Is it valid for a Muslim to break his fast when the disk of the sun sets, followed by the Shaykh's discussion on the Shari'ah adhan and the astronomical adhan?

The questioner : And is it valid for a Muslim to break his fast when the disk of the sun sets? Is that correct? And what is the ruling on one who breaks his fast when the disk of the sun sets?

The Shaykh : Here is a matter that many people are ignorant of, and the reason is that the scholars and students of knowledge have distanced themselves from applying what they have learned from the Shari'ah. It is stated in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, pointing toward the east: from the east from the west meaning that the sun no longer appears meaning that the time for breaking the fast has entered, which is the time when it becomes permissible to break the fast. This is one thing. And when the breaking of the fast for the fasting person becomes permissible due to the setting of the sun, the Maghrib prayer becomes obligatory, because there is no time for either of these two matters that differs from the other. In the time when the Maghrib prayer is permissible, it is permissible to break the fast, and vice versa. The second thing that we should be mindful of is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): There is another hadith that says: Here, there are two matters that may appear to some people to be contradictory, and that one must neglect one at the expense of the other. But that is not the case, and its explanation is in the practical Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who commanded both matters—commanding to hasten in breaking the fast and commanding to hasten in the Maghrib prayer—he implemented these two commands in a wonderful and very easy manner. That is what is established from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when the sun set, would break his fast with dates, making them an odd number. If he did not find them, he would break his fast with sips of water, and then he would pray. He was able to combine both commands: hastening in breaking the fast and hastening in the prayer. And thus it is obligatory for those who love the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with sincere love, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) indicated in the well-known noble verse: So the love of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is only realized by following his Sunnah. The love of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is only realized by following his Sunnah, whether that Sunnah is an obligation or a voluntary act. All of that is the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). If the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) hastened in breaking the fast and hastened in performing the Maghrib prayer, then the Sunnah is to implement both commands hastily, together. Then there is another hadith that clarifies the extent of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) concern for hastening in breaking the fast. It is stated in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was traveling, and the sun set, so he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to one of his Companions: meaning, prepare for us the breaking of the fast from barley flour. He said to him, "O Messenger of Allah, there is still day ahead of you," meaning that the light of the day in the west was still clear, even though the sun had actually set. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) emphasized his previous command to him: three times. Each time the man said, "There is still day ahead of you," and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) repeated his command to him. The narrator said: "So we broke our fast until if one of us had mounted his camel, he would have seen the sun." Imagine now the exaggeration in hastening to break the fast. From here the sun set, and from here the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered the bringing of what to break the fast with. Those who did not know—and none of them knew—only the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) knew. And this is a very self-evident matter. The Messenger of Allah said, and this is repeated today, unfortunately, "The light is still clear," because they do not know the Sunnah. Likewise, that man was excused because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had not clarified to them the actual, practical hastening, which is that the sun sets from here and one immediately breaks the fast from here. And therefore he said, "O Messenger of Allah, there is still day ahead of you." What is the matter? And he only said to him three times: So what is the matter with the Muslims today who say, "The adhan has not been called yet?" And you see the sun has fallen on the horizon and has set, and you find the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanding to hasten in breaking the fast first, and then urging that Companion to hasten by bringing forward what to break the fast with. And if the light of the day was still clear and had not completely disappeared, then here are two matters that we must observe and apply: hastening in breaking the fast and hastening in the Maghrib prayer. We do not delay one at the expense of the other. As for the adhan today, we regret that the adhan in all Islamic countries, except for very few, is not called according to the Shari'ah timing, but rather according to the astronomical timing. The astronomical timing does not take into account the difference in horizons, nor does it take into account the differences in terrain within the same town. For example, we have in Oman, and I do not know the situation in your country here; knowing the surface of your country seems easy, but do you know Oman well? It has very, very much different terrain. There are mountains, there are plateaus, there are plains, and there are valleys. So it is not correct for a unified adhan to cover all these places. No, and we have seen with our own eyes the differences regarding not only the setting of the sun, but also the dawn, the adhan for Dhuhr and Maghrib, and all the other times of the five prayers. What concerns me now is what relates to the setting of the sun. You know that there is a unified adhan in Oman, meaning the adhan is called in one place and broadcast from all the mosques, whether the mosque is on the peak of a mountain, on the top of a plateau, in a plain, or in a valley. One adhan. We saw very significant differences. I live on a mountain known as Jabal Hamlan, and my house overlooks the east and the west, so I see the true dawn and the rising of the sun, and I see the setting of the sun. We have now looked into the setting: the sun sets, and the adhan is eight or ten minutes after the setting, as is the case with you here. The unified adhan, I see with my eyes, is eight or ten minutes after the sun sets. We went some times to a village called al-Na'ur on the way to Bayt al-Maqdis, as you know. I saw two completely different phenomena. Once, we were waiting for the sun to set in the month of Ramadan at the home of one of the brothers there. For the first time, I heard the unified adhan with the setting of the sun there in al-Na'ur. But in another year, and I was entering the mosque for the Maghrib prayer, this unified adhan was raised with a loudspeaker on the mosque minaret, and the sun was in front of me, not yet set. The sun was in front of me, not yet set. So those who heard this adhan broke their fast, and even prayed, but their prayer was before the time. Whereas the one who was in another area, where I was the previous year, prayed exactly in the time and broke his fast exactly in the time. Why? Because of the difference in terrain, in elevation and depression. And one of the imams of the Suhayb mosque told me; he is on the way to the seventh roundabout. He also said he saw with his own eyes what I saw in al-Na'ur: the adhan is called in his mosque, and the sun has not set for him. So this unified adhan, first, and the astronomical adhan, second, is an error that exposes the prayer of the worshippers to invalidity, and may expose their fasting, as you heard just now, to invalidity. So it is necessary to take into account the differences in places. And it is amazing that those who prepared this astronomical calendar know this truth about the differences in places, and they say "taking into account the differences." Who takes them into account? If the mu'adhdhin who was appointed to call the ignorant people, who are far from seeing the rising, going out, and setting of the sun, and so on, was tasked with these mu'adhdhins and made a trust regarding the adhan, and yet they call the adhan according to the calendar, and we and everyone know the differences in places completely. There is no difference for me between one who prays according to the unified adhan with different terrains and one who prays according to the adhan of Makkah. They called the adhan in Makkah; Makkah is far, okay, brother, near or far, the important thing is the difference in horizons. The one in the east, the sun sets for him before the one in the west. The one in the valley, the sun sets for him before the one on the peak of the mountain, and so on. And therefore you saw just now that that Companion said that when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) broke his fast, if one of us had mounted a camel, he would have seen the sun rising. So for the one who was on the peak of a plateau, I do not say a mountain, the sun had not set for him, but for the one who was in the plain, it had set for him. So this one has a setting, and that one on the plateau has a setting, and that one on the mountain has a setting, and so on. And therefore, the religion is sincere advice, and the reminder benefits the believers. It is not permissible to adhere to the astronomical timing, because the astronomical timing takes the straight line, the sea level, which has no elevation or descent at all. And this is not permissible in the Shari'ah. And therefore, if any of you sees the dawn before the adhan for Fajr, he may abstain from food and proceed to prayer. But if he hears the adhan and does not see the dawn, it is not permissible for him to pray, and it is permissible for him to continue his suhur, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say, and with this hadith I conclude the answer to this question, even if the speech is long, because this matter, unfortunately, most people are ignorant of it and unaware of it. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Here is a question: When did Ibn Umm Maktum call the adhan? He was a blind man. He would sit on the back of the mosque and wait for the passersby in the alleys of Madinah. When the dawn became clear to them from north to south, they would say to him, "The dawn has come, the dawn has come," and he would call the adhan. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It is stated in a sound narration: And he did not call the adhan until it was said to him, "The dawn has come, the dawn has come." And he was a blind man. Look now at how much ease is in the matter. First, the mu'adhdhin does not see the dawn, but he relies on the passersby who see the dawn. So when they say to him, "The dawn has come," meaning the time for Fajr has entered, he says, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar." This was the case in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and until very recent times. There was a mu'adhdhin in every mosque who knew the Shari'ah times. And there were, in some mosques, until today, in the mosque—excuse me—in Damascus, I do not know if it exists here or not—what is called the mizwala. The mizwala is a device by which the mu'adhdhin can know the time when Dhuhr enters and the time when 'Asr enters. As for the other times, they are observed by the general people, as you saw just now in the sound hadith: the passersby say to the mu'adhdhin, "The dawn has come, the dawn has come." But the time for Dhuhr requires special knowledge, and the time for 'Asr requires special knowledge. This knowledge was, in the past, by a very simple, natural method: they would erect a gnomon, like a stick, a rod stuck in the ground, and observe. When the sun rises from the east, this gnomon casts a long shadow toward the west. And as the sun rises higher, this shadow shortens and shortens. In what is called the equator, this shadow becomes on the gnomon, or the shadow of the gnomon, meaning it disappears; this shadow is not seen at all. Where? On the equator. Here becomes the time of makruh (disliked) by Shari'ah. So when the shadow begins from the other side, the time for Dhuhr has entered. But here in our lands, the matter is different, because when the sun rises, it does not stand directly above our heads in any of the four seasons, but it is tilted slightly or significantly to the south. It is most tilted in the winter season and most upright in the summer season. But for us, the shadow of this gnomon does not disappear at all. The point is that the mu'adhdhin who knows the Shari'ah timing takes into account the shadow of this gnomon, as it shortens and shortens, until he sees with his own eyes that it has stopped; it no longer shortens and no longer lengthens. This is the time of makruh by Shari'ah, and most people do not know this. In fact, I say to you, unfortunately, most mu'adhdhins, indeed the mu'adhdhins today, do not know this Shari'ah ruling at all. So when the shadow stops and he no longer sees it shortening as it was before, and it does not begin to lengthen as it will lengthen later when it stops for the naked eye, this is the time of makruh. When it lengthens a little, the time of makruh is gone, and the time for Dhuhr has entered. And this varies according to the seasons. This is the function of the mu'adhdhins. And therefore, they used to place in front of the mu'adhdhins, and on the walls, a mizwala in which they see the sun tilt until the shadow of the gnomon stops. This is the time of makruh, in which prayer is not valid. When it lengthens, the time for Dhuhr has entered. The time for 'Asr by Shari'ah is when the shadow of the gnomon is equal to itself plus the shadow at noon. And this requires another detail, and I fear that many of you will get bored of this knowledge, which is called dry knowledge. Dry knowledge, because it is the knowledge of fiqh, the knowledge of the Shari'ah. And thus, when we reached this calamity of calling the Shari'ah knowledge "dry knowledge," we relied on the simplified, easy astronomical knowledge: the sun rises like this, and Dhuhr is called like this, even though, as we mentioned, it differs from place to place. In conclusion, the dawn in our case in Damascus—excuse me—in Oman, and do not hold me to it, because I lived there for a long time, so a person unconsciously leans toward his old nest. The point is that I am now in Oman, and I see the dawn is delayed by twenty-five minutes from the unified adhan, and I hear the iqamah from the mosques around me at the time of the true dawn. So those who prayed the Sunnah of Fajr prayed it before the time, and praise be to Allah, they catch the obligatory prayer with the iqamah when the true dawn appears. These are matters that the imams of mosques and the mu'adhdhins of mosques must observe. And I say a clear, non-official word: what does "non-official" mean? It means the volunteers who lead people in prayer to draw near to Allah, who call the adhan for people so that they may be, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: May they attain such a virtue. They call the adhan for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not to perform a job. It is not different from any employee of the state's jobs. This is what must be clarified in this matter.

The questioner : We are praying 'Isha'.

The Shaykh : The time for 'Isha' has arrived.

The questioner : It has been a third of an hour.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed, please go ahead.

The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Starting from the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic: And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) preferred knowledge over voluntary acts of worship in prayer, in his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): And tarawih is among the voluntary acts, and we see that knowledge is preferred over it in this blessed session. Therefore, we continue our consultation with our distinguished Shaykh in raising the many questions that have arrived, which may require a significant amount of time. After finishing them, if Allah wills, we will pray tarawih by reciting a small amount. We are accustomed to reciting one part (juz') every day, but perhaps today we will recite half a hizb. Knowledge is preferred over the prayer of tarawih. Shall we continue with the questions?