Question:

At the start of the month of Ramadan, half of my family started fasting on one day and the other half started one day later, each for there own reasons, however, now in reterorespect this should not have been done.

I would like to know whether it is possible for those who started fasting a day before to not fast for one day on either the 29th or 30th and then do eid a day later with the rest of the family?.

Answer:

The problem of how to establish the start of the month of Ramadan is affecting all Muslims in this country unfortunately. This confusion will persist as long as the sholars of the different groups do not unite. Having said this there is no reason why a family should not unite in fact it is a must that they be sensible and arrange their fasting and Eid together. This is possible because both opinions, that of following Saudi (the early ones) and to follow the observatory (the later ones) are acceptable to the Hanafi jurists. This means your family should have sat down and come to an agreement right at the start that we should all start Ramadan according to whichever of the two mentioned opinions that is appropriate (for example, because one's local Mosque is following that opinion). However what is not allowed is to keep chopping and changing, as this will merely be an arbitrary decision.

In the scenario you describe those who started early (ie on Saturday) could still on this occassion switch to the view of those who follow the observatory and just consider the first fast as a nafl fast. And in future years not make this same mistake of being disunited.

As for the late starters it will not be permissible for them to change their view and do Eid with the early starters in the case the latter (ie following saudi Arabia) only complete 29 fasts as that would mean these late starters will have only done 28 fasts for the Prophet (peace be upon him) said the Month will only ever be 29 or 30 days.

Having said this it is still possible that no one will have to change their view and all the Muslims (inshallah) do Eid the same day. This would happen if the early starters complete 30 fasts and the late starters do 29.

Regarding the privacy issue, we remove the name of questioners from all questions. Often other people are facing similar problems and through the barakah of your question they are given the answer for which you also recieve the reward for asking the question in the first place. So just imagine how many people may learn something they need to know just by you asking the question via the Internet. In any case we respect your wishes and will not display your question.

Mufti Mohammed Sajjad

Wallahu Aalam bis-sawab

Please remember us in your Duas...

The answer to this question is the opinion of the scholar and does not reflect the opinion of other scholars of As-Suffa Institute and As-Suffa Institute as an organisation.