Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
If the new moon has been sighted in one city, is it obligatory for people from other cities who have not seen the new moon to fast, according to that other city?
According to our school, if the new moon has been seen in one city, another city that is close to it must fast, but a city that is far from it does not have to fast. The most correct position in our school is that a city that is close is one that is in the same region as the city where the new moon was seen. A city that is far is one whose region is different from the city where the new moon was seen.
The meaning of the same region (ittihad al-matla`): that the time of the setting of the sun and the stars and the time of their rising [s. in the two cities] be at the same time. So if the sun or stars rise or set in one city before the other city, or after it, then the region is different, as has come in Bushra al-Karim (2:65). If one has doubts as to whether the regions are the same or different, then one takes the ruling that they are different, because the default is that it is not obligatory when there isn’t any agreement, as it says in the Tuhfa (3:382).
So when a region is far, such that its region is different from a city where the new moon was sighted, the people of the far city do not have to fast. The proof of this is what was related by Muslim, on the authority of Kurayb who said, “The moon of Ramadan came upon me while I was in Sham, and I saw the moon on Friday night and so did the people, so Mu`awiyah fasted. Then I left the city at the end of the month and I told Ibn `Abbas about that. He said, But I saw the moon on Saturday night, so we will continue to fast until we complete thirty days.’ So I said, “Are you not sufficed with the sighting of Mu`awiyah? And he said, No, we were ordered to do it like this by the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” Al-Tirmidhi said, “And most of the people of knowledge act according to this.”
Other scholars, such as the Hanafis, have said that if the new moon is sighted in one city, all other cities must fast as well, even if the regions are different. So for this reason, our imams have said, that if a judge of our city issues an order to do differently from what our school says, such as a Hanafi [s. judge] issuing an order to fast when our region is different from the city where the new moon was seen, we must fast, because the ruling of a judge rises above the dispute, as was mentioned by Shaykh Ibn Hajar in the Tuhfa, (3:383).
Amjad Rasheed
[Translated by Sr. Shazia Ahmad]