Ibn ‘Umar reported God’s messenger as saying, “We are an unlettered people who can neither write nor count. The month is thus and thus and thus,” drawing in his thumb when he said it the third time.* Then he said, “The month is thus and thus and thus,” meaning a complete thirty days. He meant alternately twenty-nine and thirty.
*Spreading out the ten fingers the first two times and nine the third time.
Abu Huraira reported God’s messenger as saying, “Fast when you see it and break your fast when you see it, and if the weather is cloudy treat Sha‘ban as having thirty days.”
Abu Bakra reported God’s messenger as saying, “The months of festival, Ramadan and Dhul-hijja, are not defective.”*
*The most probable meaning is that, even if these months have only twenty-nine days, they are not on that account to be considered deficient in comparison with a month which has thirty days.
Ibn ‘Umar reported God’s messenger as saying, “Do not fast till you see the new moon, and do not break your fast till you see it; but if the weather is cloudy calculate when it should appear.” In a version he said, “The month consists of twenty-nine days, but do not fast till you see it, and if the weather is cloudy wait till thirty days of the previous month have passed.”
