Global vs Local Moon Sighting: Why Dates Differ

Local moon sighting means a community starts the Islamic month when the crescent (hilal) is seen in its own region, or completes 30 days if it is not. Global moon sighting means a reliable sighting anywhere in the world, or in a wide area, is accepted for everyone. The scholarly question behind the difference is called ikhtilaf al-matali, the "difference of the horizons": whether a sighting in one place binds people whose horizon is far away. Both views have long histories and serious arguments, which is one reason Ramadan and Eid can begin on different days in different countries.

Key Takeaways

• Local sighting ties the month to your own horizon; global sighting lets one confirmed sighting count for everyone who hears of it.
• The main text for local sighting is the Kurayb hadith in Sahih Muslim 1087, where Ibn Abbas did not follow a sighting reported from Syria.
• The main argument for global sighting is that the command to fast on seeing the crescent is addressed to all Muslims.
• In 2026 (1447 AH), the start of Ramadan was officially announced on three different days across the Muslim world.
• Which approach to follow is a question for qualified scholars and your local mosque; this article describes the positions without ruling between them.

What "difference of the horizons" means

The crescent does not appear everywhere on the same evening. A new moon happens at one instant, but sunset sweeps around the Earth over the following 24 hours. The later the local sunset comes after the new moon, the older and easier to see the crescent is. Visibility also "depends on sky conditions and the location, experience, and preparation of the observer," as the US Naval Observatory's crescent visibility page puts it. The moon phases page shows when each new moon falls.

So on the 29th evening of a month, the crescent may be invisible in one region and visible in another. The jurists' question is what follows from that. If people in one country see it, does the new month begin for a country that did not?

The texts agree on the basic rule. In Sahih al-Bukhari 1909, the Prophet ﷺ said: "Start fasting on seeing the crescent (of Ramadan), and give up fasting on seeing the crescent (of Shawwal)," and to complete thirty days of Sha'ban if the sky is overcast. The Quran, in Surah al-Baqarah 2:185, says in the Sahih International translation of the meaning: "So whoever sights [the crescent of] the month, let him fast it." The disagreement is over whose sighting counts.

The Kurayb hadith in Sahih Muslim

The central text for local sighting is a report by Kurayb. It appears in Sahih Muslim 1087.

Umm al-Fadl bint al-Harith sent Kurayb on an errand to Mu'awiya in Syria (al-Sham). Ramadan began while he was there, and he and the people saw the crescent on the night of Friday. Mu'awiya and the people fasted. At the end of the month Kurayb returned to Madinah, where Abdullah ibn Abbas asked when they had seen the crescent. Ibn Abbas then said that in Madinah they had seen it on the night of Saturday, so they would keep fasting until they completed thirty days or saw the next crescent.

Kurayb asked whether Mu'awiya's sighting was not enough. Ibn Abbas answered: "No; this is how the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) has commanded us."

How the hadith collectors titled it

The chapter heading on sunnah.com for this hadith reads: "Each land has its own sighting of the moon, and if they see the crescent in one land, that does not necessarily apply to regions that are far away from it."

Imam al-Tirmidhi records the same narration in Jami' at-Tirmidhi 693, graded Sahih (Darussalam), under the chapter "For the people of every land there is a sighting." In the Arabic text he adds that the people of knowledge act on this hadith, holding that each land has its own sighting.

For scale: Damascus, the main city of al-Sham, is about 1,060 km from Madinah measured along a great circle (the shortest path over the Earth's surface). The report does not say what distance would be "far," and later scholars defined it in different ways.

How the other side reads it

Scholars who hold that one sighting binds other lands give more weight to the general command than to this report. The Fiqh Council of North America, in its article on the four imams and global moon sighting, reads the hadith "start fasting by seeing the new Moon" as "addressed to the entire Muslim nation." The report itself also shows that Kurayb's news reached Madinah only at the end of the month, after the people there had begun their fast on their own sighting. How much that detail matters is one of the points the two sides still argue about.

The case for a global or wider sighting

The argument for global sighting starts from the wording of the command. "Start fasting on seeing the crescent" is addressed to the believers in general, not to the people of one town. On this reading, once a sighting is reliably established, anyone who hears of it in time is bound by it.

Supporters also point to Sunan Abi Dawud 1157, graded Sahih by al-Albani on sunnah.com. Some riders came to the Prophet ﷺ and testified that they had seen the crescent the previous day. He told the people to break their fast and to go out to the prayer place the next morning. Here a sighting made outside the town was accepted for the community there. The narration does not say how far the riders had come, so both sides discuss it.

The International Islamic Fiqh Academy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation addressed the question in Resolution No. 18 (6/3), adopted in Amman in October 1986. It states that "the difference in horizons is not relevant because of the generality of the religious command to start and end fasting," and that sighting is required, with astronomical calculation as an aid.

Which schools hold each view

Jordan's General Iftaa' Department summarised the four Sunni schools in Fatwa No. 3496 (2019), quoting each school's own reference works:

The fatwa calls the matter "a controversial issue." It says there is "no blame in following any of the two aforementioned opinions," and that the decision of the ruler, or whoever represents him, settles the dispute. The Fiqh Council of North America's article describes the wider-sighting view as that of "the majority of early Muslim jurists," naming Abu Hanifah, Malik and Ahmad, and "some reports" from al-Shafi'i. The two summaries agree on the Hanafi and Hanbali schools and present the Maliki school differently.

Local, regional and global approaches compared

In practice, communities do not split neatly into two camps. The main patterns look like this:

Countries with a single religious authority usually announce one date nationally, whatever method that authority follows. Where there is no such authority, each mosque or council chooses, and two mosques in the same city can follow different approaches. In the United Kingdom, for example, the calculated date on the Hijri date today page is a planning guide, and the date a mosque observes depends on the approach it follows.

Why dates differ by country: Ramadan 1447

The start of Ramadan 1447, in February 2026, shows all of this at once. USNO's moon phase data puts the new moon at 12:01 UT on Tuesday 17 February 2026. That evening was the 29th of Sha'ban in the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar.

The figures below are computed from the USNO Sun and Moon data service for that evening, with moon age measured from 12:01 UT. Coordinates used: Auckland 36.85° S, 174.76° E; Makkah 21.42° N, 39.83° E; London 51.51° N, 0.13° W; New York 40.71° N, 74.01° W; Los Angeles 34.05° N, 118.24° W.

Every age in the table is below the youngest naked-eye sighting on the USNO crescent visibility page, which says sightings "as early as 15.5 hours after New Moon have been reliably reported." The Ramadan 1447 page of the International Astronomical Center (ICOP) records that every observation it received that evening, from countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Iraq and Algeria, was "Not Seen."

The official start dates it lists still fell on three different days:

• Wednesday 18 February: countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Nigeria and Lebanon.
• Thursday 19 February: countries including Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Iran.
• Friday 20 February: New Zealand and Fiji.

ICOP lists these dates without stating the method each country used, and it lists Iraq under both Wednesday and Thursday without explanation. Saudi Arabia's Wednesday start coincides with the calculated Umm al-Qura date, but the page does not say how the announcement was reached, so the match alone does not show that calculation was used.

For Thursday, the page does record one basis: a report from Jordan that the Mufti declared Sha'ban complete at thirty days, which made Thursday the first day there.

For Friday, the table gives part of the picture. In Auckland, sunset on the 17th came even before the new moon itself.

The end of the month repeated the pattern. ICOP's Shawwal 1447 page lists Eid al-Fitr on Thursday 19 March for Afghanistan, Mali and Niger, Friday 20 March for most Arab countries and Turkey, and Saturday 21 March for countries including Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Why Eid in particular spreads out is covered in why Eid al-Fitr falls on different days.

None of these countries was necessarily wrong by its own method. They were answering the Kurayb question differently, and applying different standards for accepting a report.

Common questions

Is global or local moon sighting correct?

Muslims differ on this, and both positions are held by qualified scholars with textual evidence. This article does not rule between them. Follow the approach of the scholars and mosque you trust, and ask them if you are unsure.

Why does my mosque disagree with the mosque across town?

In countries without one national announcement, each mosque or council chooses its own method: local sighting, a regional or global sighting, the Saudi announcement, or a calculation. Two neighbouring mosques can therefore start Ramadan on different days without either making a mistake by its own rules.

Can I see the start date in advance?

You can see a calculated date, not an announced one. This site's calendar uses the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar, which shows 1 Ramadan 1448 on Monday 8 February 2027. Local announcements may come a day later, or occasionally earlier.

What to do next

Find out which approach your local mosque or national authority follows, and listen for its announcement on the 29th evening. For planning, open the calculated Ramadan 1448 calendar. For the full picture of how the start of the fast is set, read how the start of Ramadan is decided.