Caution in Fasting Before the Dawn Becomes Clear

The questioner : May Allah send you, O Shaykh, if it is the case that in all the Islamic countries now, the perception is that there is no good verification, no precise verification.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : So on this basis, if a person has his pre-dawn meal and hears the call to prayer, is it permissible for him to eat, for example, or drink water?

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. I meant someone else. Please, go ahead.

The questioner : This caution: some scholars said that it is taken from what is necessary for the completion of an obligatory act, and therefore it is obligatory. They gave examples of this, such as the ablution. They said that the limits of the ritual purity in ablution must be exceeded to ensure that the obligatory act is completed, and similar things. We are rewarded for this, meaning.

The Shaykh : This is not established. The original ruling is not established, and the difference is not established, regarding the elbows. If it had not been established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he included the elbows, we would have said the limit is the elbows. Then, do we contradict the clear and explicit Qur'anic text until it becomes clear? If Allah had said "until the dawn appears," we would have said it is possible to exercise caution and to precede the dawn by a moment so that one does not eat. But He said "until it becomes clear," and it cannot become clear if it has already appeared.
So the interval between its appearance and its becoming clear is for you to eat in. Did you understand? Yes. And this speech is for everyone. Let the evidence you rely on be the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger. And leave the opinions that contradict this, as long as we have an explicit text saying "until it becomes clear." How can we say that one must abstain from part of the night before the dawn appears? That does not happen.