The Shaykh’s continuation of his explanation of the hadiths of the Book of Fasting from *Bulugh al-Maram*, and his discussion of the hadith of Ibn 'Umar: “When you see it, fast”

The Shaykh : The last hadith that passed by us recently is the hadith of Ibn 'Umar, traced back to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): to the end of the hadith.
This hadith is explicit in its indication that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) tied the matter of entering the month of Ramadan and fasting to the sighting of its crescent, saying: . There is no doubt that this sighting is visual sighting, not scientific sighting, and this does not require proof; especially since at the end of the hadith it says: , and in the other narration, as you heard in yesterday’s lesson: . If it is obscured, meaning there is cloud, mist, fog, or dust in the sky, or any of the natural cosmic obstacles that usually prevent people from seeing the crescent with their eyes; if that is the case, they must complete Sha'ban as thirty days; whether they fasted it or broke their fast.
Here, on such an occasion, the issue that has been much disputed in the past and present is usually raised: Is it permissible to establish the crescent of Ramadan either by visual sighting with the aid of magnifying instruments, or by astronomical calculation?
This is a known disagreement from ancient times, but the disagreement intensified in the modern era due to the existence of magnifying and enlarging instruments, which help in seeing the crescent with the naked eye, not by the science of calculation and the calendar. We see that it is obligatory for Muslims to remain with the apparent meaning of this hadith, which requires establishing the crescent by ordinary sighting without the aid of magnifying instruments, or without the aid of mathematical operations; and the reason for this goes back to several matters:
First: The apparent meaning of this hadith; where he (peace be upon him) says: .
Second: Because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed this apparent meaning of this hadith by his saying in another hadith, namely his saying (peace be upon him): ; so the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) ruled by this hadith for the Muslim community, following their illiterate Prophet , so the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) associated the Muslim community with their Prophet in the sense that he described them as ; therefore, we must adhere to this description that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stamped upon his community in this respect, which is that it is necessary to restrict the establishment of the crescent to ordinary visual sighting and to avoid mathematical sciences. This is the second matter.
The third matter that obligates us to adhere to ordinary visual sighting in establishing the crescent; the third of those matters is that Islam, by its nature, is also lenient, easy, facilitated, and smoothed for people, whereas if we leave this matter that is easy for everyone: , and we want to adhere to a means that is specific to some people, and the people who have the scientific means that may not be available to every group or every people or every nation, if we turn away from adhering to this easy means, Islam becomes as if it is not a universal religion facilitated for all peoples, however different their civilizations and cultures are from one another. There is no doubt that this address is directed to every people among the Muslim peoples, despite the differences among peoples in civilization, culture, and sophistication, whereas if we adhere to establishing the crescent by microscopic sighting, for example, with the magnifying instrument, the establishment is restricted to the state that possesses this modern means. Likewise, if we want to establish the entry into fasting by mathematical operations, the way of this establishment is also restricted to those who know precise mathematical science, and this contradicts the comprehensiveness and ease of Islam for all peoples in all times and places.
It is not said here that microscopic sighting and mathematical operations are very precise such that there is no room for hesitation or doubt; rather, we say: Islam, in its ease, said: . This natural sighting that does not require effort, so fast. And it will come soon, if Allah wills, that this sighting is established by the testimony of one just Muslim man, and there is no need to summon many witnesses. This is part of the complete facilitation in establishing the crescent. And yet, it says at the end: . The problem is finished! So the issue does not need much debate and discussion as long as Islam has established the crescent of Ramadan, like all the crescents of the remaining months, on this easy sighting for every ordinary, natural person. The mere fact that a Muslim witness testifies that he saw the crescent—as will come, as we mentioned—establishes the crescent. If there is an obstacle in the sky that prevents the sighting, and consequently prevents fasting, they complete the previous month, which is Sha'ban, as thirty days, and they become, on the day after, certainly fasting. So the difference remains between Sha'ban being twenty-nine days or being thirty days.
Even if we assume; if we assume the following situation: there was a cloud in the sky, and a transparent cloud that prevents the observer with the naked eye from seeing this crescent, but if the magnifying instrument, the microscope, is directed at it, it removes that transparent cloud and he sees the crescent behind it. When we relied on the naked eye, what did we suffer from the legal perspective? Nothing. It said: . We did not lose anything from the legal perspective; because the Shari'ah does not apportion or scrutinize with Muslims such that it is later established by some method that the crescent was visible, but it was not seen because of that cloud. What harms us? It may have said: . So we did not become fasting on this day, and the crescent was seen, for example, with the magnifying instrument, but it was not seen with the naked eye, so that did not harm us at all; because we are either seeing it with our ordinary eyes and we fast, or we do not see it and we complete the month as thirty days, and we did one of the two things. When we tried to see it with the naked eye, we did not see it; so it was obscured for us and we completed the month of Sha'ban as thirty days.
Therefore, in my opinion, there is no urgent necessity to compel Muslims in the Islamic world today to replace the ordinary look with the scientific look; whether it is with the magnifying instrument or with the mathematical operation. And we believe that Islam is still spreading on earth to a great extent, and at the same time we believe that the places where Islam spreads do not have any of these instruments and these scientific means. And this ruling will remain in effect, “if you see it,” in effect forever as long as Islam exists on the face of the earth. And when that is the case, it is better for Muslims to unify the means by which they establish the crescent of Sha'ban or the crescent of Ramadan and not differ in these means, as long as the Lawgiver has unified the means with such a hadith: .
This is what remained for me to say about this hadith.