Muh. Nashirudin
IAIN Surakarta, Jl. Pandawa, Pucangan, Kartasura
din_ima@yahoo.com
Abstract: This paper discusses the Hejric calendar system by Mohammad Shawkat Odeh, one of Muslim astronomers from the Islamic world who offers new criterion for lunar crescent’s visibility and the Hejric calendar system. This article describes and analyzes some concepts proposed by Odeh concerning hisab (calculation) and rukyah (moon-sighting) such as criteria for the crescent visibility. The criteria offered by Odeh is the result of a long-time research (from 1859 – 2005 and totalled 737 observations). The Universal Hejric Calendar proposed by Odeh divides the world into two zones: the westerns zone covers American continent and the eastern zone covers Asian, African, Australian, and European continents. Although there are some problems caused by the division of zones, the idea that most of Muslim countries includes in the same zone is expected to reduce the problem of dissimilarity in determining the new moon. Consequently, the unification of the first date of the month and also the Islamic calendar is possible.
Keywords: crescent’s visibility, Hejric calendar