Of moon-sighting claims and social media memes

PESHAWAR: Along with lots of happiness Eid brings interesting stories with it. The happiest moment this year is that the major Muslim festivity is observed on the same day across the country for the first time in many years.

Both the Central Ruet-e-Hilal committee headed by Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad and the local private committee under Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai of historic Masjid Qasim Ali Khan made a similar announcement on Thursday night that credible witnesses of sighting moon could not be received from anywhere in the country and Eidul Fitr would be observed today (Saturday).

Before the two committees’ announcements, certain people and clerics in various parts of the province had already claimed to have sighted the moon and had made private announcements, which they had to withdraw later. Still in some villages of Waziristan, Bajaur and some other parts of the province, Eid was celebrated on Friday.

The two areas where some individuals ignored the rest of the country and made their announcements based on their individual claims were Galyara in Mardan district and Haiderkhel in North Waziristan.

The story of Glayara village went popular within no time and the individual named Syed Zaman alias Babu Saib became the most discussed person in the province on social media as well as private discussions.

Babu Saib claimed to have seen the crescent along with nine other persons. He was forcing the cleric of his mosque to make an announcement. But when the prayer leader declined to announce the celebration of Eid on Friday, he got angry and made the announcement on his own. He declared that they would celebrate Eid on Friday and offer Eid prayer at 7 am whether someone follows him or not.

But later in the night, he got his “software” updated and made another announcement from the mosque’s loudspeaker asking the people to observe fast on Friday. The two announcements made Babu Saib the focus of attention across the province.

His video clips went viral on social media. The social media users started sharing his video clips, memes and funny posts regarding Babu Saib. His photo making the crescent sign was shared repeatedly. Similar sketches with funny captions were made and posted on social media portals.

Interesting funny poems were also written, recited and shared about Babu Saib, who became a known person across the province in the shortest span of time. Soon the attention of the social media users diverted to Mufti Popalzai and funny comments were speedily posted and shared about him.

However, he could not beat Babu Saib. Bloggers and Vloggers rushed to Babu Saib and recorded his interviews.

However, Babu Saib was not ready to go back on his claim about sighting the moon. He said that he had sighted the moon every month for the last eighteen years and had got enough expertise in it.