ing of the moon but allow its sighting to take place before the sunset and after the sunset until the noon prayers of the following day to determine that day as the first by the sighting.
According to this group the region of the birth of the moon and regions to its west will be deemed to have the first of the month by the birth of the moon.

As for the third group their claim is that both the sighting and the birth all equally influential in forming the criteria of ascertaining the new moon. Based on this reasoning if the moon is sighted in a region then the areas to its west are without a shred of doubt included in it as being the first of the month. But further to that they assert that prior to the sighting of the moon it has obviously taken birth in the eastern regions to the place of its being sighted and so the eastern areas will also be included. However the question remains as to how far to the east can be included? The answer they give to determine the eastern regions is all the regions sharing a portion of the night with the place where the moon is seen. Thus the countries to the west of the place of seeing the moon are without doubt included but also those to its east are included provided they share a portion of the night.

The second and the third group are similar in essence with the difference that the second suffice with the ascertaining the birth of the moon by any authentic means while the third claim like the first of the possibility of sighting the moon by the naked eye.

(Editors Note- The footnotes and references for this short article were unfortunately found to have been stored on a faulty disk and are not at present available)