How did the Companions know the times of the prayers?
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The questioner : In times when there were no clocks, how did they calculate the legal middle of the night? We now have a clock that allows us to calculate it, but how did the Companions calculate the legal middle of the night?
The Shaykh : You are a man, and by your eagerness for knowledge, you become one of the people of eccentricity.
The questioner : By Allah, your observation is in its proper place, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh : The earth is inhabited, but in reality, let us not rush. If it has become the middle of the night, let us pray 'Isha, as our companion is saying.
The questioner : It is nine-thirty.
Another questioner : Fajr comes at four.
The Shaykh : Yes, yes, my friend... We must see if it has become the middle of the night so that we do not delay the prayer beyond its time. You are seeking a scholarly answer.
The questioner : I want to know, legally, without a clock, how I am to know if it is the middle of the night or not?
The Shaykh : That is a second question. May Allah guide you.
The questioner : I know that this is a second question.
The Shaykh : Well, we are done with the first question. May Allah will it, you are a clear puller. My brother, knowledge has 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 times.
The questioner : The five times have a definition in the Shari'ah.
The Shaykh : They have a definition in the Shari'ah. Well, what is this definition in the Shari'ah based on? On the clock? On what?
The questioner : On natural phenomena.
The Shaykh : Well, that is the answer. Allow me, I want to answer you from the easiest way to the hardest way. This is what you made easy. You said, "The Shari'ah defined this." What do you think now if we take a thousand Muslim worshippers, how many of them know the times of the prayers, if not for the adhan and the calendar with its ups and downs? How many?
The questioner: It is small.
The Shaykh : I mean, out of a thousand people, half a person. Well, why don't they know? Because they turned away from natural phenomena. What turned them away from that? These modern devices, do you see? And these modern devices have become a fitnah (trial), because the Ministry of Awqaf became responsible for correcting the worship of Muslims, and it got entangled with these modern devices, and turned away from the legal signs and indicators. Therefore, you hear the disagreement that some people break their fast in Ramadan before the time. These people must repeat it and make it up, and so on. Why? Because these people break their fast before their adhan, and they do not understand even now that their adhan is not legal. And the most dangerous is the Fajr adhan; they pray before the time of the true Fajr, and so on. What is the reason? They turned away from those phenomena due to these devices. It is exactly the same answer, 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 women and the weak to depart after the middle of the night. So she knew the middle of the night by the setting of the moon. We no longer notice the rising of the moon or its setting, nor even the setting of the sun or its rising, nor anything at all. I think most of you do not know that if a man is troubled and cannot get up to pray the Fajr prayer at the legal time in the mosque, he gets up and looks at the clock, and the sun is about to rise, with five minutes left, "Let's go," especially if he is near cold, hot, or warm water, and so on, he needs to catch up. Whereas between the timing he gives by the clock and the rising of the sun is a quarter of an hour or a third of an hour. So in the narrow time he is hesitating about, he has a quarter of an hour with him, but he misunderstands it. Why?
Because we no longer look at the sun, whether rising or setting, or anything at all. So you are surprised by this and ask this question, and the truth is with you, because you are among the public who turned away from considering the natural cosmic means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made as evidence for knowing the times. What is the verse?[Al-Baqarah 2:189] By these legal, natural cosmic methods, they used to know them previously. Do you know the hadith of 'Amr ibn Umm Maktum? He used to call the adhan for the Fajr prayer, and the man was blind. What did he know? He said: "He used to stand on the back of the mosque, and people would pass by him and say to him, 'It is morning, it is morning.' The passersby on the road would say to him: 'It is morning, it is morning.' Today, the mufti passes by the road and does not know, 'It is morning, it is morning.'"
The questioner : Were the mu'adhdhins in the time of the Salaf jurists?
The Shaykh : Yes, without a doubt. As for the mu'adhdhins in the end of times, they are employees who only care about performing the job.
The Shaykh : You are a man, and by your eagerness for knowledge, you become one of the people of eccentricity.
The questioner : By Allah, your observation is in its proper place, O Shaykh.
The Shaykh : The earth is inhabited, but in reality, let us not rush. If it has become the middle of the night, let us pray 'Isha, as our companion is saying.
The questioner : It is nine-thirty.
Another questioner : Fajr comes at four.
The Shaykh : Yes, yes, my friend... We must see if it has become the middle of the night so that we do not delay the prayer beyond its time. You are seeking a scholarly answer.
The questioner : I want to know, legally, without a clock, how I am to know if it is the middle of the night or not?
The Shaykh : That is a second question. May Allah guide you.
The questioner : I know that this is a second question.
The Shaykh : Well, we are done with the first question. May Allah will it, you are a clear puller. My brother, knowledge has 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 times.
The questioner : The five times have a definition in the Shari'ah.
The Shaykh : They have a definition in the Shari'ah. Well, what is this definition in the Shari'ah based on? On the clock? On what?
The questioner : On natural phenomena.
The Shaykh : Well, that is the answer. Allow me, I want to answer you from the easiest way to the hardest way. This is what you made easy. You said, "The Shari'ah defined this." What do you think now if we take a thousand Muslim worshippers, how many of them know the times of the prayers, if not for the adhan and the calendar with its ups and downs? How many?
The questioner: It is small.
The Shaykh : I mean, out of a thousand people, half a person. Well, why don't they know? Because they turned away from natural phenomena. What turned them away from that? These modern devices, do you see? And these modern devices have become a fitnah (trial), because the Ministry of Awqaf became responsible for correcting the worship of Muslims, and it got entangled with these modern devices, and turned away from the legal signs and indicators. Therefore, you hear the disagreement that some people break their fast in Ramadan before the time. These people must repeat it and make it up, and so on. Why? Because these people break their fast before their adhan, and they do not understand even now that their adhan is not legal. And the most dangerous is the Fajr adhan; they pray before the time of the true Fajr, and so on. What is the reason? They turned away from those phenomena due to these devices. It is exactly the same answer, 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 women and the weak to depart after the middle of the night. So she knew the middle of the night by the setting of the moon. We no longer notice the rising of the moon or its setting, nor even the setting of the sun or its rising, nor anything at all. I think most of you do not know that if a man is troubled and cannot get up to pray the Fajr prayer at the legal time in the mosque, he gets up and looks at the clock, and the sun is about to rise, with five minutes left, "Let's go," especially if he is near cold, hot, or warm water, and so on, he needs to catch up. Whereas between the timing he gives by the clock and the rising of the sun is a quarter of an hour or a third of an hour. So in the narrow time he is hesitating about, he has a quarter of an hour with him, but he misunderstands it. Why?
Because we no longer look at the sun, whether rising or setting, or anything at all. So you are surprised by this and ask this question, and the truth is with you, because you are among the public who turned away from considering the natural cosmic means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made as evidence for knowing the times. What is the verse?
They ask you, [O Muhammad], about the new moons. Say, "They are measurements of time for the people and for Hajj."
ويسألونك عن الأهلة قل هي مواقيت للناس والحجThe questioner : Were the mu'adhdhins in the time of the Salaf jurists?
The Shaykh : Yes, without a doubt. As for the mu'adhdhins in the end of times, they are employees who only care about performing the job.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.