|
We need a point of reference a Dateline
on the Earth itself to count its rotation, which marks the day. This point would mark
the beginning of the day. Towards the west of this point the new day begins while
towards the east the old day is ending. As the point of reference would have two days
meeting, it cannot be on land where people live. Further, this point ought to be a
line running from North to South of the Earth. Now the whole life
has to continuously pass through the sea avoiding land. When we search for such a
point on Earth we find it between Russia and Alaska. Interestingly this is the place
where the International Date Line runs across. The day begins with this line that
comes straight to the Sun at noon. So the day begins on earth at 12noon on the date
line. At London, which is to the opposite of this live, it is 12midnight. Our concern
here is with the time of the birth of the day on Earth, which is at 12 noon. It is
with reference to this that we calculate the time in 24 hours. The universal say is
from noon to noon, calculated at the Dateline or midnight to midnight, calculated
at London 0 degree Greenwich. The point that is here underlined is that the people
of Fiji to the west of the Dateline pray the first Jummah of Friday while people of
Samoa to the east pray the last Luhar of Thursday.
The
outline of kiblahs too arises here. The people of fiji pray towards the west and the
people of samoa towards the east. When the Islamic dateline runs through land there
would be two days, jummah and luhar and two kiblahs in the same place. One should
interpret the statement of imam Shafee that there can be no two jummahs in the same
town against the concept of the Islamic dateline. The learned imam was suggestions
that the Dateline should not pass through land.
|
