Doubting the sighting of the Ramadan moon
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: This year, there has been a lot of doubt cast on the sighting of the Ramadan moon by some of the… [garbled]… and others. So what is your guidance on this matter?
Answer:
The matter is referred to the people of expertise, the authority responsible for announcing the start and end of fasting. It is not a matter of chaos where everyone intervenes. General matters, such as fasting, breaking the fast, and jihad, are referred to the competent authorities. Those who are not from the people of expertise or specialization do not intervene in them. Scholars were present in our lands in large numbers until recently, and no scholar dared to issue fatwas to the people regarding the moon or to issue them rulings on it. Rather, this is referred to the competent authority. If they announce the sighting of the moon, they fast, and if they announce the sighting for breaking the fast, they break their fast. No distinguished scholar intervenes in this.
However, if there are those who are ignorant, people of desires, and they cause confusion among Muslims in their worship: regarding the Fajr prayer, they say they pray twenty-five minutes before the time; regarding fasting, they fast without the confirmation of the month by calculation, and calculation is more correct in their view than the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), where he says:Sunan an-Nasa'i 2118Sahih (Darussalam) Complete Sha'ban as thirty days. And they say: Do not act by calculation; the Messenger did not order us to act by calculation, he ordered us to act by sighting. If we leave the sighting and act by calculation, we have disobeyed the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And we have accused the hadith of being deficient.
This is one aspect. The second aspect, as I indicated to you, is that this necessitates chaos, confusion, and casting doubt on people. Therefore, it is obligatory to stop these people at their limit and to silence their tongues regarding these matters.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
He says: This year, there has been a lot of doubt cast on the sighting of the Ramadan moon by some of the… [garbled]… and others. So what is your guidance on this matter?
Answer:
The matter is referred to the people of expertise, the authority responsible for announcing the start and end of fasting. It is not a matter of chaos where everyone intervenes. General matters, such as fasting, breaking the fast, and jihad, are referred to the competent authorities. Those who are not from the people of expertise or specialization do not intervene in them. Scholars were present in our lands in large numbers until recently, and no scholar dared to issue fatwas to the people regarding the moon or to issue them rulings on it. Rather, this is referred to the competent authority. If they announce the sighting of the moon, they fast, and if they announce the sighting for breaking the fast, they break their fast. No distinguished scholar intervenes in this.
However, if there are those who are ignorant, people of desires, and they cause confusion among Muslims in their worship: regarding the Fajr prayer, they say they pray twenty-five minutes before the time; regarding fasting, they fast without the confirmation of the month by calculation, and calculation is more correct in their view than the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), where he says:
Fast when you see it and stop fasting when you see it, and if it is obscured from you
صوموا لرؤيته، وأفطروا لرؤيته، فإن غم عليكمThis is one aspect. The second aspect, as I indicated to you, is that this necessitates chaos, confusion, and casting doubt on people. Therefore, it is obligatory to stop these people at their limit and to silence their tongues regarding these matters.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
لقاء مفتوح [الزلفي] — alfawzan.live (42:46)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.