The third is that it is legally deemed part of Ramadan and therefore is not a day of doubt. This is the view preferred by a group of Ahmad’s followers and others.

The jurists have disagreed about someone who alone sights the crescent marking the beginning or end of the month of fasting: should he begin and end the fast independently, do neither except with the people, or begin fasting independently but end it with the people? These are three well-known views in the school of Ahmad and elsewhere.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—also said:

Section: Whether Sighting the Crescent in Some Lands Counts as a Sighting for All

There is confusion concerning this question. Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr reported a consensus that the disagreement concerns places whose horizons for sighting the crescent may coincide. As for places such as al-Andalus and Khurāsān, there is no disagreement that a sighting in one is not taken into account for the other.

I say: On this question, Ahmad relied on the hadith concerning “the Bedouin who testified that the crescent had appeared the previous night, whereupon the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, instructed the people to act upon this sighting.” This was despite the sighting having occurred outside the town and its not being possible for it to have occurred beyond the distance permitting the shortening of prayers. He did not ask the man for further details. This reasoning does not contradict what Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr mentioned; but where is the boundary to be drawn?