The Meaning of the Jurists' Statement: Until Everything Becomes a Witness
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The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh (may Allah preserve him), what is the meaning of the jurists' statement: "until everything becomes a witness"?
The Shaykh:
This is in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that the time for the midday prayer ends when a thing becomes like its shadow, then it enters and approaches. That is, when the shadow of a wall becomes the length of the wall. If the wall is two meters and its shadow becomes two meters, the shadow equals the wall. Or if a person is, for example, two meters tall and his shadow becomes two meters, the time for the midday prayer has ended. You can place a stick, for example, or a staff, and measure the stick and measure the shadow of this stick. When they become equal, the time for the afternoon prayer has entered and the time for the midday prayer has ended. The voluntary time for the afternoon prayer ends when the shadow of a thing becomes twice its length. That is, when the shadow of the wall becomes twice its length, or the shadow of a person becomes twice his length, the voluntary time for the afternoon prayer has ended. The necessary time enters until the sun sets. This is called the time of necessity, meaning it is not resorted to except in cases of dire necessity.
The presenter:
Yes.
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to intentionally delay it until the time of necessity; that is forbidden. But if he is occupied with something or the like, he is excused.
The presenter:
We want to continue the study.
The Shaykh:
This is a precise issue from the science of calculation, because when the sun is in the middle of the sky.
It reaches its zenith, because in winter the sun becomes in the south, so the shadow is from the north. It is from the north, not from the east, but from the north. And in summer, it is the opposite; the sun moves away from the heads toward the north. When it is in the middle of the sky, the sun casts a shadow from the south. This is what they call the shadow of the zenith. Yes. But if the sun is exactly over the heads, neither south nor north, there is no zenith and no shadow at all. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh (may Allah preserve him), what is the meaning of the jurists' statement: "until everything becomes a witness"?
The Shaykh:
This is in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that the time for the midday prayer ends when a thing becomes like its shadow, then it enters and approaches. That is, when the shadow of a wall becomes the length of the wall. If the wall is two meters and its shadow becomes two meters, the shadow equals the wall. Or if a person is, for example, two meters tall and his shadow becomes two meters, the time for the midday prayer has ended. You can place a stick, for example, or a staff, and measure the stick and measure the shadow of this stick. When they become equal, the time for the afternoon prayer has entered and the time for the midday prayer has ended. The voluntary time for the afternoon prayer ends when the shadow of a thing becomes twice its length. That is, when the shadow of the wall becomes twice its length, or the shadow of a person becomes twice his length, the voluntary time for the afternoon prayer has ended. The necessary time enters until the sun sets. This is called the time of necessity, meaning it is not resorted to except in cases of dire necessity.
The presenter:
Yes.
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to intentionally delay it until the time of necessity; that is forbidden. But if he is occupied with something or the like, he is excused.
The presenter:
We want to continue the study.
The Shaykh:
This is a precise issue from the science of calculation, because when the sun is in the middle of the sky.
It reaches its zenith, because in winter the sun becomes in the south, so the shadow is from the north. It is from the north, not from the east, but from the north. And in summer, it is the opposite; the sun moves away from the heads toward the north. When it is in the middle of the sky, the sun casts a shadow from the south. This is what they call the shadow of the zenith. Yes. But if the sun is exactly over the heads, neither south nor north, there is no zenith and no shadow at all. Yes.
Source
معنى قول الفقهاء : "حتى يصير ظل كل شيء مثله ، وحتى يصير ظل كل شيء مثليه" — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.