Jakarta – Muhammadiyah respected the result of itsbat hearing done by the government, which decided the start of Dzulhijah month including the date for Hari Raya IdulAdha 1435 H on Sunday, 5 October 2014.

“Whatever the result is, Muhammadiyah respects the itsbat result. We also prove our attendance on the hearing,” said the Chairman of Muhammadiyah Central Executive, YunaharIlyas, through a text massage to the editorial of muhammadiyah.or.id on Thursday afternoon (9/25).

The Professor of Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta admitted there was no debate and whatnot in the attendance of itsbat hearing because Muhammadiyah had decided the start of Dzulhijah 1435 H long before the government did.

“Muhammadiyah had announced beforehand because whatever the result is, it won’t be that much influential,” said the chairman of tarjih, tajid, and Islamic thought council. Related to the existing difference, Yunahar suggested that people would not exaggerate and react too much about this matter.

“If the scholars and the leaders are calm and do not exaggerate, then the society will do the same,” said the scholar who was born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra.

Muhammadiyah had decided that IdulAdha 10 Dzulhijah 1435 Hijriah will be on Saturday, 4 October 2014. The decision was based on the hisab measurement or commonly called “hisabhakiki” which were done by Tarjih Council of Muhammadiyah Central Executive.

The method used by Muhammadiyah was hisabhakiki, method that focused on the movement of celestial objects, especially the sun and the mon, in literal meaning. In the press conference signed by the Chairman of Tarjih and Tajdid Council of Muhammadiyah Central Executibe, Syamsul Anwar, stated that there were three criteria of the fulfillment of wujudul-hilal.

The three criteria were the occurrence of ijtima (conjunction) between the moon and the sun, ijtima occurred before the sun sets, and when the sun sets, the moon is not, or when the moon is still above the horizon.

This year IdulAdha, ijtimak before the month of Dzulhijah 1435 H occurred on Wednesday Legi (Javanese month), 24 September 2014 on 13:15:45 pm Indonesian Time or 09:15:45 Saudi Arabia time, because the time difference between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia was 4 hours.

Ijtimak occurred on the afternoon in Yogyakarta, which meant ijtimak occurred before the sun set in that area. This showed, the first and second criteria of wujudul-hilal were fulfilled, which was the sun set in Yogyakarta on Wednesday (9/24) on 17:35:30 Indonesian time, which meant the age of the month at that time was 04 hours 19 minutes 45 seconds.

The third criteria also was fulfilled because based on the measurement, on the sunset in Yogyakarta on 24 September 2014, the moon was still above the horizon with the height of 0.30.04.

This meant, when the sun set, the moon had not set, and hilal appeared. By the fulfillment of these three criteria, then 1 Dzulhijah 1435 H started on the setting of the sun on Wednesday (9/24), and the conversion of Sun calendar was decided on the next day, Thursday (9/25).

On the other hand, the government decided IdulAdhaon 10 Dzulhijahwill be on Sunday, 5 October 2014 according to itsbat hearing. Furthermore, seeing through the report of 70 points spread from Sabang to Merauke stated that they did not see hilal. (dzar)