543 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported: “A bedouin came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘I have sighted the crescent.’ The Prophet asked, ‘Do you bear witness that there is no deity but Allah?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ He asked again, ‘Do you bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ The Prophet then said, ‘Bilāl, announce to the people that they are to fast tomorrow.’”

It was transmitted by the Five compilers, and Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Ḥibbān judged it sound, whereas al-Nasāʾī regarded its mursal form as stronger (1).

Status of the ḥadīth
The report is mursal. Al-Ḥākim (1546) recorded it and said, “This ḥadīth is sound,” and al-Dhahabī agreed. Al-Albānī commented, “It warrants scrutiny, for Simāk ibn Ḥarb—one of the transmitters in the chain—is inconsistent in his narrations, and a number of ḥadīth scholars have preferred the mursal version.”

Al-Tirmidhī said, “There is disagreement over the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās; most of Simāk’s students transmit it from ʿIkrimah directly from the Prophet ﷺ.” Abū Dāwūd stated, “A group have narrated it from ʿIkrimah as a mursal report,” and al-Nasāʾī remarked, “Its mursal form is more likely to be correct.”

Vocabulary
– aʿrābī (bedouin): Al-Miṣbāḥ defines al-aʿrāb as the desert-dwelling Arabs; the singular is aʿrābī, a person who roams in search of pasture. Al-Azharī adds: Whoever resides in the open desert and travels with the nomads is counted among the aʿrāb, whereas those who settle in cultivated lands, towns, and villages are called ʿarab.