Explanation of the Book of Prayer-03

The Shaykh : And from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The one I have, and the one we have graded as authentic, as you heard, refers back to the original text: "And from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Dawn is of two types; the dawn in which eating is forbidden (for the fasting person) and prayer is permitted and the dawn in which prayer is forbidden i.e. the morning prayer and eating is permitted.

الفجر فجران فجر يحرم الطعام وتحل فيه الصلاة ، وفجر تحرم فيه الصلاة أي صلاة الصبح ، ويحل فيه الطعام

Bulugh al-Maram 2:21

It was narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah and al-Hakim, and they graded it as authentic" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) divided the dawn into two categories in this hadith in terms of the ruling. He mentioned that they are two categories: For whom? For the one who is fasting. That is: the Fajr prayer. Meaning, for the one who is fasting. These two dawns differ in the legal ruling and they differ in the natural ruling, meaning in terms of perception and in terms of the law. The difference between them in terms of perception is mentioned in the hadith that follows.
Al-Hakim has a similar report from the hadith of Jabir, in which he added regarding the one in which food is forbidden: And in the other: meaning the wolf.
The dawn in which food is forbidden, which is the true dawn, stretches out horizontally across the horizon, meaning from north to south. And the second one: stretches out horizontally across the horizon. Yes, the other one, which also extends from east to west. Do you understand the difference now? The true dawn, in which prayer becomes permissible and food is forbidden, stretches from north to south. The second one is the opposite; it is from east to west. This is a clear difference. The second difference is that the true dawn has no darkness after it; rather, the light increases until it covers the entire horizon. As for the second one, it becomes dark after that; it becomes dark after this and then disappears. These are two differences. The third difference is that the light of the true dawn is connected to the horizon, while the light of the second one is not connected. This means that if you look at the bottom of the horizon, you will not see light; you will not see light. Which one is this? The false one. So these are three differences. Our Shaykh, 'Abd al-Rahman (may Allah have mercy on him), said: The difference between them is about half an hour. Meaning that the false one appears before the true one by about half an hour, and then it fades away. So the difference between them from the natural perspective, meaning the natural, predestined ruling, is in three aspects: First, the true one extends from south to north, and the other is the opposite. The true one has no darkness after it, while the second one becomes dark after it. The light of the true one is connected to the horizon, and this one is disconnected. As for the legal perspective, the legal ruling is that in the true one, prayer becomes permissible and food is forbidden, meaning for the one who is fasting. As for the false one, food becomes permissible in it and prayer is forbidden in it.