The Calculation of the Movement of the Stars

The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta

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Fatwa No. ( 4991 )
Q: We are a group of your Muslim brothers from the Banu Hajar tribe, and we have a disagreement regarding the time of prayer. We ask Allah, and then you, to clarify the straight path for us in this matter, knowing that we have nothing available to us except the calendar of the State of Qatar. Is it permissible for us to follow the State of Qatar in establishing prayer, or should we delay by ten minutes? And if you permit, is it permissible for us to delay by ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, or a third of an hour in all prayer times in order to wait for the congregation? Will our prayer be invalid, or what? And in the blessed month of Ramadan, we live in a flat land, so when the sun sets, opinions differ regarding breaking the fast. Therefore, we ask for your guidance?
A: The religion of Islam is a religion of leniency, ease, and simplicity. Allah the Exalted said:

Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship

يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلاَ يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ

[Al-Baqarah 2:185]

And He said:

and has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty

وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ

[Al-Hajj 22:78]

It is also established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that whenever he was given a choice between two matters, he would choose the easier of them, as long as it was not a sin. For this reason, Allah the Exalted established natural signs for the times of worship, which both the common people and the specialists, the uneducated and the learned among them, can know; this is a mercy for the people.
and to make it easy for them, and to remove hardship from them. Among this is His saying, the Exalted, in defining the beginning and end of the daily fast:

And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset.

وَكُلُوا وَاشْرَبُوا حَتَّى يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ الْخَيْطُ الأَبْيَضُ مِنَ الْخَيْطِ الأَسْوَدِ مِنَ الْفَجْرِ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا الصِّيَامَ إِلَى اللَّيْلِ

[Al-Baqarah 2:187]

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified this by his action and his words. It is established from Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said:

We were on a journey with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the month of Ramadan. When the sun set, he said: "O so-and-so, go down and prepare food for us." He said: "O Messenger of Allah, you still have daylight." He said: "Go down and prepare food for us." He said: "So he went down and prepared it, and brought it to him, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) drank, then he said with his hand: When the sun sets from here and the night comes from here, then the fasting person has broken his fast."

كنا في سفر مع النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في شهر رمضان، فلما غابت الشمس قال: يا فلان، انزل فاجدح لنا. قال: يا رسول الله، إن عليك نهارًا، قال: انزل فاجدح لنا، قال: فنزل فجدح، فأتاه به فشرب النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ثم قال بيده: إذا غابت الشمس من ها هنا وجاء الليل من ها هنا فقد أفطر الصائم

And from Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

When the night approaches and the day retreates and the sun sinks down, then the observer of the fast should break it.

إذا أقبل الليل وأدبر النهار، وغابت الشمس فقد أفطر الصائم

Sahih Muslim 1100

And from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Let not the adhan of Bilal prevent any of you from his suhur, for he calls out at night to make your standing person return, and to wake your sleeping person, and it is not that he says the dawn or the morning. And he said with his fingers and raised them upward and lowered them downward until he said: "Like this." And Zuhayr said with his two index fingers, one above the other, then extended them to his right and left.

لا يمنعن أحدكم أو أحدًا منكم أذان بلال من سحوره، فإنه يؤذن - أو - ينادي بليل ليرجع قائمكم، ولينبه نائمكم، وليس أن يقول الفجر أو الصبح، وقال بأصابعه ورفعها إلى فوق وطأطأ إلى أسفل حتى يقول هكذا، وقال زهير بسبابتيه إحداهما فوق الأخرى، ثم مدهما عن يمينه وشماله

Sahih al-Bukhari 621

The first gesture indicates the false dawn, and the second gesture indicates the true dawn, which is: the light that crosses the horizon in the direction of the east, south and north. And his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the beginning and end of the fast of Ramadan:

Fast when you see it and stop fasting when you see it, and if it is obscured from you (too cloudy), then complete thirty

صوموا لرؤيته، وأفطروا لرؤيته، فإن غم عليكم فأكملوا العدد

Sunan an-Nasa'i 2124Sahih (Darussalam)

In another narration:

Then fast for thirty days.

فصوموا ثلاثين يومًا

Thus, fasting was made obligatory by the sighting of the crescent of Ramadan, and breaking the fast was made obligatory by the sighting of the crescent of Shawwal; for the ease of that for the Ummah, the learned and the illiterate, the urban and the Bedouin. And the illiterate and the Bedouin may be more discerning in that than others; as a mercy and favor from Allah. And they did not rely on that on the science of astronomy, i.e., the science of the movement of the stars. Among this is His saying, the Exalted, regarding the times of the five prayers:

Establish prayer at the decline of the sun [from its meridian] until the darkness of the night and [also] the Qur'an of dawn

أَقِمِ الصَّلاَةَ لِدُلُوكِ الشَّمْسِ إِلَى غَسَقِ اللَّيْلِ وَقُرْآنَ الْفَجْرِ

[Al-Isra 17:78]

And His saying:

⁽²⁵⁾ And mention the name of your Lord [in prayer] morning and evening ⁽²⁶⁾ And during the night prostrate to Him and exalt Him a long [part of the] night.

وَاذْكُرِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلا (25) وَمِنَ اللَّيْلِ فَاسْجُدْ لَهُ وَسَبِّحْهُ لَيْلا طَوِيلا

[Al-Insan 76:25-26]

And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified it by his words and his actions, as is established from Abdullah ibn Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The time of the noon prayer is when the sun passes the meridian and a man's shadow is the same (length) as his height, (and it lasts) as long as the time for the afternoon prayer has not come; the time for the afternoon prayer is as long as the sun has not become pale; the time of the evening prayer is as long as the twilight has not ended; the time of the night prayer is up to the middle of the average night and the time of the morning prayer is from the appearance of dawn, as long as the sun has not risen; but when the sun rises, refrain from prayer for it rises between the horns of the devil.

وقت الظهر: إذا زالت الشمس وصار ظل الرجل كطوله ما لم يحضر العصر ووقت العصر: ما لم تصفر الشمس ووقت صلاة المغرب: ما لم يغب الشفق ووقت صلاة العشاء: إلى نصف الليل الأوسط: ووقت صلاة الصبح: من طلوع الفجر ما لم تطلع الشمس فإذا طلعت الشمس فأمسك عن الصلاة فإنها تطلع بين قرني شيطان

Sahih Muslim 612d

And from Sulayman ibn Buraydah from his father (may Allah be pleased with them both), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that a man asked him about the time of prayer, so he said to him:

Pray with us these two, meaning two days. When the sun passed the meridian, he gave command to Bilal who uttered the call to prayer. Then he commanded him and pronounced Iqama for noon prayer (Then at the time of the afternoon prayer) he again commanded and Iqama for the afternoon prayer was pronounced when the sun was high, white and clear. He then commanded and Iqama for the evening prayer was pronounced, when the sun had set. He then commanded him and the Iqama for the night prayer was pronounced when the twilight had disappeared. He then commanded him and the Iqama for the morning prayer was pronounced, when the dawn had appeared. When it was the next day, he commanded him to delay the noon prayer till the extreme heat had passed and he did so, and he allowed it to be delayed till the extreme heat had passed. He observed the afternoon prayer when the sun was high, delaying it beyond the time he had previously observed it. He observed the evening prayer before the twilight had vanished; he observed the night prayer when a third of the night had passed; and he observed the dawn prayer when there was clear daylight. He (the Holy Prophet) then said: Where is the man who inquired about the time of prayer? He (the inquirer) said: Messenger of Allah, here I am. He (the Holy Prophet) said: The time for your prayer is within the limits of what you have seen.

صل معنا هذين -يعني: اليومين- فلما زالت الشمس أمر بلالاً فأذن، ثم أمره فأقام، ثم أمره فأقام العصر والشمس مرتفعة بيضاء نقية، ثم أمره فأقام المغرب حين غابت الشمس، ثم أمره فأقام العشاء حين غاب الشفق، ثم أمره فأقام الفجر حين طلع الفجر، فلما أن كان اليوم الثاني أمره أن يبرد بالظهر، فأبرد بها، فأنعم أن يبرد بها، وصلى العصر والشمس مرتفعة، أخرها فوق الذي كان، وصلى المغرب قبل أن يغيب الشفق، وصلى العشاء بعد ما ذهب ثلث الليل، وصلى الفجر فأسفر بها، ثم قال: أين السائل عن وقت الصلاة؟ فقال الرجل: أنا يا رسول الله، فقال: وقت صلاتكم بين ما رأيتم

Sahih Muslim 613a

and other hadiths that detail the time of prayer by word and action. And this was not made dependent on the movement of the stars, nor on the words of the astronomers; as a favor and kindness from Allah the Exalted, and to remove hardship from His obligated servants. And thus, the natural and easy path is to rely on the natural signs indicated by the Shari'ah for knowing the times of prayer, as previously explained; because it is general and known by the urban and the Bedouin, the learned and the unlearned. As for knowing the times through the calculation of the movement of the stars, in addition to it being approximate, it is not easy for everyone. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and his companions.

Source www.alifta.gov.sa

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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