Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

The hadeeth that the questioner is referring to is:

It was narrated that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with

him) said: A Bedouin came to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be

upon him) and said, I have seen the new moon tonight. He said, “Do you bear

witness that there is no god except Allaah and that Muhammad is the

Messenger of Allaah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)?” He said,

Yes. He said, “Get up, O Bilaal, and announce to the people that they should

fast tomorrow.”

Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (691), Abu Dawood (2340), al-Nasaa’i

(2112) and Ibn Maajah (1652). The hadeeth is da’eef (weak) and not saheeh.

It was classed as weak by al-Nasaa’i, al-Albaani and others.

As the hadeeth is weak, there is no contradiction between it

and what we have mentioned about it being essential that the one who sights

the moon should be of good character.

Even if we assume that the hadeeth is saheeh, it may be

interpreted in several ways, such as:

1.

That the issue with regard to accepting the testimony of the

one who has seen the new moon and the issue of determining whether he is

trustworthy and of good character is up to the judge to decide. If he is

confident, because of his experience with people, that this person who has

seen the moon is trustworthy in his testimony, he may accept this testimony

from him, even if no one knows him and is able to confirm that he is of good

character and trustworthy.

Shaykh al-Albaani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

So we see from the hadeeth that he instructed Bilaal to

announce to the people that they would fast the next day. So the Messenger

(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was content with the testimony of

this man, whom he did not know, on the basis that he bore witness that there

is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, i.e. he

knew that he was a Muslim, but he did not check on him any further and he

did not try to find out how intelligent and smart he was, as was the case in

the first hadeeth in which the witness was ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Umar ibn

al-Khattaab. Yet despite that he accepted his testimony. This hadeeth makes

things easier for people, and what this means is that the judge should be

content with the witness as he appears to be, without needing to find people

who know this man and can testify that he is of good character, as was the

habit of judges since time immemorial. Rather it is sufficient to know that

he is a Muslim. This man was a Bedouin of whom the Prophet (blessings and

peace of Allah be upon him) had no prior knowledge and he was content that

he uttered the Shahaadatayn before him. So he was a Muslim with the same

rights and duties as any other, and based on his testimony and the fact that

he was a Muslim he said: O Bilaal, announced to the people that they should

fast tomorrow.

Al-Ta’laaq ‘ala Kitaab Buloogh al-Maraam,

(audio tape), hadeeth 5, Kitaab al-Siyaam.

2.

That this hadeeth is evidence for the principle that a Muslim

is to be regarded as being of good character unless proven otherwise.

Al-San’aani (may Allah have mercy on him) said concerning what we learn from

the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas:

It indicates that the basic principle with regard to the

Muslims is that they are of good character, because the Prophet (blessings

and peace of Allah be upon him) did not ask the Bedouin for anything except

the Shahaadah.

Subul al-Salaam by al-San’aani,

2/153

3.

That this ruling only applies to the Sahaabah, which is the

case because they are all to be regarded as being of good character. There

is no doubt that that Bedouin is to be included as one of the Sahaabah (may

Allah be pleased with them), and thus he is to be regarded as a man of good

character, one of those who do not need to be examined to prove that they

are of good character.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have

mercy on him) said:

All of the Sahaabah are trustworthy and of good character,

and the narration of any of them is to be accepted even if he is not known

by name. Hence they said: Not knowing the name of the Sahaabi does not

affect the validity of the hadeeth.

The evidence for what we have said about the Sahaabah is that

Allah and His Messenger praised them in a number of texts, and the Prophet

(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) would accept the testimony of any

of them once he knew that he was Muslim, and he would not enquire any

further about him. It was narrated that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased

with him) said: A Bedouin came to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah

be upon him) and said: I have seen the new moon, meaning Ramadan.

End quote from Mustalah al-Hadeeth, from his website.

There is something else that supports what we have stated

above, which is the fact that this testimony came at the time of Revelation,

and the testimony of the Bedouin could not have been accepted if it was a

false testimony concerning one of the acts of worship of the Muslims.

But as the hadeeth is da’eef (weak) there is no need to

discuss its meaning. Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds.

And Allah knows best.