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.