Decision of the Islamic Fiqh Council on the Unification of the New-Moon Sighting

All praise belongs to Allah alone, and may blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. To proceed:

The Islamic Fiqh Council has examined the question of divergent horizons and their effect on moon-sighting. It observed that Islam is a religion of ease and magnanimity, welcomed by sound human nature and upright minds because it serves people’s true interests. Hence, with regard to the new moons, Islam prescribes confirmation by naked-eye sighting and not by astronomical calculation, as the decisive textual proofs attest. It also upholds consideration of the difference of horizons, for that lightens the burden on those legally accountable and is demanded by sound reasoning.

Accordingly, the assertion of some that the days for starting and ending the fast must be unified everywhere runs counter to both the revealed law and rational judgement.

Legal evidence: the leading hadith authorities have cited the report of Kurayb. Umm al-Fadl bint al-Harith sent him to Mu‘awiyah in Syria. Kurayb said: “I reached Syria and completed her errand, and the crescent of Ramadan appeared while I was there; I saw it on the night before Friday. When I later returned to Medina at the end of the month, ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas asked me about the crescent. He said, ‘When did you see the new moon?’ I answered, ‘We saw it on the night before Friday.’ He asked, ‘You saw it yourself?’ I said, ‘Yes, and the people saw it, so they fasted, and Mu‘awiyah fasted as well.’ Ibn ‘Abbas replied, ‘But we saw it on the night before Saturday, so we shall continue fasting until we complete thirty days or see it ourselves.’ I asked, ‘Will you not accept Mu‘awiyah’s sighting and his fasting?’ He said, ‘No; this is how the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded us.’” Recorded by Muslim in his Sahih.

In his commentary on Muslim, Imam al-Nawawi headed this hadith: “Chapter: Each land has its own sighting; if the crescent is seen in one land, its ruling does not apply to those far away.” The other compilers of the Six Books who transmitted this hadith—Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasa’i—adopted the same heading.

Islam, therefore, has made the beginning and end of the fast contingent solely on visual sighting, as stated in