Fasting: Unable to Sight the Crescent Locally — Can One Follow Another Country’s Horizon or a Calendar?

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Fasting: Unable to Sight the Crescent Locally — Can One Follow Another Country’s Horizon or a Calendar?

English:

Question #833:

If it is difficult to ascertain the beginning of the month of Ramadan, or ‘Īd of Fiṭr, because of inability to observe the crescent at the beginning of the month due to clouds or for some other reason, and if the count of the month of Sha‘bān or the month of Ramadan did not add up to 30 days, is it permissible for us in Japan to go by the horizon in Iran or should we rely on the regular calendar? What is the rule?

Answer #833:

If the first of Ramadan is not evidenced, fasting is not obligatory. However, if it is evidenced later that this day was the first of Ramadan, one should make up for this fast in qaḍā’. While if the new crescent of Shawwāl has not been ascertained even by being sighted in an adjacent city which is united in horizon with one’s city, on the evidence of two just witnesses, or on the basis of a decree by the ḥākim of shar’, it is obligatory to fast on that day.

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