Criticism of Opinion of Consideration of Commonness of Horizon in Proving Commencement of Lunar Month

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ph.D. Student of Jurisprudence and Essentials of Islamic Law, University of Tehran

Abstract

According to Islamic hadiths, one way of proving
commencement of lunar month is testimonial evidence
(bayyina). It should be discussed in this connection that if some
righteous-trustworthy evidence saw the moon in one region, to
what spatial extent would their testimony be acceptable? Is it
the whole earth or some part of it? Mantuq of hadiths on fasting
are restricted by no spatial condition of authority of testimonial
evidence of observing moon; that is why they are lexically
absolute-although they have no absoluteness of the position in
this connection due to sphericity of the earth and it cannot be
accepted that lunar month could commence simultaneously in
the whole world. That is why one should look for some criteria
among hadiths for division of regions in proving the new moon.
Shi‘a jurists mostly hold that one can take testimony of the
testimonial evidence if the horizon is the same or it is close to
where the moon is observed; otherwise, observation of eye
witness would not be sufficient. Their chief reason for their
claim is diversion (insiraf) of hadiths. The truth, however, is
that such diversion is not realized and therefore that claim is not
acceptable, because of lack of traditional support as well as not
presenting any precise criteria for closeness and farness in their
verdicts. That is why one should look for another criterion for
such division.

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