Recordings › Moon Sighting issues in the UK- Should we follow Saudi Arabia? Mufti Abu Layth · 17 May 2017 › Segment 1 of 1
Should Muslims in the UK follow Saudi Arabia for moon sighting?
salah salat salaah namaz salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat ramadhan ramzan ramazan ramadaan eid al-fitr eid al-adha eid ul-fitr eid ul-adha eidul fitr eidul adha bakra eid bari eid choti eid festival masjid masjed masaajid masajid maaliki malikite malikiyyah maliki school hanafite hanafiyyah hanafi school muftis halal halaal lawful imaan eemaan eeman faith jahannam jahanam jahannum mecca makka mekka madinah madina al-madinah madeenah yathrib ulama ulema ulamaaMoon sighting in the UK: should we follow Saudi Arabia?
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This segment0:05 to 13:14 · 13 min 09 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenNot necessarily: he would follow countries on the same horizon such as Morocco, distrusting Saudi sightings that contradict calculations, while not condemning those who follow Saudi.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says there are two valid traditional positions, a global sighting and a regional one, with the Shafi'is strict on the local region and the Maliki and Hanafi schools grouping areas that share horizons. He says that in his personal understanding each region would ideally follow its own sighting, but since the UK cannot, it makes sense to follow countries on the same horizon such as Morocco, and that using observatory calculations confirmed by an actual sighting in that region is valid. He says it is highly problematic when calculations say the moon cannot be seen and only two people claim to have seen it, citing Abu Hanifa and many Malikis, and criticises what he calls a Saudi-centric third position, saying Saudi Arabia does not vet such claims as countries like Pakistan and Morocco do. He calls the reply of some Saudi scholars, that Allah can show the moon to two people despite science, preposterous. On the sub-question he says a person can follow what they believe, but those who follow Saudi Arabia should not be condemned, and love and unity should be kept.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedWhat is your take on moon sighting issues in the UK? Should we follow Saudi Arabia? Can I go against my family or local mosque if I believe they are wrong?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that, since the UK cannot follow its own sighting, it would make sense to follow countries sharing its horizon such as Morocco.
“given the fact that we're in the UK and we can't really go with our own region in that sense then looking at our Horizon countries like Morocco”
Category: ruling
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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[Music] [Music] all right what is your take on moon sighting issues in the UK should we follow Saudi Arabia what a question allahar I think I need to have like a wheel or something on my head whilst I answer this one
right should we uh there is also a sub question to this about going against family or the local mosque if they disagree with them is that permitted to okay now the moon sighting issues are incredibly diverse um we we come across the moon Wars every Eid really especially in Ramadan what should a person do now there are traditionally there are two kind of understandings and both are
valid positions within f one is a a global or a universal sighting and one is a regional sighting so people would say every region goes with their own sighting as you do with your prayer times or the other position says if it's been declared somewhere then it suffices now generally uh a lot of the m is the Hani I mean there are actually mixed opinions within many of the MBS but if it's let's say the Maliki maab um
the hanfi maab including the shaf maab really did go with um a with the sense of a what would be your own what they called now this is you see it's a bit broader than saying Regional but it's like saying with shared Horizons now the Sha was really strict in saying just your region just this 50 m or whatever it is goes with their own and but the other mhbs the Maliki maab the Hani maab were like that areas have astronomical kind of um they have
Horizons that they share uh and as long as they share the same kind of horizon as in what you know whether it's timelines and things like this that they could be grouped together some may argue that by that they meant Universal as well and some some people have argued that some of the hanfi positions may have been Universal and some of the Maliki positions may have been Universal um these were both these are both valid kind of opinions nevertheless they're not something which is uh invalid and you can't follow in my personal understanding I
would have thought ideally every region should just go with what they do that would have made uh rational sense to me in the sense that uh well that's what we do for prayers and if that's what we did for Eid it wouldn't really be too much I mean that what that that's common sense to me maybe not to other people however given the fact that we're in the UK and we can't really go with our own region in that sense then looking at our Horizon countries like Morocco and and that part of the world that shares the same timeline as us as in you know Greenwich meantime and stuff like this I
would say would make sense for us to really be kind of just latched on to countries like that and follow them that would make sense I would also say that in this day and age with technology it's also valid to look at these kind of uh what the um kind of observatories tell you and stuff like this and you have like moon sighting kind of websites and they will give you details and data on calculations of when the moon C be seen in certain parts of the world as long as that moon sighting
report is then confirmed or affirmed by any sighting in that region that is awesome I mean and you can follow that so let's say the moon sighting website said okay in North Africa uh in most of North Africa the moon will can be visible and now somebody said yeah I've seen it there's been some reportings in let's say Tunis in some in I don't know in Morocco in Egypt or now that would be absolutely fine and we could follow that and I and I see no harm in doing
something like that um the issue is when these reportings will say that it's impossible to see the moon that becomes an issue and then only two people say we saw the moon I do find that highly problematic because it it it kind of goes against what would be mathematical calculations and if you are to contradict mathematical calculations or scientific data then it should be done on mass as in it should be done in with multiple narr Transmissions so how
can it be that the entire Muslim world is looking out for the moon right the entire I mean millions of people are looking out for the moon but only two people saw it that according to IM Abu hanif according to many of the malikia S and other people that is highly problematic because it causes doubt that how can it be at the very least hundreds of thousands of people in this whole entire region are looking out for the moon and two people claim to have seen it that's it so and that's what seems to happen unfortunately with this Saudi Centric tradition
um we do get a lot of that so unfortunately in this day and age we seem to have had a third position the third position is do we go with the global sighting do we go with the regional sighting or do we go with the Saudi sighting which really doesn't make any sense why Saudi Arabia has become a fundamental pillar in observing the Moon it doesn't really make any sense that they should be the first country and the only country on Earth to see the moon uh that doesn't see the passion pouring out from ma for and his love for this the kingdom of Al but this isn't uh necessarily a
political statement but this is just to say that it doesn't make any sense that the entire world is looking out for the moon but Saudi always seems to see the Moon it doesn't make any sense like why would it always see the moon why not the countries before it globally if you're looking towards the east like Malaysia Indonesia why not the countries after it why not the countries directly above it the Middle East why not those beneath it Yemen why not you know Egypt what why only Saudi and why only two beduins like I boy do those people go to [Laughter]
Specsavers but it really is an intriguing question why do they all always see the moon and nobody else sees it and when you see these dat bases online and all these countries say just following Saudi following Saudi following Saudi following Saudi following Saudi following Saudi none of them have cited the moon and Saudi Arabia says it was affirmed by two people you think two people just two people I mean your entire country was looking out for the moon and two people saw it and then those two people just they and this is their criteria if two Muslims claim they've seen it then
science can go to hell as far as we're concerned because these are Muslims and the power of Iman necessitates that they must be correct why must they be correct I mean have you heard of poor eyesight for or imagination um and and I remember once listening to an interview where one of the at that time some Saudi uh astronomers and and Specialists had kind of scientists had opposed the decision of the Saudi the general Saudi decision and said that it was impossible for the exciting and they interviewed some Scholars of Saudi Arabia and and their response
was that yes okay science may say it's impossible but Allah is omnipotent he's all powerful if Allah wants wants to show the moon to these two people he'll show it to these two people what's wrong with that Allah is powerful I mean that sounds very eloquent if it was if that was a speech being given to the [Laughter] Neals I mean they may have been intrigued by something that kind of beding logic but it doesn't work in this day and age I mean that just sounds Preposterous it goes against most of the that we have it goes against the understanding that you know Allah does
not go against hisn Allah doesn't just do miracles for so two bedwin can celebrate Eid a day early it doesn't work like that that if the entire Muslim world is look yes I mean if you said 500 people saw the moon and the calculations said no 500 people isn't a big deal when you let's take a city like Birmingham there's a million people obviously this isn't a a Muslim part of the world but like this now you take countries like cities like Riyad in Saudi Arabia you take jeda you take other key cities there are going to be tens of thousands in total hund at the very least hundreds of thousands of
people looking out for the moon it's not difficult a few hundred have seen it to say look we had 500 reportings make sense say for God's sake two people only saw the moon so this is why I am personally quite um I mean I I usually disagree quite strongly with a lot of these kind of claims made from the Saudi Kingdom about things like this because they don't vet them and if you see other countries even countries like Pakistan or Morocco they have a system where each region has designated and I know does have that as
well Saudi has like AA like an area does have designated people but the the thing about these other countries is local people who claim to have seen the moon have to inform their local that kind of body the the designated people who have to affirm that sighting because that's what their job is and that's they vetted to do that so if we were the people let's say sitting in Birmingham and somebody say uh um Birmingham somebody in Birmingham says I've seen the moon they would give us a call say look I've seen it I'm seeing it here it is and we are watching The Horizon Non-Stop and we would say
sorry you know there were x amount of people here non-stop watching The Horizon nothing came you know how can it be just can anybody else affirm that sighting if not then that is a dubious sighting it's inadmissible now where anybody can just make a claim and especially when it means you celebrate e the day earlier that that is problematic so right people okay on that however I think it's worth it's it's it's important to say first of all can you go against certain people I mean you can just follow what you believe that's not a problem that said those people the common people who are
following Saudi Arabia let's say people say okay I'm going to follow Saudi Arabia I'm going to you know break the fast or whatever it this shouldn't this shouldn't be reason to kind of condemn people okay I do find the methodology and the methods deployed by Saudi Arabia on this issue to be kind of appalling but that doesn't mean people worldwide that are following them are blameworthy they're not in that sense they just look into Saudi because obviously Makkah Medina and they're thinking well whatever they say fine and so people should still be respectful and
you know show that kind of that love and unity and Harmony as allahar one um one love all right so that's it okay hope that helps next question
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Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-05-17b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/3tquslwseto/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, May 17). Should Muslims in the UK follow Saudi Arabia for moon sighting? [Video, segment 2017-05-17b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/3tquslwseto/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Should Muslims in the UK follow Saudi Arabia for moon sighting?" Video, segment 2017-05-17b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded May 17, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/3tquslwseto/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-05-17b-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Should Muslims in the UK follow Saudi Arabia for moon sighting?}}, year = {2017}, month = {5}, date = {2017-05-17}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/3tquslwseto/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/3tquslwseto/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-05-17b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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