Building the mosque imam's decision on newspaper reports regarding the eclipse prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it permissible for the mosque imam to base his decision on the newspapers' opinion regarding the start of the eclipse?
The Shaykh:
In what respect?
The questioner:
Is it permissible for the imam?
The Shaykh:
No, he does not base it on what the newspapers say; he bases it on the sighting. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If you see it, then if you do not see it, do not pray. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it permissible for the mosque imam to base his decision on the newspapers' opinion regarding the start of the eclipse?
The Shaykh:
In what respect?
The questioner:
Is it permissible for the imam?
The Shaykh:
No, he does not base it on what the newspapers say; he bases it on the sighting. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
When you see either of them, pray
إذا رأيتم منهما ذلك فصلوا
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 093 من 123 / شرح كتاب زاد المستقنع / العدد / صالح الفوزان / الفقه / كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:05:59)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.