutes in Russia’s Murmansk while the shortest will be in Argentina’s Ushuala clocking in at 11 hours, according to Gulf News.
With the holy month of Ramazan right around the corner, members of the the Muslim faith will practice tolerance through fasting.
Prayer timings in major cities of these countries were used calculate the intervals between Fajr (preceding sunrise) and Maghrib (marking sunset) on the expected first day of Ramazan.
The fast in Islamabad will be for 15 hours and 14 minutes.
For example, Russia’s Murmansk only has 3 hours of darkness, before the sun rises again at 1:41am.
While the city of Ushuaia in Argentina has the shortest fasting time in the world. 11 hours exactly. The sun rises at 6:57am and 5:57pm.
Dubai will be fasting for 14 hours and 39 minutes on the first day of Ramadan.
Interestingly, countries where sunset and sunrise are too close (less than 3 hours apart) or are indistinguishible, fatwas have been issued to allow Muslims to follow the timings of the closest city that has distinguishible day and night timings.
