a day of doubt whose fasting is unequivocally forbidden, because the default and the outward reality is that the crescent has not been seen. To fast it would be to precede Ramadan by a day, something the Prophet ﷺ expressly forbade, and the general principles of the Sharia support this position more than any other.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: “Among the Prophet’s ﷺ practices was that he would not commence the fast of Ramadan unless the crescent had been definitively sighted or the testimony of a single witness had been accepted, as when he fasted on the report of Ibn ʿUmar—recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2342). Whenever, on the night of the thirtieth, clouds or overcast skies blocked his view, he would complete Shaʿbān as thirty days and then begin the fast. He did not fast on a cloudy day, nor did he command others to do so; rather, he ordered that Shaʿbān be completed as thirty days when visibility was hindered, and he himself acted accordingly. Such was his practice and such was his instruction.”
This procedure is nearer to the textual evidence and the legal maxims, and it is the view adopted by the scholars of the Salafi daʿwah. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥasan said: “The prohibition of fasting is the choice of Shaykh al-Islām Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān stated: “Those who forbid fasting that day possess a body of sound prophetic hadiths with multiple chains of transmission that no critic can dismiss and no opponent can counter.”
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm said: “It is not permissible to fast on the day of doubt.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī said: “The correct view is that if the night of the thirtieth of Shaʿbān is cloudy or hazy, fasting that day is neither obligatory nor recommended; rather, breaking the fast is what the law prescribes.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim said: “The Imām of this daʿwah and those who learned from him chose not to fast the day of doubt and forbade fasting it for several reasons:
- By default, that day still belongs to Shaʿbān.
- There is an authentic and explicit prohibition against anticipating Ramadan by a day or two.
- Numerous authentic and explicit hadiths forbid fasting it.”