Criticism of Opinion of Consideration of Commonness of Horizon in Proving Commencement of Lunar Month | ||
| فقه و مبانی حقوق اسلامی | ||
| Article 5, Volume 45, Issue 2, March 2012, Pages 63-83 PDF (452.29 K) | ||
| Document Type: Research Paper | ||
| DOI: 10.22059/jjfil.2013.35389 | ||
| Author | ||
| Sayyedeh Mahdiyyeh Faize Esfahani | ||
| 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. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| testimonial evi-dence (bayyina); observation of moon; lunar month; commonness of horizon; difference of horizon; closeness; farness; unity of horizons | ||
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