Fiqh of Siyaam: One reliable witness’ testimony is sufficient for the sighting

4. One reliable witness’ testimony is sufficient for the sighting

No amount of people not seeing the hilaal (new moon) does not negate the testimony of a reliable witness. This is based on the general concept that a person’s lack of knowledge about something does not mean that it is not there. People are all different; some people have very strong eyesight and can see much vaguer images than other people can see while others have difficulty in seeing. The proof of this is the sahih narration of Ibn Umar (radi Allâhu’ anhu) in the time of the Prophet (sall Allâhu’ alayhi wa sallam) and everyone was in Al Medina. Ibn Umar (radi Allâhu’ anhu) said “The people were looking for the moon. And I informed the Prophet (sall Allâhu’ alayhi wa sallam) that I had seen it. And the Prophet (sall Allâhu’ alayhi wa sallam) fasted (the next day) and he ordered the people to fast.” So we see here that all the people of Medina were looking at the same sky and looking for the same moon. There could’ve been hundreds of people there and were not able to spot the moon except for Ibn Umar (radi Allâhu’ anhu). This shows us that Ibn Umar (radi Allâhu’ anhu) saw the moon and the Prophet (sall Allâhu’ alayhi wa sallam) accepted his single testimony even though the rest of the people were not able to spot the moon.

(Chapter 4 & 5 – Insha’Allah comming soon around Eid al Fitr)

3 Responses to “Fiqh of Siyaam: One reliable witness’ testimony is sufficient for the sighting”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 muslim September 5, 2006 at 1:10 pm

are “complicated astronomical calculations” a sufficient witness? :)

2 hijab August 16, 2007 at 12:57 am

I wish we could all just have one Eid instead of disagreeing on this. In the UK we end up having two or three