THE SIGHT OF THE CRESCENT
One of the
pillars of Islam is fasting in the month of Ramadan. It was the ninth month of
the lunar calendar where the Qur’an was revealed. Allah said in the Qur’an:
شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ
وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِنَ الْهُدَى وَالْفُرْقَانِ فَمَنْ شَهِدَ مِنْكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْه...
(البقرة :185)
The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur’an,
a guidance for mankind and clear
proofs for the guidance and the criterion (between right and wrong). So,
whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of
Ramadan, i.e., is present at his home), he must observe fast that month… (Q. 2: 185)
The word شَهِدَ means, “to see, to witness” either with eyesight or with
insight. The word الشَّهْر
means “the month” not “the crescent” which is اْلهِلال (al-hilāl) in Arabic. Therefore, the verse means, if
we just stop here, lit. “Whoever witness the month (of Ramadan) with his insight”
and in a better expression “whosoever is present in this month.” This
is the most common classical interpretation of this verse, such as فمن دخل عليه رمضان
وهو مقيم في أهله فليصُم “Whoever
is present in Ramadan, while he is staying with his family-- i.e., not raveling--,
he must fast”, من كان مقيمًا فليصُمه “Whoever is in town,--not travelling-- he has to fast”). However, in pre-Islamic poetry, the
word شَهْر (month) could also mean هِلال (crescent). An unidentified poet says:
أَخَـوَانِ
مِنْ نَجْـدٍ عَـلىَ ثِقَـةٍ * وَ الشَّهْـرُ مِثُلُ قُلامَـةِ الظّفُـرِ
حَـتّى
تَكَامَـلَ فِي اسْـتِدَارَتِـهِ * فِي أَرْبَـٍع زَادَتْ عَـلىَ عَشَـِر
"The
coming of two brothers from Najd is certain
when the
crescent [lit. ‘the month’] is like the cutting
of the
nail until it becomes completely round
at the
14th (of the month)".
In this line of poetry the word shahr
which literally means “month” has to be translated as hilāl (crescent), because in the beginning it is like
the cutting of the nail and becomes completely round at its 14th
night, as explained in the lines of poetry.
The
late Shaykh Muhammad Abu Zahrah (1315-1394/1898-1974) in his book زَهْرَةُ التَّفَاسِيْر explains
the above verse, that what Allah means with shahr (month) in this verse is
the crescent of Ramadan, and the
expression شَهِدَهُ
(“he witnessed it”) means “he was present and
saw it”. The ancient Arabs used the term “the month” metaphorically to mean “the
crescent,” namely, mentioning the effect (the month) to mean the cause (the
crescent). The crescent is the cause of the existence and the beginning of the
month.
Sometimes, the cause is mentioned to
mean metaphorically the effect in Arabic language, such as the following line
of poetry:
إِذا سَقَطَ السَّمَاءُ بِأَرْضِ قَوْمٍ ... رَعَيْنَاهُ
وَإِنْ كَانُوا غِضَابا
If [the
rain caused by] the cloud falls on the land of a tribe
we shall
take care of [the plants that grow because of] it,
although they are angry [for our cultivating
their land].
Here the cause (the cloud) is mentioned to mean the
effect of it, namely, the rain. Then they take care of the effect of the rain,
namely, the plants caused by the rain. Here the cause is mentioned to mean the effect. This metaphor belongs to the
category of مَجَاز مُرْسَل
(unrestrained metaphor). In English language we say “the kettle boils” when we
mean “the water in the kettle boils.”
The Prophet s.a.w.
explained this Qur’anic verse when he said on the authority of Abdullah ibn ‘Umar:
لاَ تَصُومُوا حَتَّى تَرَوُا الْهِلَالَ، وَلاَ تُفْطِرُوا حَتَّى تَرَوْهُ،
فَإِنْ
غُمَّ عَلَيْكُمْ فَاقْدُرُوا لَهُ (رواه البخاري ومسلم)
Do not fast until you see the
crescent, and
do not break your fast
until you see it; but
if it is cloudy, then
calculate it.
(Reported
by Bukhari and Muslim)
الشَّهْرُ تِسْعٌ وَعِشْرُونَ لَيْلَةً،
فَلاَ تَصُومُوا حَتَّى تَرَوْهُ، فَإِنْ غُمَّ
عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَكْمِلُوا العِدَّةَ ثَلاَثِينَ (رواه
البخاري)
The month is twenty-nine nights, so do not fast
until
you
see it [i.e., the crescent], but if it is cloudy, then
complete it to thirty [nights]. (Reported by Bukhari)
To be precise one lunar month is 29.530589 days, so
that one month in the lunar calendar is made 29
and 30 days alternately.
Ikhtilāf al-Maṭāli‘
One of the controversial issues among
the fuqahā’ (Muslim jurists) is regarding the beginning and the end of
fasting in Ramadan called إخْتِلافُ المَطَالِع
(ikhtilāf al-maṭali‘), namely, the difference of time of
the rise of the hilāl (crescent) with the difference of the location.
This is important to decide the beginning and the end of the month of Ramadan.
There are two different views, among the fuqahā’ with
their arguments which we briefly with them here, as follows:
a.
Shāfi‘ī
school (madhhab). If the hilāl has been seen in a country, people
living near this county have to apply its ruling, either start fasting or break
their fasting, on condition that the distance is not more than 24 farsakhs. (24
x 5544m = 133.056 km), which is minimum the distance where ikhtilāf al-maṭali‘
does not take place. So, based on this view, if the hilāl is seen in
Canberra, for example, Muslims in Cooma, Batesman Bay, and Ulladulla have to
apply its ruling, start or ending fasting, because the distance is less than
133.56 km. Not so with Muslims in Nowra, as the distance between this city and
Canberra is more than 133.056 km), and therefore its people have to refer to
their own sighting of the hilāl. We could understand this position, as
the distance factor was taken into consideration.
The argument of this school is that a man called
Kurayb who went from Madinah to Syria. He and other people there saw the hilāl
on Thursday night for the beginning of Ramadan. So the ruler Mu‘āwiyah and
the people of Syria started fasting. At the end of Ramadan Kurayb returned to
Madinah. When he told about it to ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbās, he said:
“But we saw the hilāl on Friday night and we
kept fasting until we complete it thirty day unless we saw the hilāl.”
“Is it not sufficient with the sight of the hilāl
approved by Mu‘āwiyah and his fasting?” asked Kurayb.
‘No, this is what the Messenger of Allah had told us,”
said Ibn ‘Abbās.
In a ḥadīth on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar, the
Prophet s.a.w. said:
الشَّهْرُ تِسْعٌ
وَعِشْرُونَ، فَلَا تَصُومُوا حَتَّى تَرَوُا الْهِلَالَ، وَلَا تُفْطِرُوا
حَتَّى تَرَوْهُ،
فَإِنْ غُمَّ عَلَيْكُمْ فَاقْدُرُوا لَهُ (روام
مسلم و أحمد)
The month is 29 days, so do no fast until you
see the
hilāl and do not break your fast until you see
It, but if it is cloudy then calculate it [i.e.
30 days]
(Reported by Muslim and Ahmad)
In fact, there are many ḥadīths
stating that the Prophet s.a.w. told us to complete the month 30
days in case of the presence of clouds preventing us to see the hilāl.
Based on analogy, the
discrepancy of prayer times is due to the discrepancy of the rising of the sun
in different places, and so is with that of the fasting time with the
discrepancy of the rising of the hilāl.
b.
The majority
of fuqahā’: Despite the ikhtilāf al-maṭali‘, the whole Muslims,
whether in near or distant places, except if they are too far away, such as:
Andalusia (Muslim Spain), Hejaz, Morocco, and Indonesia.
The argument
of the majority of the fiqahā’ (Muslim jurists) is that the above ḥadīth
means that the Prophet’s did not address to the Muslims of a particular area,
but to the whole Muslims in other parts of the Muslim land.
The positions of the three madhhabs
(schools of Islamic law) are as follows:
1.
Hanafi
school: People in the East have to accept when people in the West have seen the
hilāl with certainty, such as the witness of two people, or they witness
the decision of the judge, or the news of it has been so widespread, not just
hearsay news.
2.
Maliki
school: Whenever the news of the sight of the hilāl, witnessed by two
people, or it has been widely spread, those who heard this news have to accept
it, whether in near or distant places.
3.
Hanbali
school: If the sight of the hilāl has been established in one place,
either near or distant, all people have to accept it; its ruling is as if they
themselves have seen it.
According to the contemporary scholar
Dr. Wahbah al-Zuhaylī, if someone in the Muslim world has seen the hilāl
indicating the first of Ramadan, the whole Muslims have to start fasting,
because the maximum difference of time is 9 hours only. If someone has seen the
hilāl in Morocco at 6.00 pm, for example, it is still 3.00 a.m. at other
extreme distant places, such as Indonesia. So, they will still share some parts
of night, and have time to make their suḥūr (meal before dawn). On the
other hand, when the hilāl has been seen there indicating the first of
Shawwāl, if they have already taken their suḥūr, they are not allowed to
fast any longer. We hope that in this era of sophisticated technology in the 21st
century we Muslim could be united in at least in starting and ending the fast
of Ramadan. Moreover, it is unlikely that not a single person in the Muslim world
extending from Jakarta (in Indonesia) to Tangier (in Morocco) is unable to see
the hilāl at the appointed night due to the clouds in these areas.
With regard of deciding the start and
end of Ramadan based on calculation (ḥisāb), practiced by the Muhammadiyah
organization in Indonesia, even if most of the time it is correct, the Ḥanafi,
Mālikī, and Ḥanbalī schools, and probably also Shāfi‘ī schools, do not accept
it, because, لِعَدَمِ اسْتِنَادِهِ لِمَا يَعُوْلُ عَلَيْه شَرْعًا
“it is not based on what has been decided in religious law”, namely,
sighting the hilāl with eye-sight. This Muhammadiyah organization has
its own Majlis Tarjīḥ (Preponderance Council) which chooses the more
acceptable view.
Muslims in Indonesia,
although they claim to have followed the Shāfi‘ī school law, they no longer
follow this madhhab in limiting the distance to 24 farsakhs (133.056
km) to be one and the same time of maṭla‘
(the rising of the hilāl). Whenever the hilāl is seen in any
part of the Indonesian archipelago, indicating the beginning or the end of
Ramadan, with the approval and authority of the Ministry of Religious Affairs,
the whole Muslims there will start or stop fasting. The exception is the followers
of the Muhammadiyah organization which has already known the beginning and the
end of Ramadan based on their own calculation. It is hoped that eventually the
Muslims in Indonesia would follow the view of the majority of fuqahā’ and
other schools, and go beyond its geographical boundary, so that they would
accept the sight of the hilāl in any part of the Muslim world. It is
really embarrassing that the Muslims themselves cannot settle their difference
in deciding the beginning and the end of the fasting month.
Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) who was
considered by some scholars a mujaddid (reformer) in his time divided certainty (yaqīn)
into three levels: a. عِلْمُ الْيَقِيْن (certainty
through knowledge), such as fire burns; the sight of the hilāl based on
calculation belongs to this category; b. عَيْنُ الْيَقِيْن (certainty
through sight), such as if you see fire burning; the sight of the hilāl with
eye-sight belongs to this category, so that we start fasting and stop fasting
with certainty; c. حَقُّ الْيَقِيْن (absolute
truth), such as if your finger is being burned by fire. This is the highest
level of truth that fire burns. You feel the pain of burning. (CIVIC, 28.06.13)
المصدر :
المكتبة الشاملة
د. وهبة الزهيلي. الفقه الإسلامي وأدلته , دمشق: دار
الفكر, 1427|2006 ,
ج 3
ص 1651-1662.
تفسير الطبري
زهرة التفاسير للشيخ محمد أبو زهرة) تفسير من أول القرآن الكريم حتى الآية 73 من سورة النمل(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_calendar
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