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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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The ruling on one who breaks his fast before Maghrib thinking that the adhan has been called?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : I broke my fast yesterday thinking that Maghrib had been called and that the sun had set, but the adhan was called two minutes after I broke my fast. What is the ruling on my fast for this day?

The Shaykh : How can one think that the sun has set? What is this? What is the basis for this assumption? Yes. Where is the questioner? Did you see the sun set? Did you see the disk disappear? If a person sits in a room after Asr and does not see the sun, does he break his fast?
I mean, he thought the sun had set. This is possible. A person in the open might think the sun has set, either because of clouds or because of a mountain blocking his view of the horizon. So he breaks his fast thinking the sun has set. What do you say if it turns out the sun had not set? The answer is that he owes nothing. The answer is that he owes nothing; his fast is valid. Do you understand? I am saying now: he thought the sun had set, and it turned out it had not set, so his fast for that day is valid. What is the evidence? The evidence is the saying of Allah the Exalted:
Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred.رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَّسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا
[Al-Baqarah 2:286]
So Allah the Exalted said, "I have done it."
And He the Mighty and Majestic said:
And there is no blame upon you for that in which you have erred but [only for] what your hearts intended.وَلَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ فِيمَا أَخْطَأْتُم بِهِ وَلَٰكِن مَّا تَعَمَّدَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ
[Al-Ahzab 33:5]
This man did not intentionally eat during the day at all; rather, he thought the night had entered, so he broke his fast. Listen, man, there is nothing on him. This is evidence from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated in his Sahih that Asma' bint Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with her and her father) said: "We broke our fast on a cloudy day in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and then the sun appeared." They broke their fast on a cloudy day, and there were no clocks, so they thought the sun had set and ate, and then the sun appeared. The indication from the hadith is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not order them to make up the fast. He did not say, "Make up a day."
If making up the fast had been obligatory, he would have ordered them to do so, because it is part of the Shari'ah. And Allah the Exalted said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lordيَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ
[Al-Ma'idah 5:67]
And we know that he did not order them to make it up. By what evidence do we know this? Because if he had ordered them to do so, it would have been part of the Shari'ah and would have been conveyed to us. For example, and another example: a man heard an adhan on the radio. He heard the adhan and thought it was the adhan of his own town, so he broke his fast. Then it turned out it was the adhan of a town where the sun sets earlier than in his town. Does he have to make up the fast or not? Strange, people. He does not have to make up the fast. However, if he knows that the sun has not set, he must hold back, even if the mouthful is in his mouth; he must throw it out. Yes.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[82 من 93] حكم من أفطر قبل المغرب يظن أنه قد أذن؟!! الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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