calculation, for the month is sometimes one length and sometimes the other. The only criterion distinguishing the two is sighting the crescent; there is no other distinction established through writing or calculation, as we shall explain. Those versed in writing and calculation cannot predict sightings with consistent precision. They can only approximate them, sometimes getting them right and sometimes getting them wrong.

This shows that the unlettered character mentioned here is a praiseworthy quality and a mark of perfection in several respects:

First, writing and calculation are rendered unnecessary by something clearer and more evident: the crescent itself. Second, writing and calculation in this matter are subject to error. Third, they involve considerable effort without benefit, distracting people from beneficial pursuits, since determining the month is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Since writing and calculation are denied of this community because something better renders them unnecessary, and because of the harm they involve, employing writing and calculation in this matter is a deficiency and a fault—indeed, a misdeed and a sin. Whoever engages in it has departed from the unlettered community in an aspect of its perfection and excellence that is free from harm, and has entered into a deficient practice that leads him to corruption and confusion.

Moreover, he made this a characteristic of the community, just as Allah described it as justly balanced in His words, Exalted is He:

“We have made you a justly balanced community.”

To depart from that is therefore to follow a path other than that of the believers.