No consideration is given to whether the horizons coincide or differ.

Imam al-Shāfiʿī, together with a number of the early generations, maintained that the ruling varies according to the horizons. They argued that the wording of the ḥadīth is relative: the command to fast or to break the fast addresses those among whom the new moon is sighted. As for people in whose region the crescent has not appeared, the instruction does not apply to them until it does. This position has weight, both from the standpoint of transmitted evidence and from astronomical observation.

Shaykh al-Islām [Ibn Taymiyyah] said: “The horizons differ, as all who are knowledgeable agree. If they coincide, fasting is obligatory; if not, it is not.” This is the soundest view among the Shāfiʿīs and one of the opinions reported from Aḥmad.

Shaykh Najīb al-Muṭīʿī observed: “The view that ignores the difference of horizons conflicts with both reason and revelation. It contradicts reason because it opposes the self-evident reality that times differ, and it contradicts revelation because it is at variance with the ḥadīth of Kuraib in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.”

Kuraib related: “I went to Syria and saw the crescent on the night of Friday. At the end of the month I returned to Madinah, and Ibn ʿAbbās asked me, ‘When did you see the crescent?’ I said, ‘On the night of Friday, and they fasted.’ He replied, ‘But we saw it on the night of Saturday, so we shall continue fasting until we complete thirty days or see it ourselves; this is how the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded us.’” [Muslim 1087; al-Tirmidhī 693, who said: “The scholars act upon this ḥadīth.”]

The author of al-Zulāl stated: “Know with certainty that the correct view, reached by the meticulous scholars of tradition, reasoning, and astronomy alike, is to consider the distance between the place of sighting and other locations. If the separation is two thousand two hundred and twenty-six (2226) kilometers or less, the ruling for fasting and breaking the fast is the same, because the horizons are united.

“If the distance exceeds that, the ruling does not apply, and each land follows its own ruling on account of its distinct horizon—whether the distance lies eastward, westward, northward, or southward, under the authority of.”