If the duration of the night is five hours, for example, in a country like Sweden, how are the prayer and fasting to be performed?

The questioner : The brother is asking about the period from the setting of the sun to the appearance of the dawn in a foreign country like Sweden. How, O Shaykh, is the timing of fasting determined?

The Shaykh : Excuse me, five hours of the day.

The questioner : The night, from the setting of the sun to the appearance of the dawn.

The Shaykh : The matter is easy. First, one must look at that country to see if it has a sunset. As it appears, the answer is yes. Good. Does it have the appearance of the red twilight? I do not know. If there is a twilight that appears in that country, then the ruling does not differ from any other country where the night is longer than five hours. The important thing is that the time is timed by the setting of the sun for Maghrib and by the disappearance of the red twilight for Isha. So there is no problem in this matter, if Allah wills.
Abu Malik: ... the mixing of the two times, the sunset with the sunrise, the setting of the sun with the appearance of the dawn, because in many countries ... the red twilight does not disappear until the dawn appears.

The Shaykh : This is what is intended, but the question is not clear. This is what is intended, meaning.
Abu Malik: And this actually happened to me. It actually happened. I was on a plane and wanted to pray Maghrib. I looked from the plane and found the sunset, so I said I would combine the two prayers. But then the sun was rising and the twilight was still visible.

The Shaykh : Meaning the twilight remains visible for five hours.
Abu Malik: I do not know. It is permissible for it to be five, or it could be less.

The Shaykh : Approximately, meaning.
Abu Malik: ... less than this. Yes.
Another questioner: In places, at a certain time of the year, the night and the day connect, and both are one.

The Shaykh : ... A well-known hadith, an authentic hadith, that when the Dajjal emerges, the first of his days will be as long as a year, his second day as long as a month, his third day a week, and the rest of his days like your days. So they asked him, what is the state of the prayers at that time? He said So the problem is, if we assume, as we hear and as was mentioned earlier, that in some countries the sun remains up for months, meaning, and likewise the night, it is estimated by looking at the nearest neighboring country to that country where the sun or the night remains, and which has a night and a day. At that time, it is estimated, meaning, for example, how long does the time of sunset, the setting of the sun, last in the nearest town until the red twilight appears? Let us assume, for example, one hour or two hours or less. On that basis, the people of the country where the day lasts for long months or the night for many months deal with it, and so on. So the matter is easy. It returns to the estimation of the people of the country living in it, by analogy to the neighboring countries.
Abu Malik: There is here now appeared ... .

The Shaykh : Yes
Another questioner: ...

The Shaykh : Do you want it regarding fasting?
Another questioner: ...

The Shaykh : Good. If the talk is about the prayer, likewise about fasting, meaning, regarding the countries where the rising of the sun continues so they do not see a night, or the opposite, the fasting is estimated based on the nearby countries themselves. But there is a scenario that can be handled, and it is necessary to handle it, which is that the day may be clear and the night distinct in one of those countries you are asking about, with a large difference between the length of the night and the length of the day. So it may be, let us assume with exaggeration or without exaggeration, that the day is twenty hours, like that, you want the topic, and the night is four hours. Do they fast for twenty hours? The answer is, as long as they see the dawn and they see the setting of the sun, they must fast, even if the hours are many and reach twenty or close to that. But it is not hidden that any religious ruling is only within the limits of So whoever is able to fast in those countries for twenty hours, as long as the day after the appearance of the dawn reaches these hours, he must fast. And in my opinion, the matter there is easy, because the difficulty is imagined regarding the hot countries where the fasting person is exposed to drinking water. But in the cold countries, the long fasting for these many hours is not difficult, as I imagine. The topic, with that, we set the rule: whoever cannot fast, his ruling is one of two things. Either we attach him to the old, declining old man who cannot fast, even in moderate countries, so he expiates for each day by feeding a poor person. Or he can utilize the time when the long day turns into a short day, which makes fasting easy for him, so he makes up what he missed of fasting at that time. His case in that is like the case of the sick person whose recovery is expected, and not the sick person whose recovery is hopeless. The sick person whose recovery is hopeless is attached to the incapable, declining old man, so he expiates for each day by feeding a poor person. As for the sick person whose recovery is expected, he is as Allah the Exalted said So these people who live in that long day, and in Ramadan, some of them are able and some are not able to fast as a performance. The one who is not able to fast as a performance fasts as a make-up if he is able, otherwise his ruling is the ruling of the incapable who expiates for each day by feeding a poor person. Perhaps the answer regarding fasting has become clear?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good

The Shaykh : And you, yes.