Fasting: Crescent Sighting vs. Calendar — How Is Ramadan’s Start and End Determined?

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Fasting: Crescent Sighting vs. Calendar — How Is Ramadan’s Start and End Determined?

English:

Question #844:

Are the beginning and end of Ramadan determined through sighting the crescent or by means of the calendar, even if Sha‘bān was not thirty days?

Answer #844:

Deciding the beginning and end of the month of Ramadan is possible through: sighting the new moon by the mukallaf himself; the testimony of two `ādil (just) witnesses to that effect when its sighting is not denied by so many people so that there is strong probability that the two just persons are wrong; when moon sighting becomes so public that it brings knowledge or confidence; completion of thirty days since the month’s beginning; or the decree of a qualified mujtahid (ḥākim of shar’) about the start of the month.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Fasting