the Most High: “And whoever’s provision is restricted, let him spend from what Allah has given him.” [al-Talaq: 7] That is, whoever has been constrained. They said: The constriction is to regard Sha'ban as consisting of twenty-nine days.
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Ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—would, when it was the night preceding the thirtieth of Sha'ban and clouds or dust obscured it from him, begin the morning fasting. (1)
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It is possible that the crescent had appeared, but that this obstructing factor prevented it from being seen; therefore, one fasts as a precaution.
The response to their evidence is as follows:
As for the hadith of Ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—it may be said: Even if we grant what you have said, why should we not say that qadr means regarding Ramadan as consisting of twenty-nine days, thus applying the constriction to Ramadan? Its crescent has not yet appeared, so it has no right to exist; it therefore remains constrained. However, we say that the correct meaning of qadr here is that explained by the other hadiths: completing Sha'ban as thirty days when the crescent in question is that of Ramadan, and completing Ramadan as thirty days when the crescent in question is that of Shawwal.
As for precaution:
First: it applies only where the original ruling is that something is obligatory. But where the original ruling is its non-obligation, there is no precaution in declaring it obligatory.
Second: concerning matters undertaken by way of precaution, Imam Ahmad and others stated that they are not binding; rather, they are matters of scrupulousness and recommendation, and this