and if the preceding months had been short, one should treat the current month as full, and the people should begin the next morning not fasting. For, according to the regular pattern Allah has established, four consecutive months are never all short or all full, and even three consecutive months are rarely all short or all full. If the month at whose end the crescent was obscured was not preceded by two or more consecutive months that were all short or all full, then it is equally possible that the current month is short or full. One must therefore complete its count as thirty days, as stated in the other hadith. On this interpretation, both hadiths are applied, each to a situation different from the other. This concerns beginning the fast. As for ending it, if the crescent of Shawwāl is obscured, one should not end the fast on the basis of an estimation that makes it seem most likely that Ramadan is short.
Section
As for eclipses, we can ascertain them through calculation and knowledge of the sun’s and moon’s passage through the signs of the zodiac, their conjunction at the same degree within a sign, and their separation until they occupy opposite degrees of the zodiac. For the sun and moon are subject to Allah Most High in the heavens, moving in their orbits from one zodiacal sign to another, from west to east, according to an ordered and calculated course from which they do not depart. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:
“And the moon—We have determined for it phases, until it returns like an old date stalk.” [Yā Sīn: 39]
And He, Mighty and Majestic, says:
“The sun and the moon move by precise calculation.” [al-Rahmān: 5]
And He says:
“Each floats in an orbit.” [Yā Sīn: 40]
The moon travels swiftly through the signs of the zodiac, traversing them all in a single month, whereas the sun traverses them only in twelve months. Thus, the moon catches up with the sun at the end of each month and comes into alignment with it in the zodiacal sign it occupies. It then leaves the sun behind, and when it moves away from it, the crescent becomes visible. The farther it moves from the sun, the greater its light becomes, until it reaches its maximum separation on the fourteenth night