The Response to the Hadith of Ibn 'Abbas Regarding the Sighting of the Crescent Moon
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The stronger position is that the sighting applies to all Muslims. How is the response to the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas when it was raised?
Answer:
This is an ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) by Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him. It was his ijtihad, and he held that the sighting of the people of Madinah is not valid for others. A group of scholars held this view. The Council of Fatwa and Expiation of Scholars has studied this topic for some time. They concluded that there is no harm in each town having its own sighting, if they are not convinced by the sighting of others. Each town has its own sighting, as Ibn 'Abbas said. However, if they are convinced by the sighting of others and fast according to their lawful sighting, that is more complete and better. This is a matter of ta'wil (figurative interpretation) of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) statement regarding the sighting, interpreting the hadith in a general sense. Yes.
The stronger position is that the sighting applies to all Muslims. How is the response to the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas when it was raised?
Answer:
This is an ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) by Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him. It was his ijtihad, and he held that the sighting of the people of Madinah is not valid for others. A group of scholars held this view. The Council of Fatwa and Expiation of Scholars has studied this topic for some time. They concluded that there is no harm in each town having its own sighting, if they are not convinced by the sighting of others. Each town has its own sighting, as Ibn 'Abbas said. However, if they are convinced by the sighting of others and fast according to their lawful sighting, that is more complete and better. This is a matter of ta'wil (figurative interpretation) of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) statement regarding the sighting, interpreting the hadith in a general sense. Yes.
Source
التعليق على بعض أحاديث صحيح مسلم، شرح كتاب الصيام (1) — islamhouse.com (9:37)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.