How Should Muslims Fast In Regions of Long Sunlight-Darkness? Ask Shaykh YQ #194

Our next question brother, Hola. I'm from Norway emails. And he says that in Norway, the days go exceedingly long and in some parts of Norway the sun does not even set. And so how should fasting be done in those lands in which there is no sunrise or sunset? And they're extremely close to the north or the South Poles

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So this question comes to us from the other side of the world from a land far far away. And on a personal anecdote actually visited Norway. And when I went to Norway, I intentionally took a trip to the northernmost city that had a Masjid at the time. And I heard that after that time, there is a Masjid that is even more north than that and I visited this is 2014 I believe there's a YouTube video just Google my name and Norway in the series called Trump's O TR. O MSO. So I wanted to visit the masjid that is the closest to the North Pole. So I took a trip specifically to go visit that Masjid there's a small masala I gave the hood but they're interacted with there was at least 150

people in the in the masjid over there. So I visited this land and the smallest or the northern most Masjid in the world. Then I found out that a few years ago, a community in a city or village above them also built the masjid, Mashallah to Baraka look where, you know, Islam has spread around the globe. And when I visited Tromso, it was interesting to see that all of the houses their windows, and I lived in one of the brothers houses over there, I spent the night over there, there were their windows have special shutters, that when you press the button, it becomes 100% dark. And I said what is the real need for this. And he said that for most of the year, they either there is perpetual

sunlight, or there is no sunlight whatsoever for four to five months of the year, the sun is up. And then for the next you know, there's a month or two which in which there's a little bit of day and night, and the next four and five months, there is no sun whatsoever. So if you wake up at 2am, the sun will be above you 2am and the sun has not gone up. And in that in that timeframe. In I went in the winter months, so it was a little bit of night, and then most of it was dark. But if you go in the middle of the summer, or in the middle of the winter, it will be full sunlight or full darkness. And if you look at the sun in the summertime, it won't go up and down. It's amazing. The sun will go

round above you. If you look up there. If you look up at one time, it's going to be there and then they're there. They're just going to go around in a circle. That's how the sun rises and sets right. This isn't the northern most This is not in the Capitol in Oslo, but up north in Trump's own other places close to the North Pole. Now our brother is asking what is to be done in those lands where the days of the fast are extremely long, or maybe even no sunrise and sunset. And the response to this. This is a very, very convoluted topic. And there are over 10 opinions on this issue. No exaggeration. And once again, like I explained in my last q&a, for those of you that are watching

the full, if you are watching this a separate clip than the previous q&a was about the degrees of your following. And I said the same thing, then the degrees of fudger. The same thing I said there I will say here, which is all of this q&a for today is for information purposes only. Just for you to know in the end of the day, you will follow your local sheriff, you will follow your local Masjid and community you will follow what your people are doing. This is just for information purposes, for those that are living far away, or if a community or a board member is in charge, and they don't know any better, they can listen to some advice for many people, this is one of the advices they

will listen to. And then they can make an informed decision if they are the ones in charge. Otherwise, the average Muslim simply follows their local authorities. And especially when it comes to these types of culture sensitive issues. I have always said that stick with your local roadmap for the specifics, I can speak generics and then I will speak generics. And I'll give you a number of opinions that are well known in the global community. But in the end of the day, my own personal opinion is that you should not listen to my opinion, you should listen to the opinion of Roma who live amongst you and who understand the dynamics and the pros and cons in a better manner. I don't

live amongst you and therefore, I might have and I do have my own hypothetical, what I consider to be the strongest position but I hesitate to tell you to do

Because I don't live in your lens, and I want you to follow trained through the AMA reputable ulama, who live in your lands, if you have an algorithm in your town or village up north in Norway follow, if not the local communities closest to you, or in Oslo or other places, there are plenty of scholars in Oslo I have met a number of them. So you should go to those of them and find out from them because they understand the situation far better than I do, because they live amongst you. So again, the answer today is for educational purposes, for information purposes is not, I'm not telling you specifically which one you should follow, that is something that is culturally

sensitive. And there are perhaps dynamics are not fully aware of there perhaps issues that I'm not cognizant of, because I'm speaking to you from a nother land. Nonetheless, for information purposes, it's interesting for the rest of us to know this is not a new issue. And in fact, even in the Ottoman times, there was a lot of back and forth because the Ottomans, they conquered what they called the bulk on the bulk Balkan lands. And they knew of these lands where the sun did not rise or did not set and so Ottoman Mufti is in the Hanafi madhhab, they gave some photos here and there, and it trickled out to the other madhhab as well. And so you do find a little bit of discussion.

However, in modern times, obviously, this issue has been discussed a lot more. And many fatwa councils and many rhodium around the globe have a pint on this issue. And so there are a number of opinions on this issue. And of course, before we begin, realize that we're actually talking about multiple scenarios all at once, the first scenario is that there is a sunrise and sunset, but it's very long. So maybe the fast is 19 hours, 20 hours, maybe there's a place in, I believe in Finland, where the sun does rise and set, but the day is 22 hours long, right? So that's a very long time. But there is still sunrise and sunset, then you have areas where the sunrise and sunset is not quite

dark, but it's Twilight. And this for example, even in in Scotland, in places in Scotland, I went to Scotland,

Northern Scotland, to Aberdeen or something. And I remember clearly that, you know, you walk outside at 11pm 11pm. And it's like what we think like 6pm over here, Twilight, it's not dark, you think like it's monitored a little bit after monitored right? Well after monitor, but it's not going to go full dark over there. So that's far north. So it's that the sunrise and sunset, there is sunrise and sunset, but there's no darkness. And that's because you're in that Twilight area, which is the civil or the nautical Twilight, you are not in the astronomical, you don't get beyond that. And then you have the furthest North which is like Tromso, in which the sun does not even set or rise for months

on end. For months, you'll see the sun just go in circles, and you wake up at 3am to pray tahajud and the sun is outside, right. And for six months later, you will wake up at 3pm and it is pitch black, dark. And that's another scenario. So what is to be done in all of these places? I'm just going to summarize the various opinions out there. And then I will conclude by telling you to not listen to me listen to your local or the AMA This is for information purposes. No all of these different factoids are there whichever one you choose Alhamdulillah rhodium are bigger than me have said them and inshallah, if you couldn't hear, it's not something that it's not something that

inshallah name is going to be punished over is a very difficult scenario, very difficult scenario, which one is correct? which one is right? Which one is wrong, inshallah they're all rewarded by Allah subhana wa, tada, follow your community and follow your local real ama, but for information purposes, what what are some of the opinions out there? So, the majority opinion in lands where there is actual sunrise and sunset is that there is simply no other alternative, you must fast according to the sunrise and sunset. And this is the position of the majority of councils and lemma. And they say even if it goes to 2021 22 hours, then that is the fast However, if the fast is

overwhelming to people, if they have difficult labor as jobs, if a sister is pregnant, if if then obviously, the leeway for them is going to be much lower, the burden is much lower than the leeway for us right? The burden to not fast. So if your land has a 20 hour long, fast, and you're expected to work in the fields, that's your job or your difficult situation. You're pregnant lady for example, but if you were maybe in America and it's 13 hours fast, you could do it, but that's like a 20 hour fast you cannot do that. So we say the bar has been lowered. And if you're not able to do it 20 hour fast then you make up in the month that is easier for you after two three months, four

months.

you make it up for the days that you cannot fast but technically if you're able to fast you fast and the default for most average men and women it is possible to fast at 19 hours and this is actually done even as a fad and as a technique for losing weight called intermittent fasting where people will maybe eat one meal a day and it is fine they will live like this it's not it is something that is not harmful to the body once the body becomes accustomed to for many people but not for all so that is the majority position however even in this there are dissenting voices and the measurement of fecal islami which is one of the bodies that i look up to the most they actually also give the

exact same factual that as long as there's actual sunrise and sunset well then we're gonna have to go with sunrise and sunset and even if it's long that will be the fast however what is to be done if it is more north than sunrise and sunset then you don't actually have sunrise and sunset this is where we have a number of opinions

one of the scholars of the last generation sheikh mustafa zatkoff he said that any time the fast is unreasonably long and he didn't define unreasonably long but he said even when there's sunrise and sunset if it's 20 hours or something that in that case he said that people can follow mcca they can follow mcca or they can follow the closest muslim land where the fasts are reasonable and the marfa islami they said that if there is no sunrise and sunset then they should follow the closest land where there are muslims residing where there is sunrise and sunset and that will become their timing so if you're in north norway and there's no sunrise and sunset you will look to south norway oslo

for example oslo generally has sunrise and sunset so you will look to oslo and the timings of oslo or i'm just giving an example the timings of the city where there are muslims and there is sunrise and sunset will become your timings north to that and this is the fact one of the major merrifield islami and it is the one that i personally am sympathetic to but again don't listen to me listen to your local aroma dr mohammed hamidullah by the way this fact was also the photo of the director of saudi arabia also my teacher chefman with me and also chef moonves and others they also give the same photo that the people living in those lands where there is no sunrise and sunset should look to

the closest lands south of them the closest city south of them where there are muslims residing and where fasting is taking place and there is sunrise and sunset and take the timings from them another scholar dr mohammed hamidullah great alum of hadith and a person who authored many many books and discovered many treatises dr mohammed hamidullah he had an interesting photo that in those lands far north or whatnot we should simply take a minimum a maximum and do a cut off beyond that and for reasons beyond the scope of my lecture today he said eight to 16 so eight hours is the minimum fast therefore because you see guys we're talking about the long days do realize in 1520 years when

rumble bond comes in december right literally no exaggeration in some of these lands the fast is going to be two hours okay so you have a full surfboard by the time his concert started like yeah so right i'm full i don't need to eat you know because that's you're gonna have a full circle right and then you're not gonna eat in two hours so sure hamidullah said just like the people have to suffer in the winter in the summertime so then in the winter time we have to do something for them so what did he suggest he suggested you extend the smallest days to at least six hours sorry eight hours eight hours excuse me you extend the smallest days to eight hours and you cut off the longest days

to 16 hours so if the fastest 22 hours you say 16 for them you start at school whenever there's budget and then 16 hours later you call it a day until you get to the eight hours that was his footwork and again he has his his reasons for that another great scholar of the last generation a great acronym and a person who really did a lot for the muslims of the oma chef faisal monavie shia faisal malawi of lebanon he was a very learned author he said that those lands in which the sun sets at least 12 degrees below the horizon ie we're talking about deep nautical twilight in the nautical dawn that they should simply follow the nautical and not the astronomical and so he basically said

use the smallest degree possible and stick with that and that's a position that is an interesting position yet another opinion states that they should follow the timings of the sunrise and sunset have their own locality on the last day that there was an actual sunrise and sunset right and so even in tromso even in that little village up there there is a

sunrise and sunset for a period of the year, then for the bulk of the year, it goes away. The last day there was an actual sunrise and sunset, they should take that and keep it as they're fast until the next sunrise sunset, and then that will be the next, you know, portion over there. And then the final photo I will mention and of course, there's actually more than these. The final factor I will mention is the fact of the dowel Iftar of Egypt, which is part of connectivity as a university as well. And the director of Egypt is perhaps the first word that is most commonly done by many of the Muslim communities up north when I visited Trump. So they told me that this is the fact what they

were using back then this is like seven years ago, I don't know what is the situation now.

And the double lift of Egypt, they said that in those northern lands, the people should follow Mecca. And so the the timing of meaning when I say the timings I mean, how long is the fast of maca, if it's 14 hours, 15 hours, 13 hours, however long it is, right? Generally, the faster are generally around 14 hours right generally in Arabia. So they should look at maca, and the timing of the Ramadan. How many hours is the fast they then start from fidget whenever they're going to prefetcher. And from that, they simply add the timings of maca, 14 and a half hours if it is 14 hours, and then they break over there. So they use that as an arbitrary reference because they said

Mike is the holy city and they have their reasons for doing so. To conclude all of this dear brothers and sisters, I mean, my position already I already explained to that which one I'm sympathetic to. But in the end of the day, I do not advise you to follow me, I advise you to follow your local scholars of your lands who live amongst you, and who understand really the ramifications and the pros and cons of each of these positions and who understand other things that I might not be able to see from my perspective. And at the end of the day, the unity of the Muslims is more important that hamdulillah all of these positions are there, whichever position you follow there is

here and good in it the most important thing for duckula still talk to him, you feel Allah subhana wa tada as much as you can, and your brothers and sisters wherever you are in the world. If the fasting is really not possible for you medically, you will fall sick. a reputable doctor tells you that if you have you know diabetes or something of this nature and you cannot fast for 17 hours, 20 hours, even if it's 12 hours and you're a diabetic and you cannot fast remember you then constitute a sick patient and a sick patient by the explicit text of the Quran. Allah says in the Quran, if you are sick, then don't fast. Don't worry about fasting. If you become cured, make it up. If not, then

you give a cofounder do not make the religion more difficult. Fasting is an obligation for those who are capable of doing it. Therefore, if you're capable of doing it, given your circumstances that hamdulillah if not Alhamdulillah and there are alternatives that need to be done with that inshallah lo data. I will see you next week until then, said Ahmadi Kumara Missoula barakato

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