“One of the sign of hour is that people see a new moon and think, due to its size, that it is two days old.”
In fact, I have heard this remark on countless occasions from Muslims who see a new moon; because it is over thirty hours old, which is when new moons are normally sighted, they think it is too big to be a newborn crescent and declare that is at least two days old.
This results from people’s alienation from natural order and the fact that few modern people ever observe the phases of the moon from birth to conjunction and rebirth.
In another extraordinary hadith, the Prophet s said, “Among the signs of the end of time is that the crescent will be seen with the naked eye, and it will be said, “This is two days old.”
In another variant, the narration states,
“Among the signs of the end is the hopping of the crescents (intif’ju l-ahillah).”
Imam al-Ghum’rÏ’s interpretation is that the news of the crescent will spread immediately throughout the world. [Since the word is taken from the hop of a rabbit (intafaja l-arnab, the rabbit hopped)]. And God knows best.”
— Taken from a lecture series by Sh Hamza Yusuf.
Image courtesy: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/393150242460084986/
