When Does Ramadan Really Begin?

Hello inaheim. Alhamdulillah. Continuing in which literally translates to the concise, the abbreviated, the abbreviated book on understanding the Sunnah and the Quran. And as we've mentioned many times before, this is really an abbreviation or it is a summary of authored by say the cha the book of fasting. Here we are now at the chapter regarding the obligation of fasting upon witnessing the crescent of Ramadan.

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Now this chapter is very important for us to pay attention to. We are going to be discussing the principles of when Ramadan really starts, when any month really starts. This chapter speaks mainly about Ramadan but any crescent of any month is affirmed in the following way. Now this discussion is a discussion that's important for us to understand in the sense of where do we get our guidelines for the beginning of the month? How do we know legislatively shan when a month begins and when a month ends? when a month enters and when the previous exits. This is important for us to know in that sense. However, this is not a discussion that is for the individual Muslim to have with one another with respect to when they begin fasting and when they end their fasting. The ultimate guideline for when a person begins to fast and when a person breaks his fast is when the majority of his community fast or break their fast. The actual moon, the moon itself, the crescent, it is not the actual month. It is a sign of the month. Do we understand that concept? The crescent itself, this is a a discussion which is debated by the scholars of fk. The correct opinion is that the crescent itself is not the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is indicated by the crescent. You might say, well, okay, what what does that have to do with anything? This is important because the name of the month in the Arabic language, we call a month in Arabic, what? Shah sha. And what does the word sha actually mean?

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This root word in the Arabic language it means that which is well known that which is prominent that which which is accepted and mass that which is famous or known or accepted. That's what the actual meaning is. And so because of that, the month does not commence until that name takes its takes its meaning. Until the month is known and accepted as the month has commenced, it has not commenced yet. Based on that, what does that mean? That means that hypothetically if a person were to see the crescent for Ramadan, let's say they see it by themselves and they go back to their, you know, the town, the the, you know, imam of the town or the council or what have you and they say, "Hey, I saw the crescent." And they say well you know they do not trust his sight for whatever reason. There could be many reasons and they do not see it for themselves. And so hence he is the only person who has seen it and the only person in his whole community that has witnessed the crescent. However the month has not been acknowledged as commencing yet. Does the person fast that day by himself while everybody else breaks his fast? No. The fah tell us that he does not fast until everybody else fasts. There is no situation in which one person or two people or a pocket of people a minority are fasting amongst the majority of their community. The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam said.

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He says and it's a narration we will get to in this chapter fasting starts when you all fast together and breaking your Fast happens when you all break your fast together. And the Eid of and slaughtering happens when you all slaughter. When the people stand on Arafa, that's Arafa. If it were hypothetically that everyone stood on tomorrow, it is not Arafa until the people stand there. Why? Because the crescent itself is not the month. The crescent is an indicator of the beginning of the month. Legislatively the month begins when it becomes common knowledge. When it becomes common knowledge we all understand this. So if we were to follow these guidelines, these guidelines of the prophet himself sallallahu alaihi wasallam and these are the statements of imbu himself himself where they have posited in their works and in their fatawa that hypothetically a man were to see the crescent on his own and it were not largely accepted, he would not fast and it is still the month of Shaan until everyone fasts or until it becomes common knowledge because that's even the name of the month itself takes its name sake from from that acknowledgment amongst the people and this is really an important point it goes to something else and that is that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala when he commanded things the month of Ramadan, when he commanded things and Hajj and so forth, the Jahya had played around with the calendar. The Jah the time of Jahyah, they had something called a nit. And then nit was something that they did where they fudged the calculations for the months and years so that they could wiggle in a little bit extra war during the sacred months so that they could fit in a little bit more extra blood and a little bit extra activities that they deemed to be haram during those sacred months. So what did they do? They started to edge into the month and take away from the month, delay the month and postpone the month until the calendar was so off keel that it only reset itself during the last Hajj of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. So we think about that in the ninth year in the 10th year after hijra that is when the calendar happened to be reset. So what does that mean? Does that mean all the previous months of Ramadan were off and wrong? Does that mean that their fasting wasn't accepted? Of course not. Why? Because the month is when it is acknowledged by the people. It is not the actual crescent itself. Imagine people are in a dungeon. Prisoners in a dungeon. The scholars have discussed this as well. Prisoners in a dungeon. They have no access to you know seeing the sky or the moon or the stars or anything. And they want to make things like they want to fast the month of Ramadan. And so they start to make a calculation. Those calculations are not going to be very accurate, are they? However, is their fasting and is there and everything else accepted entirely? Yes. Why? Because is not the crescent. Ash the month is the acknowledgment. The month only becomes the month of Ramadan when it is popularly acknowledged by the vast majority of people. Sha Sha is only Sha when it becomes popularly acknowledged by the vast majority of people. There's no situation where Muslim we have two or three folks fasting over here while two or three folks across the street are having aid. This doesn't happen. It shouldn't happen. It does happen physically because of because of ignorance, because of politics, because of whatever it is. But this is not something that should ever occur. Because fasting is when we all fast. And breaking our fast is when we all break our fast. And slaughtering is when we all slaughter. That is the time with Allah subhanahaala. So we have here a narration on the authority of.

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He says fast when you see the crescent. And notice here how it is in the plural. He's speaking to the plural. He's not speaking to the individual. He says, he's saying all of you fast when you see the crescent and break your fast. Meaning at the end of Ramadan, the beginning of Shael, when you see the crescent, meaning of Sha. And if it is clouded then count then finish it or complete the month to 30 days because a month can only be maximum 30 days. 29 is the shortest a month can be. 30 is the longest a month can be. And so he tells us sallallah.ai alaihi wasallam. The spirit of the narration is that we fast when we see the crescent. We break our fast when we see the crescent. And if there is hesitation, if we are unable to see the crescent, then we do not begin fasting until we either see the crescent or we reach 30 days. Those are the two instances where the month of Ramadan would be considered to have commenced. We'll get into how many people need to see the crescent for it to be a valid sighting. But the point here is that the month of Ramadan commences in one of two ways. Number one, the crescent is witnessed and that and that sighting is accepted by the community. or two 30 days of Shaan conclude and you know by deduction it has to be Ramadan the next day. These are the two instances these are the two ways that we would affirm the month of Ramadan and it is in the plural. So he tells us And so why is it that we do not assume just to be safe? We do not assume it to be 29 days. Right? So so the prophet sallall.aii wasallam tells us if when you see it fast when you see the crescent for sha break your fast. Okay, this is clear. Then he tells us, "And if there is hesitation," meaning that there are clouds obstructing the sighting of the moon or whatever else may obstruct the sighting of the moon, then we are to continue for 30 days of Shabbat. Why not make it Ramadan? just to be safe. The crescent could be hiding behind those clouds right now. Why is it then that we don't play it safe and start Ramadan at 29 days of Shaan? And that is because this is a principle across the board when it comes to in general but specifically in citing here. He tells us, this principle tells us that something does not end or begin until we have evidence for it. And we can use this principle for many other things. Let's say we had two timets for salah. One says that fud comes in, you know, at 6. The other says fud comes in at 6:10. Which one do we go with? Based on this, the earlier or the later? Huh? The earlier. Why? To be safe. But that's exactly the opposite of what we're taught here in this narration, isn't it? Right. We go with the later. We always go with the later. Why? Because something does not commence by suspicion. It doesn't commence by being safe. It only commences by way of clear evidence or deduction. Otherwise, it doesn't commence. We always go with the later calculation. And that goes for the months, the years, the days, and even the hours, and the times for salah. The times for salah, we always go with the later. Why? Because.

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