the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—distinguishes itself from all the other groups of the Ummah (1) only by adopting an unsound doctrine; it never distinguishes itself by a sound doctrine. The farther any group is from the Sunnah, the more numerous are the false doctrines and practices peculiar to it. Among the groups claiming affiliation with the Sunnah, none is farther from the reports of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—than the Rāfidites.
[The Doctrines in Which the Rāfidites Alone Depart from the Community Are Utterly Corrupt]
Thus, among the doctrines peculiar to them and contrary to the community, one finds doctrines that are utterly corrupt. These include delaying the Maghrib prayer until a star appears, in imitation of the Jews, even though reports commanding that Maghrib be performed promptly have been mass-transmitted from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—(2). Another example is their fasting two days before everyone else and ending their fast two days before everyone else, in imitation of the innovators (3) among the People of the Book, who abandoned determining the fast by the crescent in favor of conjunction and based it upon calculation.
It is related in the two Sahih collections that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:
“We are an unlettered nation: we neither calculate nor write. When you see it, fast, and when you see it, end the fast. If it is obscured from you, determine the period accordingly.”
Another narration states:
“Then complete the prescribed number.” (4)
(1) N and M read: “from groups among Ahl al-Sunnah (the people of the Sunnah).”
(2) See Shaykh Sayyid Sābiq’s discussion in *Fiqh al-Sunnah*, 1365 AH ed., vol. 1, “The Time of the Maghrib Prayer,” pp. 174–176, concerning the prompt performance of the Maghrib prayer and the hadiths reported on this matter. See also al-Albānī’s discussion in *Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl*, 1/277–278.
(3) B alone reads: “the innovators.”
(4) The hadith is narrated from Ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with them both—in al-Bukhārī, 3/27–28, Book of Fasting, chapter “The Prophet’s Statement—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—‘We Neither Write nor Calculate.’” Its wording there is: “We are an unlettered nation: we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this, this, and this,” meaning that it is sometimes twenty-nine days and sometimes thirty. The hadith is also found in Muslim, 2/761, Book of Fasting, chapter “The Obligation to Fast Ramadan upon Sighting the Crescent”; *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 2/398, Book of Fasting, chapter “The Month May Be Twenty-Nine Days”; and *al-Musnad*, al-Maʿārif ed., nos. 5017, 5137, 5536, and 6041.
In his discussion, Ibn Taymiyya combined this hadith with another hadith narrated from Ibn Umar. Its wording appears in Muslim, 2/759–760, with differences among its wordings and narrations: “The month is twenty-nine days. When you sight the crescent, fast; and when you sight it, end the fast. If it is obscured from you, determine its length.” It is also narrated from Ibn Umar in al-Bukhārī, 3/26–27, Book of Fasting, chapter “The Prophet’s Statement—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—‘When You Sight the Crescent, Fast.’” Its wording is: “The month is twenty-nine nights. Do not fast until you sight it; but if it is obscured from you, complete the prescribed period as thirty days.” A hadith with similar wording is narrated from Ibrāhīm on the same page.