A discussion regarding the error in the prayer times adopted in the mosques.

The Shaykh : You, Sami, regarding what you conveyed about Abu Malik.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : And according to what you understood from him.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : What is your answer to the following question regarding Abu Malik’s opinion? How much time is there between the Shari’ah time of Maghrib and the Shari’ah time of Isha?
The student : Approximately, according to him, it is eight o’clock minus a third.

The Shaykh : What?
The student : The Shari’ah time of Maghrib is eight o’clock minus a third.

The Shaykh: May Allah guide you.
The student : The difference is one hour.
Another student: Approximately, it is about three-quarters of an hour.

The Shaykh : Three-quarters of an hour.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : And the fifty-five minutes, what are those?
The student : That is the addition.

The Shaykh : The addition, may Allah guide you. No one understands it as an addition, but what is not understood is what they are? That is, is it correct to combine them and say: three-quarters means forty-five minutes, is that not so?
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, and fifty-five, what is the total of these? Almost two hours, what are these?
The student : Ninety and fifty-five.

The Shaykh : I am asking you what?
The student : One hundred minutes.

The Shaykh : I do not want a precise calculation, I am telling you approximately two hours, two hours minus a quarter, what are these?
The student : Okay, meaning two hours, what is intended, excuse me? Two hours between Maghrib and Isha.

The Shaykh : Does Abu Malik say that?
The student : Yes, by mistake, that is what he says.

The Shaykh : Strange. Abu Malik says two hours minus a quarter between Maghrib and the Isha that they perform?
The student : Yes. Does this difference vary from summer to winter? He said: No, it is fixed, it varies slightly by minutes, and one of the brothers asked him: Does it also vary from one region to another? He said: No, it is fixed, also a few minutes, meaning something negligible. Based on the fact that I used to hear from you long ago that in summer the difference between Maghrib and Isha, meaning Isha is delayed from its time by three-quarters of an hour, one of the sisters asked you once on the telephone what is the final time for Maghrib? You told her three-quarters of an hour before Isha, this was in summer, and you said in winter it is half an hour, meaning twenty-five minutes, half an hour in winter, this is according to what I know from you, in winter twenty-five minutes, and in summer three-quarters of an hour. As for the Shaykh, he says fifty-five minutes absolutely in summer and winter and from one region to another.

The Shaykh : Meaning your words are different from what was there at the farm, now you say between Maghrib and Isha is fifty-five minutes.
The student : This is an additional matter, my Shaykh, the extra time, meaning, the extra time is not between Maghrib and Isha, the extra time is fifty-five minutes, itself.

The Shaykh : Extra to what?
The student : Extra after the twilight, after the disappearance of the twilight.

The Shaykh : Okay, did he observe the twilight until its end?
The student : Yes, he observed, and concluded the matter and so on.

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you, without much talk, take and give.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : Since he observed the twilight, when did the twilight set?
The student : The twilight set, meaning on those days, at eight o’clock and a third.

The Shaykh : And how much was there between Maghrib and the setting of the twilight?
The student : I told you at the beginning, three-quarters of an hour.

The Shaykh : Three-quarters of an hour?
The student : And if this was not calculated precisely, meaning, I approximated it. I did not calculate it precisely, but the second one, by the minute, I calculated fifty-five, but this first one is approximately, meaning, I did not calculate it by the minute.

The Shaykh : This talk is impossible. The twilight is fifty-five.
The student : This is our talk, fifty-five until the adhan.

The Shaykh : ... This talk is correct.
The student : Fifty-five until the adhan.
Another student: The correct thing, my Shaykh, as we said previously, is that the intended statement is that the time between the Shari’ah adhan for Maghrib and the entry of the Shari’ah time for Isha is fifty-five minutes.

The Shaykh : That is it.
The student : He says otherwise.
Another student: He made a verbal error.

The Shaykh : ... Abu Abdullah, he is returning to confirm it, it is not a verbal error.
The student : The sentence, simply put, the time after the setting of the twilight to the actual adhan is fifty-five minutes.

The Shaykh : He is returning to confirm.
The student : What is the error here?
Another student: The setting of the twilight is before the actual adhan.
Another student: Before it by fifty-five minutes.
Another student: Before it by fifty-five minutes?!
Another student: Yes.
Another student: Okay, the whole time is one hour and a quarter between the adhan.
Another student: Meaning a third of an hour.
Another student: The time for Maghrib becomes a third of an hour only, my Shaykh.
Another student: Meaning, my Shaykh, Abu Malik’s words, in what is conveyed, are less than yours, meaning he says: It is permissible for a Muslim to pray Isha a third of an hour after the adhan of Maghrib, this is the meaning of the words, this is the last thing we understood now.
Another student: And this is incorrect.

The Shaykh : I do not think this is established.
The student : This is incorrect, this is not possible.

The Shaykh : Okay, is Abu Malik’s talk recorded with you?
The student : Yes, it is recorded. A complete tape.

The Shaykh : We will listen to it.
The student : Let us go, if Allah wills.
Another student: With you?
Another student: Ah, it is at home.

The Shaykh : Is it in your pocket?
The student : No, it is at home.
Another student: What is the source of the current timing adoption?

The Shaykh : How?
The student : The adoption of the current timing for the adhan.

The Shaykh : Astronomy.
The student : Astronomy, and is this the cause of the error?

The Shaykh : Yes. Astronomy, Professor, takes the level of the horizontal line of the sea, it does not take the difference in elevations, valleys, and mountains, and so on, and then it gives you a timing, for example, for Amman, okay, Amman is on the mountain for me, and for you at the Great Mosque, there is a very big difference, meaning when the Fajr appears for me, the Fajr has not appeared here below, this is a certain matter, meaning without a person seeing it, when the sun rises from the top of the mountain to the top of a mountain that is seen from the second peak before the people of the valley see it, this observation is in all the calendars, this is a calamity of the age, here in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait, in Morocco, all of them are like this.
The student : Riyadh will indicate the same word at the same time.

The Shaykh : ... At the same time.
The student : My Shaykh, now it caught my attention, it is a bulletin they issue monthly for the timing.

The Shaykh: How?
The student : A monthly bulletin they issue for the timing.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : Meaning they intend with this precision in addition, so what do they write in it?

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : They said: This bulletin is for Greater Amman and its surroundings. Greater Amman, my Shaykh, now extends to Na’our, it extends to, meaning, the outskirts of Mada’ib.

The Shaykh : ... Na’our, let us leave it once in Ramadan at Na’our, we went down to pray Maghrib, Maghrib is broadcast from here in Na’our, so the loudspeaker is on the minaret calling the adhan for Maghrib, and the sun in front of us had not set, so this is a thing ... .
The student : This is a big error, but my Shaykh, regarding the assumption that it was an error, for example, the adhan for Fajr as happened in some mosques, and this talk was conveyed but I do not know its truth, that they were praying Fajr before the adhan, so a group of young men and people came out of the prayer and started eating in front of them and saying your prayer is incorrect and you must repeat the prayer, and they caused a great fitnah.

The Shaykh : This, my brother, enters into the subject of politics in da’wah, this is a second thing, this is a second thing, but the issue that they are now here praying before Fajr, this was a reality a few years ago, but because of the spread of da’wah now, you noticed, Abu Abdullah.
The student : Yes, my Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Now, previously they used to call the adhan with the appearance of the true Fajr, excuse me, they used to establish the prayer with the appearance of the true Fajr, now they delay it a little.
The student : Noted.

The Shaykh : Yes?
The student : Noted.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : And we see the Fajr while we are coming down.

The Shaykh : It means that there is progress.
The student : There is a lot of improvement.

The Shaykh : At first, they were certainly praying before the appearance of the Fajr, then there were some discussions here, something official, something popular as they say, and so on, so they became a bit cautious, but they were certainly praying the sunnah before the time, then they would establish the prayer at the time of the appearance of the Fajr, this is regarding us up here, but regarding down there, the Fajr is still to appear after a quarter of an hour.
The student : Meaning the Al-Husayni Mosque, my Shaykh, a third of an hour after the adhan, the prayer is established.

The Shaykh : That is the problem.
The student : The Fajr is still not up for them.

The Shaykh : I stopped praying in the Prophet’s Mosque in the city, because they call the adhan a third of an hour before the appearance of the true Fajr, and I observed it myself.
The student : This is an error, meaning a grave error.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : The departments, institutions, and scholars bear responsibility for it.