How to determine the middle of the night and the times of the five prayers?
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The Shaykh : No, no, we need to see if it has become the middle of the night, so that we do not delay the prayer beyond its time. You are asking for a practical answer.
Another questioner : Like with a clock, I can tell you that it will be in a little while, but religiously, without a clock, how am I supposed to know if it is the middle of the night or not?
The Shaykh : That is a second question. May Allah guide you.
Another questioner : I know it is a second question.
The Shaykh : Okay; have we finished with the first question? Because—what Allah willed!—it is easy and clear to you!The Shaykh : (laughs) ].
My brother, knowledge has different types. If a person gets used to a habit, he forgets other habits. Your question is similar to how they used to know the five prayer times?
The questioner : ... there is a specification in the Shari'ah.
The Shaykh : There is a specification in the Shari'ah. Okay; what is this specification in the Shari'ah based on? On the clock?
The questioner : No, of course not.
The Shaykh: Regarding what?
The questioner : On ... .
The Shaykh : Okay; that is the answer.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Allow me, I want to answer you from the easiest way to the hardest way. This is what you took for granted and said: "The Shari'ah specified it." What do you think now if we take a thousand Muslim worshippers, how many of them know the prayer times if it were not for the adhan and the clock with its ticking and tocking? How many?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : You mean? Out of a thousand people? Half a person?
The questioner : Ten, let them be.
The Shaykh : Okay; why don't they know? Because they turned away from the natural phenomena. What turned them away from that? These modern machines, do you see? And the modern machines have become a trial; because the Ministry of Awqaf, which is responsible for correcting the worship of Muslims, got entangled with these modern machines and turned away from the indicators and the Shari'ah signs; and so you keep hearing the disagreement that some people break their fast in Ramadan before the time, these people must repeat and make up the fast, and so on; why? Because these people break their fast before their adhan and do not understand even now that their adhan is not Shari'ah-compliant, and the most dangerous is their Fajr adhan; they pray before the time of the true dawn, and so on. What is the reason? They turned away from these natural phenomena due to these machines. It is the same answer exactly, of course with a difference; the five prayers are more frequently tested, whereas knowing the middle of the night is not as frequent as the five prayers; because the world is night, but it is not necessary for every individual to know the middle of the night. It is not necessary for every individual among the Muslims to know when the middle of the night is?
I recall on this occasion a hadith of a noble female Companion. Who was she? She was at Muzdalifah, so she said to her servant or slave girl: "Look, has the moon set?" Here is the point, has the moon set? What does she mean? If the moon sets, it means the second half of the night has entered. So she wanted to depart from Muzdalifah; because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted the women and the weak to depart after the middle of the night. So she knew the middle of the night from the setting of the moon. This observation, we no longer notice the rising of the moon or the setting of the moon, nor even the rising of the sun or anything else.
Another questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Absolutely not. Now I think most of you do not know that if a person gets up in a hurry and cannot get up to pray the Fajr prayer in the Shari'ah time in the mosque, he gets up and looks at the clock, the sun is going to rise, five minutes left, come on, especially if he is next to cold water, hot water, warm water, and so on, he wants to catch up with himself, whereas between the timing he is measuring by the clock and the rising of the sun is a quarter of an hour or a third of an hour; meaning in the tight time he is struggling with, he still has a quarter of an hour, but the "calendar" is wrong; why? Because we did not look at the sun rising or setting or anything at all. So you are surprised by this and ask this question along with it, because you are from this public that has turned away from observing the natural cosmic means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made as a guide to knowing the times. What do you think of[Al-Baqarah 2:189]? By these natural cosmic Shari'ah methods, they used to know previously.
Do you know the hadith of 'Amr ibn Umm Maktum? He used to call the adhan for the Fajr prayer, and he was a blind man. What did he know? He said: "He used to stand in the back of the mosque, and people would pass by him and say to him: 'You have become a morning person, you have become a morning person!' The one passing by on the road used to say to him: 'You have become a morning person, you have become a morning person!' Today the mufti passes by on the road and does not know 'you have become a morning person, you have become a morning person'."
The questioner : The mu'adhdhins in the time of the Salaf were jurists.
The Shaykh : As for the mu'adhdhins in the last of times, they are employees; all they care about is performing the job!
Another questioner : Like with a clock, I can tell you that it will be in a little while, but religiously, without a clock, how am I supposed to know if it is the middle of the night or not?
The Shaykh : That is a second question. May Allah guide you.
Another questioner : I know it is a second question.
The Shaykh : Okay; have we finished with the first question? Because—what Allah willed!—it is easy and clear to you!The Shaykh : (laughs) ].
My brother, knowledge has different types. If a person gets used to a habit, he forgets other habits. Your question is similar to how they used to know the five prayer times?
The questioner : ... there is a specification in the Shari'ah.
The Shaykh : There is a specification in the Shari'ah. Okay; what is this specification in the Shari'ah based on? On the clock?
The questioner : No, of course not.
The Shaykh: Regarding what?
The questioner : On ... .
The Shaykh : Okay; that is the answer.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Allow me, I want to answer you from the easiest way to the hardest way. This is what you took for granted and said: "The Shari'ah specified it." What do you think now if we take a thousand Muslim worshippers, how many of them know the prayer times if it were not for the adhan and the clock with its ticking and tocking? How many?
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : You mean? Out of a thousand people? Half a person?
The questioner : Ten, let them be.
The Shaykh : Okay; why don't they know? Because they turned away from the natural phenomena. What turned them away from that? These modern machines, do you see? And the modern machines have become a trial; because the Ministry of Awqaf, which is responsible for correcting the worship of Muslims, got entangled with these modern machines and turned away from the indicators and the Shari'ah signs; and so you keep hearing the disagreement that some people break their fast in Ramadan before the time, these people must repeat and make up the fast, and so on; why? Because these people break their fast before their adhan and do not understand even now that their adhan is not Shari'ah-compliant, and the most dangerous is their Fajr adhan; they pray before the time of the true dawn, and so on. What is the reason? They turned away from these natural phenomena due to these machines. It is the same answer exactly, of course with a difference; the five prayers are more frequently tested, whereas knowing the middle of the night is not as frequent as the five prayers; because the world is night, but it is not necessary for every individual to know the middle of the night. It is not necessary for every individual among the Muslims to know when the middle of the night is?
I recall on this occasion a hadith of a noble female Companion. Who was she? She was at Muzdalifah, so she said to her servant or slave girl: "Look, has the moon set?" Here is the point, has the moon set? What does she mean? If the moon sets, it means the second half of the night has entered. So she wanted to depart from Muzdalifah; because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted the women and the weak to depart after the middle of the night. So she knew the middle of the night from the setting of the moon. This observation, we no longer notice the rising of the moon or the setting of the moon, nor even the rising of the sun or anything else.
Another questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Absolutely not. Now I think most of you do not know that if a person gets up in a hurry and cannot get up to pray the Fajr prayer in the Shari'ah time in the mosque, he gets up and looks at the clock, the sun is going to rise, five minutes left, come on, especially if he is next to cold water, hot water, warm water, and so on, he wants to catch up with himself, whereas between the timing he is measuring by the clock and the rising of the sun is a quarter of an hour or a third of an hour; meaning in the tight time he is struggling with, he still has a quarter of an hour, but the "calendar" is wrong; why? Because we did not look at the sun rising or setting or anything at all. So you are surprised by this and ask this question along with it, because you are from this public that has turned away from observing the natural cosmic means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made as a guide to knowing the times. What do you think of
They ask you, [O Muhammad], about the new moons. Say, "They are measurements of time for the people and for Hajj."
يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الأَهِلَّةِ قُلْ هِيَ مَوَاقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَالْحَجِّDo you know the hadith of 'Amr ibn Umm Maktum? He used to call the adhan for the Fajr prayer, and he was a blind man. What did he know? He said: "He used to stand in the back of the mosque, and people would pass by him and say to him: 'You have become a morning person, you have become a morning person!' The one passing by on the road used to say to him: 'You have become a morning person, you have become a morning person!' Today the mufti passes by on the road and does not know 'you have become a morning person, you have become a morning person'."
The questioner : The mu'adhdhins in the time of the Salaf were jurists.
The Shaykh : As for the mu'adhdhins in the last of times, they are employees; all they care about is performing the job!
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.