BEIRUT, Lebanon - While Sunni Muslims here and elsewhere in the Arab world marked the beginning of the feast that ends Ramadan, Lebanese Shiite Muslims were split over whether Thursday was indeed the first day of Eid al-Fitr.
The religious split has also political connotations.
Ramadan, a time of reflection when Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, sex and other indulgences from sunrise to sunset, comes to a close if the crescent moon is seen on the 29th day of the month. If the moon is not sighted, the 30th day is considered the last day of fasting.
Ramadan commemorates the month when Muslims believe God started revealing the Quran, the Islamic holy book, to the Prophet Muhammad about 1,400 years ago.
Sheik Abdul-Amir Kabalan, the deputy leader of Lebanon's Higher Shiite Muslim Council, which runs the day-to-day religious affairs of the country's 1.2 million Shiite Muslims, said that Thursday is the 30th day of Ramadan and therefore Friday is the first day of the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday.
A spokesman for the militant Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah agreed with the sheik. Hezbollah, which has its power base in Beirut's southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in the east, follows Iran's religious authority. Unlike most Gulf states and other Arab countries, Iran did not consider Thursday as the beginning of Eid al-Fitr.
But Shiite followers of Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah celebrated Eid al-Fitr on Thursday. Fadlallah, a senior Lebanese Shiite Muslim religious authority, led special Eid prayers Thursday morning at a mosque in Haret Hreik, south of Beirut.
Fadlallah's religious authority has in the past been challenged by Iran and Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah, which recognizes Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as its religious authority.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is Khamenei's personal and legal representative in Lebanon.
The Higher Shiite Muslim Council follows the religious authority of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sayestani, an Iranian cleric based in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf.
Among the council's followers is Hezbollah's Shiite rival, the Syrian-backed Amal movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Hezbollah and Amal had fought fiercely for the domination of the Shiite community.
Some Shiites lamented the failure of all Muslims to mark Eid al-Fitr on the same day.
"We had hoped to have one common Eid al-Fitr for all Muslims. But differences over the (Shiite) religious authority have apparently prevented this," said Ahmed al-Gharbi, a Sunni journalist in Sidon.
Wahbe Shaiyeb, a Shiite doctor in Sidon, said he followed Fadlallah's declaration on Eid al-Fitr "because Fadlallah is a man of religion and knowledge."