nor that he ever commanded it, so the view cannot rightly be attributed to him. Those scholars who deemed the fast obligatory cited the report of Ibn ʿUmar and his personal practice, yet the text does not clearly impose an obligation; it is merely a precaution that is countered by an explicit prohibition.

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb and his followers therefore opted for prohibiting the fast.

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥasan said: “There is no doubt that the critical investigators among the Hanbalīs—and others—hold that fasting is not obligatory; rather, it is disliked or even unlawful.”

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān added: “With those who forbid this fast are authentic prophetic ḥadīths transmitted through multiple chains—evidence that no one can repel or contest; much of this has just been mentioned.”

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm stated: “Fasting the day of doubt is impermissible because of the ḥadīth of ʿAmmār.” Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “This is the practice of the scholars from the Companions and the Followers.”

As for our own jurists who regard fasting the thirtieth day of Shaʿbān as obligatory whenever clouds, dust, mountains, or the like block the setting crescent, they do so on the basis of a conjectural, precautionary ruling. Yet precaution is not confined to action; it can just as well consist in abstention. A Muslim safeguards himself by following the law—whether by doing something or by leaving it—because true precaution is to adopt whatever is closer to the Sharīʿah. Although this dispute has been mentioned repeatedly, returning to it is not without added benefit.

The scholars have also disagreed about this question: if the crescent is sighted in one land, must all Muslims fast—or break the fast—accordingly, or does every region follow its own ruling based on its own horizon?

This is a point of contention among the scholars. The majority—including the two Imāms, Abū Ḥanīfah and Aḥmad—held that once the crescent is seen in one locality, its ruling applies to everyone, in obedience to his ﷺ saying, “When you see it, fast; and when you see it, break the fast,” which they understood as an address to all Muslims.