The Time of the 'Isha' Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Until when is the time for 'Isha'? Until the middle of the night, meaning from the disappearance of the twilight until the middle of the night. Now, is the middle of the night calculated from sunset to the appearance of the dawn, or from sunset to the sunrise? There is no harm. I mean, is it an hour and a half or not? Do you consider the middle of the night to be from sunset to the appearance of the dawn, or from sunset to the sunrise? Thank you.
The Shaykh : Yes, this is a point of disagreement among the scholars, and the closest view to me is that it is from sunset to the appearance of the dawn. Why? Because with the appearance of the dawn, the time for another prayer begins; the time for another prayer begins. Therefore, what should be the case is that the interval between the two prayers is the half. So we say: look at the time between sunset and the appearance of the dawn and take half of it; that is the time for 'Isha'. In the present time, the dawn appears at twelve hours and five minutes. The dawn appears at twelve hours and five minutes; what is half of that? Six hours and two and a half minutes. So the time for 'Isha' in this season continues until six o'clock. If a person prays at a quarter to six, he has caught the time.
The questioner : Now, in the summer season.
The Shaykh : The dawn appears at a quarter to nine. It appears at a quarter to nine; what is half of that? Four hours and twenty-three minutes. This means it is not permissible to delay the prayer until four and a half. It is not permissible in winter to delay until six. In the days of summer, in the days of the heat, do not delay until four and a half, because the night is halved at four hours and twenty-three minutes. So, in the zodiacal time, which is what they call zodiacal time, the middle of the night is twelve. In winter and summer, he prays at twelve. It may be increased by two minutes, it may be increased to ten minutes, and it may be decreased to five minutes, as for those around this,
The Shaykh : Yes, this is a point of disagreement among the scholars, and the closest view to me is that it is from sunset to the appearance of the dawn. Why? Because with the appearance of the dawn, the time for another prayer begins; the time for another prayer begins. Therefore, what should be the case is that the interval between the two prayers is the half. So we say: look at the time between sunset and the appearance of the dawn and take half of it; that is the time for 'Isha'. In the present time, the dawn appears at twelve hours and five minutes. The dawn appears at twelve hours and five minutes; what is half of that? Six hours and two and a half minutes. So the time for 'Isha' in this season continues until six o'clock. If a person prays at a quarter to six, he has caught the time.
The questioner : Now, in the summer season.
The Shaykh : The dawn appears at a quarter to nine. It appears at a quarter to nine; what is half of that? Four hours and twenty-three minutes. This means it is not permissible to delay the prayer until four and a half. It is not permissible in winter to delay until six. In the days of summer, in the days of the heat, do not delay until four and a half, because the night is halved at four hours and twenty-three minutes. So, in the zodiacal time, which is what they call zodiacal time, the middle of the night is twelve. In winter and summer, he prays at twelve. It may be increased by two minutes, it may be increased to ten minutes, and it may be decreased to five minutes, as for those around this,
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 66- وقت صلاة العشاء II فوائد من الدروس الفقهية من المحاضرات الجامعية لابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.