395 – Abū ʿUmayr b. Anas relates, on the authority of a number of his uncles who were Companions, that “a group of riders arrived and testified that they had sighted the crescent the day before. The Prophet ﷺ therefore ordered them to break their fast, and when morning came to proceed early to their prayer-ground.” Reported by Aḥmad and Abū Dāwūd—this is Abū Dāwūd’s wording—and its chain of transmission is sound.⦗1⦘

Status of the ḥadith
The ḥadith is authentic. The author states, “Its chain is sound.” In at-Talḵīṣ it is noted that Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, an-Nasāʾī (1557), and Ibn Mājah (1653) all transmitted it through Abū ʿUmayr from his uncles, and that it was declared ṣaḥīḥ by Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn as-Sakan, Ibn Ḥazm, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Bayhaqī, al-Khaṭṭābī, and Ibn Ḥajar. Al-Bayhaqī said, “Its isnād is sound,” while ad-Dāraqutnī judged it “ḥasan and firmly established.”

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• rakban: with a fatḥah on the rāʾ and sukūn on the kāf; the plural of “rākib” and “rukūb.” It refers to mounted travelers, usually numbering ten or more.
• al-hilāl: with a kasrah on the hāʾ; the first visible crescent of the moon, up to the seventh night of the month.
• al-ams: “yesterday,” the day immediately preceding the present one; it can also denote the past in general. The word is indeclinable on kasrah. Its plurals are umūs, umus, and amāsī. When indefinite, annexed, or preceded by the definite article al-, it remains indeclinable on kasrah.
• yaghdū: with an open yāʾ; meaning “to set out in the early morning.” Al-ghadāh is the beginning of the day. The verb ghadā yaghdū follows the pattern of qaʿada, and al-ghudūw is to depart at dawn—the period between the dawn prayer