Fasting 29 days in time of RasulAllah SAW

[morela]

Even at time of prophet pbuh months had irregular 29\30 days like how we have regular 31\30 days in a month in gregorian sun based calender
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reported on the authority of Ibnu Omar (R) that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "The month consists of 29 nights, so do not fast till you have sighted it (i.e. the new moon), and if the weather were cloudy, then complete it as thirty days." (sahih bukhari)
In the narration of Muslim, the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "The month of Ramadhan may consist of twenty-nine days. So do not fast until you have sighted it (the new moon) and do not break fast, until you have sighted it (the new moon of Shawwal), and if the sky is cloudy for you, then complete it (thirty days)."
Muslim also reported on the authority of Abdullah Ibnu Omar that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "The month of Ramadhan may consist of twenty-nine days; so when you see the new moon observe fast and when you see (the new moon again at the commencement of the month of Shawwal) then break it, and if the sky is cloudy for you, then calculate it (and complete thirty days)."
Even encyclopedic info concurs on this, the squence may be regular or irregular:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_month

Calendars count integer days, so months may be 29 or 30 days in length, in some regular or irregular sequence.

Some people bring this verse :http://quran.com/2/184
Ayyaman maAAdoodatin faman kana minkum mareedan aw AAala safarin faAAiddatun min ... see the translation "fixed" too is not consistent , use arabic, the root is Ain-D-D and it means counting. MaAADOODAT is a word that is derived from the root that means counted and not necessarily fixed.

[silvertongue]

Good Article brother, but we, the followers of Aal E Mohammed a.s. follow the Tabular Lunar Calendar which is based on arithmetic method and has fixed number of days. And there is no prohibition or compulsion in using any of these calendars. Coz ultimately they are based on the moon. and the fixed monthly cycle. So if in any case two mullas argue that one has sighted the moon and the other has not, we don't CARE..

[anajmi]

but we, the followers of Aal E Mohammed a.s. follow the Tabular Lunar Calendar which is based on arithmetic method and has fixed number of days.

Actually, it does not have a fixed number of days. In order to keep the month of Ramadan at 30 days, adjustments are made to one of the other months in the misri calendar.

[silvertongue]

All I know is its based on the monthly cycle of the moon. Its a lunar calendar after all. May be ur right.

[Muslim First]

ST
ASAK and Eid Mubarak
Read articles on moon sighting on moonsighting.com

BTW Fixed calandra mosques in Boston including Shia and Bohra Markaz started Ramadan on day early, Only moon sighter started one day late. It turns out that moon sighters were correct, Ramadan was actually 29 days in America.
It was heartwarming to see Shia and Sunnis Ending fasting on Sunday and celebrating Eid on Monday.

[silvertongue]

That was epic.. Wished all my non-shia frnds. Such a good feeling of unity..

[mustufa_no1]

Islam says to obey Prophet Mohammed PBUH, hence every muslim should sight moon in their respective city / state to determine start & end of a month, only then muslims can be united. Also, There are no references regarding 'misri calender' in Quran & Hadith. Even in Misr the people follow moon sighting.....

[morela]

Islam says to obey Prophet Mohammed PBUH, hence every muslim should sight moon in their respective city / state to determine start & end of a month, only then muslims can be united. Also, There are no references regarding 'misri calender' in Quran & Hadith. Even in Misr the people follow moon sighting.....

Yes, but unfortunately even among Sunnis , there is a movement which calls to have a bohra type calender, I am glad it has no takers.

[silvertongue]

Misri Calendar is known worldwide as the Tabular Lunar Calendar. It was developed by early Muslim astronomers of the second hijra century (the 8th century of the Common Era) to provide a predictable time base for calculating the positions of the moon, sun, and planets. It is now used by historians to convert an Islamic date into a Western calendar when no other information (like the day of the week) is available. Each year has 12 months. The odd numbered months have 30 days and the even numbered months have 29 days, except in a leap year when the 12th and final month has 30 days. There are 11 leap years in a 30 year cycle. Noting that the average year has 354 11/30 days and a common year has 354 days, at the end of the first year of the 30-year cycle the remainder is 11/30 day. Whenever the remainder exceeds a half day (15/30 day), then a leap day is added to that year, reducing the remainder by one day. Thus at the end of the second year the remainder would be 22/30 day which is reduced to −8/30 day by a leap day. Using this rule the leap years are

2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26 and 29
of the 30-year cycle. If leap days are added whenever the remainder equals or exceeds a half day, then all leap years are the same except 15 replaces 16.

The Ismaili Tayyebi community uses the following order of leap years in their 30-year cycle.

2, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27 and 29
Apart from these, there are two more orders for the leap years which are as follows

2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18, 21, 24, 26 and 29
2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27 and 30
The mean month is 29 191/360 days = 29.5305555... days. This is slightly too short and so will be a day out in about 2500 years. The Tabular Islamic calendar also deviates from the observation based calendar in the short term for various reasons.
Source: Wiki

[SBM]

BTW Fixed calandra mosques in Boston including Shia and Bohra Markaz started Ramadan on day early,

Br MF
It was not only Shia and Bohra Markaz but many Sunni Mosques who follow ISNA;s Shura also started Ramadan and did 30 Ramdan this year too.
ISNA does have a great number of Mosques who follow Shura's advice for starting and ending Ramadan and that number is growing year after year.