What does one do if he sees the crescent moon alone?

The questioner : Regarding your opinion on the issue of the difference in the days of fasting in Ramadan or the days of breaking the fast in Ramadan for different countries, we know from you that one fasts with the people of his country?

The Shaykh : It is obligatory.

The questioner : Sometimes, for example, the people of the country are negligent in seeing the crescent moon, such that the difference is two days. So that I see the crescent moon in the sky, but the country breaks its fast?

The Shaykh : First of all, may Allah bless you. The personal, individual sighting has no weight or value in the Islamic Shari'ah, due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . Therefore, if a person sees it, and the people are breaking their fast, he does not fast, even if he saw the crescent moon; because it is not befitting for him to join the congregation, and he should not separate from them or contradict them. It is known to everyone his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . And there is no doubt that this matter is not one of the individual matters in which the Muslim is obligated, like prayer, for example, where you can pray in your house, or in your shop, or in your factory... or or, etc. But—and peace and mercy of Allah be upon you—it is not permissible for you to fast based on your sighting. Rather, it is obligatory for you to fast with the people of the country in which you live. If the people of the country fast, you fast with them, and if they break their fast, you break your fast with them.
His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . This is undoubtedly a general address to all Muslims. But, unfortunately, today most Islamic governments are name without substance, having no reality; because they do not rule with what Allah has revealed. One of the proofs of this is that every country fasts on its own, with no connection. They shout and cry out about unity and unity, but they are not truthful in what they say, because the simplest thing they could have done was to unify the festivals and the entry into the month of fasting and the exit from it. But they do not do it. So, as long as it is not possible for the Islamic peoples to unify in fasting and breaking the fast due to the differences between the governments, then every country or every people should fast based on the sighting of their own crescent moon. As for the people of one country dividing into two groups, it is enough for us that we have divided into small states; what remains for us is that every town, likewise, we make it into two parts. And this is the reality, unfortunately. People fast with Saudi Arabia, people fast with Syria... etc. This is not what should be, as we said earlier in some previous answers, that if a Muslim falls between two evils, he chooses the lesser of the two evils. And now, for the people of the country to fast on their own is better than for them to divide against one another. This is worse, if the expression is correct linguistically. But the best is for this country to fast with that country, this state with that state, and the entire Islamic world to be in fasting, or all in festival. But this is not possible. We regret this with all regret. But Allah does not burden a soul except with what it can bear. The people of one country are able to have the state declare fasting on such a day, and the entire people fast, even if this declaration is not lawful, meaning not established by the Shari'ah, because the matter is in the hands of the state, and not in the hands of an individual, like the legal hudud. If individuals took charge of establishing them, corruption would appear on land and sea. So, most states today do not establish the hudud. Do individuals take charge of establishing the hudud? If one person kills another, for example, his relatives kill the killer, and corruption increases on earth. Therefore, the fasting of the people of the country is to be done collectively; they fast or they break their fast, and it is not permissible for them to divide.