According to the London Central Mosque Ramadhan 2020 will start on either Friday 24 April 2020 or Saturday 25 April 2020.

Moonsighting activity will take place on Thursday 23 April 2020 (the 29th day of Sha'ban).

The new moon will be born around 3.25am on Thursday, April 23, 2020 and and "will not be visible by the naked-eye anywhere in the UK/Morocco region on that date" according to moonsighting.org.uk..

According to scientific data a new crescent moon is only visible after 20 hours. And the moon’s angle (altitude) from the sun at sunset needs to be at least 7 degrees.

So a sighting is not possible until after 11pm on Thursday 23rd April 2020. How can Saudi Arabia make an announcement about positive sighting by 5pm UK time? By 6pm the London Central Mosque is making the same announcement.

"The age of the moon at sunset in Saudi Arabia today Thursday 23 April 2020 was 13 hours 17 minutes . The moon in Makkah set 23 minutes after sunset . With an altitude of 4° at sunset it will be impossible to sight the moon with the human eye in Saudi Arabia." - Shaykh Suliman Gani.

Saudi Arabia has a habit announcing moon sightings when it is NOT humanly possible to do so.

The London Central Mosque, which simply follows Saudia Arabia, has announced that "We are pleased to announce to the whole Muslim Community in the U.K that Friday 24 May 2020 is the 1st of Ramadhan 1441 Hijri."

For the sake of unity, ALL of Southal will start the month of Ramadhan on Friday 24 April 2020. Tarawih prayer will start on Thursday night (at home).

Most people are aware of the fact that the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar. Each month can be 29 or 30 days depending on the visibility of the moon.

This means that start of Ramadhan is decided upon the sighting of the moon and therefore it is not practical to pick a date in advance.

Ramadhan Mubarak