Khalid Shaukat, the founder of moonsighting.com, and Moonsighting Committee Worldwide (MCW) is an internationally known Scientist/Engineer/Astronomer. He was born in Gorakhpur, UP, India. He grew up, and got early education in Rampur, UP, India at a very special 24 hour boarding school, learning English, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Science, Mathematics, History, Geography, Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, Tajweed, and Qir'at. He got his B.Sc. degree from D.J. Science college then a Bachelor of Engineering degree from N.E.D. Engineering College, Karachi, Pakistan studing Mathematics, Physics, and Civil Engineering. He obtained his graduate degree from Georgia Tech., Atlanta, Georgia, USA in 1970 in Civil/Structural Engineering. He learnt Computer Programming for Islamic issues, way before PCs and Macs were invented, using main frame computers and mini-computers. He has worked in USA as an engineer and performed research in the field of earthquake engineering and in moonsighting issues for more than 5 decades. Several mosques in USA, Puerto Rico, Caribbean Islands, and mosques in Canada, have been built with his help in the correct Qibla direction.

He has given more than 120 lectures on Moonsighting, Hijri Calendar, Prayer Times, Qibla Direction, and General Astronomy in many countries of the world (e.g., USA, UK, Canada, Guyana, Trinidad, Bermuda, Kenya, Morocco, and UAE). He has published articles on moonsighting and Hijri calendar in various journals and publications. He was acknowledged for his work by Daily "Washington Post" (August 19, 2006), by International weekly science journal, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and by the "Science" magazine, Page 1233 Vol. 313, 1 September 2006. He is the chief consultant to Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) for moonsighting, Hijri Calendar, Prayer Times, and Qibla Direction.