. After no sightings were made that night, they announced Ramadan will be observed on Friday, 20 February.
For some, they’ve done the ritual for decades. At Point Chevalier’s Coyle Park, one woman, who has been scanning Auckland’s skyline for about 20 years, recalls old photographs of her daughter bundled up at lookout points as a baby. Now grown-up, the girl searches eagerly herself.
Before the era of smartphones, she taught local co-ordinator Subaie Ishaque’s wife, Salwa, to use a ruler to estimate where the moon might appear.
A Muslim woman compares a chart on her phone with the horizon to find the location of the moon during sunset at Point Chevalier’s Coyle Park.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
Salwa joins her husband, who also has been doing this for 20 years, each month for the sightings. She describes the experience as incredibly empowering for her faith. For their children, Ishaque says, it’s also a chance to understand, not only the tradition, but also the reasons and criteria.
“A lot of times the kids make remarks such as, ‘we came here, we spent an hour, and we haven’t seen the moon, what is this? I wish we had seen the moon’.
“You just respond to them to say that, ‘hey, one of the humbling factors of this whole exercise is for human beings to realise that in the grand scheme of things they are insignificant’.
“That is a reminder every single month that you go out, that you’re not in control. There is a higher power, there’s God, there’s Allah.”
Why not just use astronomy?
Dozens of Muslims had also gathered at Mount Roskill’s summit on Wednesday night, but the conditions were less than favourable.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
That question surfaces every year. FIANZ’s Hilal Committee, a group of religious scholars and technical experts, has chosen to uphold the tradition of ‘naked eye sightings’, rather than solely relying on high-tech equipment or astronomical calculations.
Sheikh Muhammed Shakir Ismail, who works with the committee and is based at Avondale Islamic Centre, says other countries Islamic-majority countries like Saudi Arabia and Malayasia also follow this principle.
But in Aotearoa’s diverse Muslim community, some have argued it would be better to follow the astronomical calculations. What matters most, Ishaque says, is avoiding division.
“It’s entirely up to you whether you want to follow that group of scholars or whether you want to follow another group of scholars that’s actually doing local sighting. But what you definitely need to avoid is argumentation and conflict,” Ishaque says.
“You can’t actually go and tell them that they are wrong, we are right, and they can’t tell us that we are wrong, they are right.”
Clouds cover the horizon at Coyle Park.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
Anyone, regardless of their expertise, can look out for the moon though. Charts compiled from 14 years of local sightings guide volunteers in each city. If they do spot the hilal, they can contact their local mosques who will verify it, Sheikh Ismail says.
“We need to verify the authenticity of the sighting and the credibility of the sighting as well … because at the end of the day, this is related to a person’s worship. So it has to be absolutely certain.”
Even with data, nature has the final word. Cloud cover, atmospheric pressure and seasonal angles can all affect visibility.
“All of your scientific criteria could tell you that the moon is potentially going to be visible on a specific day, and it’s cloudy,” Ishaque says. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Waiting on the call
As sunset moves down the country, confirmation calls ripple from the top of the North Island to Invercargill. The growth of the Muslim population has strengthened this network, placing observers in strategic locations nationwide, Sheikh Ismail says.
Avondale Islamic Centre’s Sheikh Muhammed Shakir Ismail.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
On clear nights, confirmation can come within minutes, he says. Other times, the committee could be waiting about an hour on a live Facebook broadcast before making an announcement. On this night, just after 9.30pm, FIANZ confirmed via Facebook: no sighting.
“Ideally, we would all like to have a sighting within 15 minutes or 20 minutes [of sunset]. But it’s almost impossible to have that,” Sheikh Ismail says.
“I think it was the year before [last when] for the sighting of Eid, I hadn’t completed my maghrib salah (the first prayer of the evening) and my phone was buzzing and the sightings had already been done and the moon had been sighted, because the conditions were so favourable.”
If the crescent remains unseen across New Zealand, calls extend to South Pacific neighbours – Fiji, Samoa and Tonga – where aligned time zones and clearer horizons may offer better conditions, he says. Australia is generally excluded; time differences could push confirmation towards midnight.
The anticipation for Ramadan
Muslims took the opportunity to pray outdoors, after not being able to sight the moon, as the sun set at Point Chevalier’s Coyle Park on 18 February, 2026.
RNZ / Isra’a Emhail
Fasting from dawn to sunset – a practice that now falls across New Zealand’s long summer days as the Islamic calendar shifts about 10 to 12 days earlier each year – during Ramadan is one of Islam’s five pillars and obligatory for those able. (There are exemptions such as for those with long-term health issues and young children.)
The yearning for it has been building for two months, Sheikh Ismail says, adding some wished it would come around twice a year.
“I have never known in my whole life anyone who has dreaded Ramadan,” he says. “You just have to look at the countries that are fasting like for extended hours, 20-hour fast, 21-hour fast sometimes, and Muslims do it happily.”
Ramadan brings with it more nightly prayers, recitation of the Qur’an, communal meals to break the fast, charity and introspection.
“The body can be cured through earthly means, but the soul needs spiritual means to be cured. And this is that month of Ramadan. It’s that clinic for the soul.”
For non-Muslims, it can also be a window into the faith, he says.
“Ramadan is a time for us as Muslims to better ourselves, to conscientise and take control of my emotions, take control of my actions, take control of my words.”
On windswept hilltops above Auckland on Wednesday, families pack up their prayer carpets with that same sentiment that reinforces their spiritual premise: human planning yields to divine decree.
