How is the Night of Decree determined when the timing differs from one country to another?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question : I ask you for Allah’s sake? And a questioner says: The time differs from one country to another, so how is the Night of the Grave in the two countries?
Answer : Yes, this is an important question. It is known that the coming night, with respect to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the twenty-seventh night, and with respect to some countries where the extra days of the month have not been confirmed, it is the twenty-sixth or the twenty-fifth night, because some countries are two days apart from Saudi Arabia. So how do we say it?
Or how is the Night of Decree? Do we consider Saudi Arabia or the other countries? What appears to me is that we follow the first country in which the sighting is confirmed, because most of the scholars say that if the sighting is confirmed in a place in the Islamic lands, it is obligatory for all Muslims in all parts of the world to accept this sighting. Pay attention, man, the phrase in *Zad al-Mustaqn‘* says: “If the people of a country see the crescent, it is binding on all people.” And if we say this, what is considered? Answer, everyone: the first country in which the entry of the month is confirmed, and in that case there is no problem.
If we do not hold this opinion, and we say that each country has its own sighting, or that each country under a specific authority has its own ruling, then what appears to me is that the considered place in that is the land of the two Holy Sanctuaries, because Allah described Makkah as the Mother of Cities, meaning the reference point for cities, because the community’s reference point is, as Allah the Exalted said:[Ar-Ra'd 13:39] If the night is the twenty-seventh night with respect to Makkah, then it is the twenty-seventh night, and it is the Night of Decree. But the others do not miss its virtue, because if it is the twenty-seventh night in the Hijaz, for example, then in the other place it will be the twenty-sixth night. There is no barrier to it being the Night of Decree for them on the twenty-sixth night. The important thing is that the night is one; the Night of Decree cannot be multiple; it is one. But what is considered? We say, according to what appears to us from the texts, that the considered place, if we do not say that fasting is obligatory for every Islamic country when the sighting of the country is confirmed, is the land of the two Holy Sanctuaries, Makkah. And there is no harm in the Night of Decree being the twenty-seventh here, and the twenty-sixth for those whose fasting is delayed compared to ours, and the twenty-fifth for those whose fasting is delayed by two days.
Answer : Yes, this is an important question. It is known that the coming night, with respect to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the twenty-seventh night, and with respect to some countries where the extra days of the month have not been confirmed, it is the twenty-sixth or the twenty-fifth night, because some countries are two days apart from Saudi Arabia. So how do we say it?
Or how is the Night of Decree? Do we consider Saudi Arabia or the other countries? What appears to me is that we follow the first country in which the sighting is confirmed, because most of the scholars say that if the sighting is confirmed in a place in the Islamic lands, it is obligatory for all Muslims in all parts of the world to accept this sighting. Pay attention, man, the phrase in *Zad al-Mustaqn‘* says: “If the people of a country see the crescent, it is binding on all people.” And if we say this, what is considered? Answer, everyone: the first country in which the entry of the month is confirmed, and in that case there is no problem.
If we do not hold this opinion, and we say that each country has its own sighting, or that each country under a specific authority has its own ruling, then what appears to me is that the considered place in that is the land of the two Holy Sanctuaries, because Allah described Makkah as the Mother of Cities, meaning the reference point for cities, because the community’s reference point is, as Allah the Exalted said:
Allah eliminates what He wills or confirms, and with Him is the Mother of the Book.
يَمْحُو اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيُثْبِتُ وَعِندَهُ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[5 من 17] كيف تكون ليلة القدر عند اختلاف التوقيت من بلد لآخر؟!! ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
