And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions:
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the chapter on the obligation of fasting in Ramadan:
“From Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

When there comes the month of Ramadan, the gates of mercy are opened, and the gates of Hell are locked and the devils are chained,

إذا جاء رمضان فتِّحت أبواب الجنة وغلِّقت أبواب النار، وصُفّدت الشياطين

Sahih Muslim 1079a

Agreed upon.
And from him (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Start fasting on seeing the crescent (of Ramadan), and give up fasting on seeing the crescent (of Shawwal), and if the sky is overcast (and you cannot see it), complete thirty days of Sha'ban.

صوموا لرؤيته، وأفطروا لرؤيته، فإن غُبّي عليكم فأكملوا عدة شعبان ثلاثين

Sahih al-Bukhari 1909

Agreed upon, and this is the wording of al-Bukhari.
And in the narration of Muslim:

If it is cloudy then fast thirty days.

فإن غُم عليكم فصوموا ثلاثين يومًا

Sunan Ibn Majah 1655Sahih (Darussalam)

”.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
Al-Hafiz al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted in the book *Riyad al-Salihin*, in the chapter on the obligation of fasting in Ramadan:
From Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: : These are three things that occur in Ramadan. The gates of Paradise are opened to encourage those who work for it with abundant acts of obedience, such as prayer, charity, remembrance, and recitation of the Qur'an, among other things.
And the gates of the Fire are closed, and that is because of the decrease of sins by the believers in it.
: This means the rebellious ones among the devils, as that came in another narration. The rebellious ones are those who are the most hostile and aggressive toward the children of Adam. And chaining means shackling, meaning their hands are shackled so that they do not reach what they used to reach in other times.
And all of this that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) informed us of is true. He informed us of it as advice to the Ummah, to encourage them to good, and to warn them from evil.
As for the second hadith of Abu Hurayrah, he said: : This means that it is obligatory for the Muslims to fast when they see the crescent, the crescent of Ramadan. If they do not see it, then fasting is not obligatory upon them. For this reason he said:
This is the wording of al-Bukhari, and the wording of the narration of Muslim is: This is in the case where the crescent of Shawwal is obscured. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified, in the case where the crescent of Shawwal is obscured, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) stated in this hadith that whenever the crescent is hidden on the night of the thirtieth of Sha'ban, it is obligatory to complete Sha'ban as thirty days, and if it is hidden on the night of the thirtieth of Ramadan, then it is completed as thirty days. And success is from Allah.