and al-Shāfiʿī. It is reported that, during the time of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb—may Allah be pleased with him—two men saw the crescent of Shawwāl. One broke his fast, while the other did not. When ʿUmar heard of this, he said to the man who had broken his fast, “Were it not for your companion, I would have given you a painful beating.”

The reason is that the day of breaking the fast is the day when the people break their fast: that is the day of Eid. The day fasted by someone who alone saw the crescent is not the day of Eid on which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, prohibited fasting. He prohibited fasting on the Day of Breaking the Fast and the Day of Sacrifice, saying:

“One is the day when you end your fasting, and the other is the day when you eat from your sacrificial animals.”

Thus, the days on which he prohibited fasting are those on which the Muslims break their fast and offer their sacrifices.

This becomes clear from the second question. If someone alone saw the crescent of Dhū al-Hijjah, he would not be permitted to stand at ʿArafah before the people, on what is publicly reckoned as the eighth, even if it is the ninth according to his own sighting. This is because standing at ʿArafah and slaughtering the sacrifice alone entail the same departure from the community as publicly breaking the fast on his own.

As for fasting on the ninth in the case of someone who saw the crescent, or was informed by two trustworthy men that they had seen it—when it is the tenth according to that reckoning, although this has not been established among the public, and is the tenth according to the private sighting—the ruling on this follows from the preceding discussion.