A student of Shaykh Al-Albani calls him to ask about Saudi brothers who came from Saudi Arabia having broken their fast, while Jordan is fasting

The student: Dozens of brothers come and are faced with the issue of breaking the fast on this day: does it mean they have to make it up, or do they not have to make it up?

The Shaykh: Why did they break their fast?
The student: Ah, he told me dozens are coming to me having broken their fast.

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!
The student: Yes, they were awake in the morning having broken their fast on the assumption that it was the festival, and they broke their fast. Yes, so he said, perhaps as soon as the Shaykh wakes up, open up to us so that we can answer the young men.

The questioner: I mean, some brothers come to me, they lock the door and ask about the fasting that is currently being observed by our brothers here in Jordan, or the Jordanian government has differed, of course, from the other countries regarding fasting. Some of the brothers fasted and some of them broke their fast.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: We need from you, our Shaykh, on ... if Allah wills, in detail, because now many of the brothers are coming to me asking me. Are you now ready to record your question so that we can hear it for these brothers, and so that ... they can call you and through this channel, so to speak.

The Shaykh: Oh, Allah is the helper.

The questioner : May Allah bless you, O our Shaykh.

The Shaykh: This question was asked of us today and last night more than once, so my answer is: The scholars differed regarding His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): , and His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . They differed on whether this Quranic command and that Prophetic command, if established, include the entire Islamic world, or more precisely, include everyone who received the news of the sighting of that witness to the crescent of Ramadan or for breaking the fast from Ramadan. There are two opinions: one says yes, it includes everyone who received the news of one who witnessed the crescent of the month, whether the moonrise locations are the same or different. And some say no, the command is not this general; rather, it includes those who are in a specific, limited area. The scholars who differed on this issue discussed it at length, and the opinion and independent legal reasoning that I have arrived at is the first opinion, due to the generality of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , and so on. Because the principle in every address is generality and inclusiveness, except for what is specified by evidence. In our case, there is no evidence that specifies this general text except for one thing: the non-arrival of the news of the sighting to an obligated person among the obligated ones, as was the case in the old times. That is because in that time, there was nothing to help in conveying the news to every near and far place, as is the reality now in this strange time with its means and its strange lack of benefit from them. But today, I say we must remain with the generality of the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him) hadith within the limits of capacity and ability, where He said (Blessed and Exalted is He): . However, the issue, with the strength of its evidence, especially in our time, does not concern the individual or a group of groups, but rather concerns the Muslim ruler who imposes on the community a matter that, if it were only permissible, he saw that the public benefit of the community requires adopting that matter as obligatory. In this case, the command of this Muslim ruler becomes obligatory, and the community is obligated to obey him in that. Because the matter is as he said (peace and blessings be upon him): . I say this if there were one ruler and a ruler who rules by the Shari'ah of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). But since the matter is not so, but rather there are many states and rulers, some of whom do not commit to ruling by Islam, at least with all the rulings and legislation in Islam. This is from one side. And from another side, they differ among themselves with a difference more important than their difference in what we are currently discussing. So a ruler or one of these states announces the entry of the month or the exit of the month, and the other state announces the opposite or remains silent, such that the people are forced to apply the saying of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) themselves: . I say, as long as these rulers who rule the people living in their states, as long as these rulers do not respond to this general command , and I think that one of the greatest reasons for their non-response to this command is the political differences existing between them. Otherwise, I also think that if politics were unified, they would unify the ruling, even if the Shari'ah does not unify a ruling between them. The example is clear to us here when they unified the adhan, which is multiple, especially in our country where the land differs from place to place. They found that politics, they claimed, unifies this adhan. If the matter were so between the states regarding fasting, they would have unified it. And even if it were assumed that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) specified it, but although the Messenger (peace be upon him) unified fasting in the hadith mentioned earlier, in my belief, international politics is what separates them. And here every people falls into confusion, as came in your question. For this reason, I say, until these states return to the Shari'ah of their Lord and commit to ruling with every ruling of its rulings, every people must commit to fasting with the announcement that is made in that people by their ruler. And I say this not to negate the generality of his saying (peace be upon him): , but first, I am sorry for their non-implementation of this Prophetic command, and second, to avert the greater harm with the lesser harm. I mean by the lesser and the greater what follows: The lesser harm is that they did not adopt the school of thought that is stronger, which is taking the generality of the hadith. This is a harm without a doubt. And I have mentioned to you that the reason returns to two things: first, the difference of the community, the difference of the scholars of the community, in whether this command is general and includes the whole community or not. And the second matter is the difference existing between the Islamic governments today. This is the lesser harm. It should have been avoided by following the first announcement made by any Arab state, indeed by any Islamic state. But since this did not happen, here it is necessary to avoid falling into another harm. There are states that differ between one state and another; some states may agree, as happened on this day. For example, Syria and Saudi Arabia, and I do not know which other state may be with them, Egypt. So today they have celebrated the festival, and other states are still fasting with us. This is a division, and it is a harm. But the greater harm is that one people differs. For example, the Jordanian people today on two opinions, on two schools of thought: some of the people today are fasting following the announcement of the ruler here that today is the completion of thirty, and some are breaking their fast following the Saudi announcement. This is a difference worse than the difference of one people with another people, because this is a difference within the same people. And the matter in this difference is not limited to what I mentioned, but what is worse than that has happened in some past years, and history, as they say, repeats itself. One house is divided into two parts, into two schools of thought: the husband is fasting and the wife is breaking her fast, or they are both fasting and the children are breaking their fast, or the opposite. So this difference, without a doubt, as is clear and evident, is more severe than the difference of one people with another people, because this has a face in jurisprudence that I mentioned earlier, where some of the scholars say it is permissible, meaning that every state and every people has its moonrise. So to avert this division and this separation that will occur in one people, indeed in one family, we are forced, by necessity, to say that it is not permissible for a Muslim to deviate from the state of the people in which he lives, whether fasting or breaking the fast, from the perspective of averting the greater harm with the lesser harm. This is what I see in this issue. And Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), we ask that He guide the rulers of the Muslims to act with the Shari'ah of the Lord of the Worlds in everything He revealed in His Noble Book and explained to us by our Messenger (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) and upon all his Companions. And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

The questioner: May Allah preserve you, our Shaykh. What Allah willed, I mean, some of the people who broke their fast in this country, do these people have to make up the fast?

The Shaykh : It is necessary.

The questioner : It is obligatory for them to do so.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: May Allah preserve you and bless your life.