It is also reported from Ibn ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them both—that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “We are an unlettered nation; we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this and like this,” meaning that at times it is twenty-nine days and at other times thirty. Al-Bukhārī and Muslim transmitted this ḥadīth.
In it he characterizes this Ummah as refraining from the written calculations that other peoples employ to fix the times of their acts of worship and festivals, and instead directs them to rely on actual sighting. In another narration he said, “Fast when you sight it and break the fast when you sight it,” and in yet another wording, “Fast from crescent to crescent,” that is, from one new moon to the next.
(1) The printed edition names ʿUmar as the transmitter, which conflicts with all the manuscript copies and with the versions in al-Bukhari and Muslim; the correct narrator is Ibn ʿUmar, as adopted here.
(2) The blessing formula radiya Allahu ʿanhuma (may Allah be pleased with them both) is absent in MSS J and D.
(3) Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Fasting, chapter entitled “The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: la naktubu wa la nahsub (We neither write nor calculate),” hadith no. 1913 in Fath al-Bari 4:136; and Sahih Muslim, Book of Fasting, chapter “The obligation of fasting Ramadan upon sighting the crescent,” continuation of hadith no. 1080, 2:761.
(4) The printed edition reads al-kitaba (“writing”).
(5) Recorded by both al-Bukhari and Muslim, and widely cited in the other hadith collections. See: Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Fasting, chapter “When you sight the crescent, begin the fast; when you sight it, break the fast,” hadith no. 1909 in Fath al-Bari 4:119; and Sahih Muslim, Book of Fasting, same chapter, continuation of hadith no. 1080, 2:759.
(6) Cited by al-Suyuti in al-Jamiʿ al-saghir 2:103 with the notation (Tab) (H), i.e., related by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir; he grades the hadith as hasan (fair).
(7) The words min al-hilal ila al-hilal (from one crescent to the next) are omitted in MSS B and Ot.