Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman on Thursday asked Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry to tell in which astronomy or science book it was mentioned that the age of moon could be determined by its size.

Reacting to the criticism launched by Fawad over the latest moon-sighting controversy, Mufti Muneeb said, “The person who doesn’t know about the basics of science is presenting himself as an imam of science.”

In a statement, he addressed Fawad and said it was the first-day moon according to both science and religion.

Mufti Muneeb said it was proven by a hadith that the lunar month would be of 30 days if the skies were cloudy and moon wasn’t sighted on 29th.

The hadiths had no value for Fawad and his followers, remarked Mufti Muneeb and added that the federal minister knew only to joke about the religion.

This harsh reaction was triggered by Fawad who in a tweet posted an image of the Zilhajj moon and asked the people to decide themselves whether it was of the first or second.

https://twitter.com/fawadchaudhry/status/1285950680226762752

Later, he, in a TV programme, repeated the same stance and said whether the people wanted a Pakistan as envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam or an interpretation without logic and argument. The moon visible in Karachi at 8:15pm on Wednesday was a proof itself, he added.

Fawad had been stating for weeks that the first of Zilhajj would be on Wednesday, not Thursday, as decided by the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee led by Mufti Muneeb.