Editorial | Intricated Crescent  – The Global Kashmir

Several days of commotion over the issue of sighting of moon in Jammu and Kashmir seemingly came to an end as a number of scholars cutting across their schools of thought converged in Srinagar to take a call on the important events about to come in the ongoing holy month of Ramadan. Religion as always has been an intimate and sensitive issue for the majority across the world and when it comes to Jammu and Kashmir, it takes an altogether shape. It happened that on March 23, 2023 ‘Grand Mufti’, J&K, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam announced that he had ‘no credible witness’ on record which he could cite to announce that the following day i.e March 24, 2023 (Thursday) would be the first Ramadan day, however only an hour or so, the things started to take a dramatic turn as people thronged mosques and loudspeakers started blaring with announcements asking people to offer Taraweeh (Congregational prayers specially offered in Ramadan) and from there started a never ending series of debate in nuke and cranny of Jammu and Kashmir. Seemingly unperturbed by the cacophony, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam stood to his ground and reiterated his stance about the start of holy month from Friday only. It didn’t however go well as people continued to go on with their version and understanding of things least caring about Islam’s mandate and entrusted responsibility to make such announcements vis-à-vis J&K. After days of debates and discussions, the scholars sensing responsibility to put an end to the tumult unanimously decided to go for ‘Shab-e-Qadar’ on April 17, 2023 in contrast with the announcement of Mufti Nasi-ul-Islam’s announcement which would have been otherwise on April 18, 2023. Islam conceded to the suggestion of scholars wholeheartedly in a bid to keep the fibre intact which could otherwise have least to say withered had the participants engaged in any slugfest. It was nonetheless a brave and courageous thing from Islam to concede at such a point of time but we can take from it a lesson or two that it is all okay to concede when things may harm the general masses for no excuse of their own and more so a good a judgmental person would always see the things from larger perspective. One can hope that any other issue of such a nature, which might demand converging of saner minds, would be tackled in a more tactical way instead of engaging in mudslinging or to settle personal scores.