Question Summary:
moonsighting

Question Detail:

Dear Mufti Sahibaan or Dar ul Iftaa council,
 
I am faxing you this urgent Fatwa due to the nature of the issue and am avoiding the email.  Please consider our issue and send us a fax back with a stamped
Official seal from dar ul iftaa’.
 
Question:
Here in Salt lake city Utah we are as any community faced with the issue of hilal sighting and people following different opinions when it comes to starting the month.  The positive news is that we are all united on not confirming the month with calculation in ithbaat al ashur .  So now the only recurring disagreement is in whether a sighting of a different country or community is binding to us in light of the following:
 
1-People generally speaking are illiterate when it comes to the sighting of the Crescent on their own, and hence we cannot or are not able to have a local hilal sighting committee.
 
2-Even when we start Ramadhan we start it with the decision of  http://www.shariahboard.org in Chicago or Los Angeles or east coast communities that follow the same opinion (we do not see it ourselves).  The thing is that these communities are also 2-8 hrs away by airplane also and there is a 1-3 hrs time difference sometimes.
 
3-If we have a classical reference from our Hanafi Mazhab (see Arabic Text) which the author claims to be safer (ahwat) opinion regarding Ramadan.
 
"قوله: (ولا عبرة باختلاف المطالع) فإذا رآه أهل بلدة ولم يره أهل بلدة أخرى وجب عليهم أن يصوموا برؤية أولئك إذا ثبت عندهم بطريق موجب ويلزم أهل المشرق برؤية أهل المغرب. وقيل يعتبر فلا يلزمهم برؤية غيرهم إذا اختلف المطلع وهو الأشبه. كذا في التبيين، والأول ظاهر الرواية وهو الأحوط. كذا في فتح القدير وظاهر المذهب وعليه الفتوى كذا في الخلاصة".
 
إسم الكتاب: البحر الرائق شرح كنز الدقائق
جزء:2
صفحة:290
طبعة: دار المعرفة
 
Then why should we not follow the sighting of a country outside if that country happens to announce it before anyone.  Because even be that that country may make a mistake but this usually can help the executive committee unite the community and people tend to in masses (especially the different Mazahib) take this opinion anyway In secret regardless.  This will help us avoid fitna.  Alos, noteworthy is that Jumhoor of the Scholars kiraaam are of the opinion that لا عبرة لإختلاف المطالع
 
Finally, Mufti sahab I may understand that the persuasion in India  may be different but if one were to adopt the above Arabic criteria to unite the people in his local community at least, will he be announcing the start of the month falsely and not getting his Ramadan accepted or is it better to dig in one’s heels and force the community to do what we think is right to even though we are a diverse community in mazahib and nationalities?
 
PLEASE URGENTLY REPLY BY EMAIL TO y.butt@comcast.net or FAX STAMPED ANSWER TO FAX:  801-562-4486 or
Mail it to
Yasir Butt
 5061 Ellerby ct
Salt Lake City Utah 84117 .
 
 
Wasalaam
 
Yasir Butt
Naib Khateeb (Assistant Volunteer Khateeb)
Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake
www.utahmuslims.com
Utah

Answer :

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