sighting it.

The prohibition must mean one of two things: either it applies to fasting generally—whether obligatory, voluntary, in fulfilment of a vow, or to make up a missed fast—or it means, “Do not fast Ramadan until you sight it.” On either interpretation, he prohibited fasting Ramadan before sighting the crescent. Sighting means perceiving it and seeing it with the eyes. If the Muslims have not sighted it, how can it be said, “Someone has reported that it is visible”? And if it has been sighted, how can it be said, “Someone has reported that it is not visible”?

It is well known that his words,

“Do not begin fasting until you see it, and do not end the fast until you see it,”

do not mean that no one may fast until he has seen it personally. Rather, no one may fast until either he or someone else has seen it.

In short, this is a universal negation, not merely a negation of universality: no one may fast until he sees it, knows that it has been sighted, or its sighting has been established.

Thus, when the early generations and those who followed them differed over fasting the day of doubt as part of Ramadan, some fasted it as a precaution regardless of whether the skies were clear or cloudy. Others disapproved of fasting it in either case, out of aversion to adding a day to the month. Still others distinguished between clear and cloudy skies, because its absence is apparent under clear skies but not under cloudy skies. Those who fasted it as a precaution did so only because someone else might have sighted it, in which case they would reduce the subsequent count accordingly.

Had they known that no one had sighted it, however, no one in the Muslim community would have considered it permissible to fast that day on the grounds that calculations indicated that the crescent would appear, even though it had not been sighted, just as