Yasir Qadhi – Q&A How do we calculate when Sahoor ends
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah who Allah Allah He was happy woman with a hammer, but I welcome you to another episode of our regular q&a and today inshallah we'll jump straight in our first question from Brother a nuke from the Netherlands he asks about in the month of Ramadan, the timings of Soho, and he says he is confused because he has heard a lot of this controversy about the angle some say 14 degrees, some 15, some 18. And to add to this sister Manisa, from the Emirates asks that in her prayer app, she has the option of choosing multiple timings for Fajr. And for Aisha, she mentioned there's the honorable Cora timing
the Muslim League timing isn't a timing the Islam about timing methods. So which one should you use? And what is this all about? Now, this question is, of course, very relevant to us, because Ramadan is around the corner. And those of us living in western lands are using apps, we have the added confusion and controversy of having different timings depending on which Masjid prints, there might be two messages in the literally same vicinity. But the timings of in soccer or stopping to eat to hold, or maybe 2030 minutes apart and different from one another. And it gets confusing. And to add to this, we can actually calculate different timings based upon the app, the app that I have,
actually, I looked at it today, there's seven different choices, I have the option to choose which angle to put in which group of scholars, you know, has the timings of the hour. So this is actually a very, very interesting question. Where is this controversy coming from? And what should the mostly average Muslim do in order to figure out what time they should stop eating and drinking what time the suhoor ends which is, of course, the beginning time of Fudger now, I'm going to respond in a generic manner and then in an academic manner, the generic manner is as follows. The average Muslim should not be figuring out himself or herself which position they want to follow. Simple as that. If
you're living in a Muslim majority land if you're living in a land of Islam, you follow the timetables that your Islamic affairs ministry that your Mufti provides, and you leave it at that you individually are not going to break away from the GEMA from the congregation of Muslims, and whatever timings that the official ministry announces that the official Mufti of your land announces then stick with the GEMA and indeed, that is where the baraka will lie. And if you are living in a minority land like we are in America or their places, then my advice to you is to follow the masjid that you usually pray at and the masjid that you associate with and the messenger did you pray Juma?
And, and again, don't worry about the academic discussions, this is not something the average Muslim does not go and, you know, sift through the fatwas and choose the fatwa that they think is, you know, the one that they should choose, this is done by those who are qualified in my entire q&a, I try to give you the alternative opinions, in order that if your Hanafi Shafi Malik, whatever you can choose, you can choose that position or if you wish to follow the position that is considered to be or the position that I personally for example, follow that too. For example, if you are following over all the positions, then inshallah that is something that it is up to you. However, what you
cannot do is as we said, Pick and choose every single time a new controversy comes. So if you are following your local Masjid that hamdulillah now suppose you are a part of the board of the masjid and you need to decide which of these positions are you going to follow? Or you're simply a curious listener, you're going to follow your local masjid, but you're a student of knowledge you want to know where is this controversy coming from? Well, in order to answer that, Inshallah, we'll go into a bit more detail. But again, I want to emphasize that this is just information purposes only. It is not meant for you to go against your own group or community or Masjid. Indeed, unity is far more
better than following a fifth position that there is plenty of diversity in and Allah's baraka and Allah's hand is over the GEMA of the Muslims. Now, in this regard, in this regard, we need to say that these differences that we're talking about, they actually don't really matter if you're close to the equator, if you follow the Omo Quran or if you follow the ISNA or if you follow this in reality, if you're close to the equator, these different methods barely affected the timings. However, if you go very much north or south, the closer you are to the two poles, this is where these time changes are manifested. And in some
CTS, for example, even here in North America, if you follow one position, you might have a 40 minute gap or a 50 minute gap. And I know that in some places in England, you might even have an hour and a half gap between the two methodologies. So it does, in fact, become a much bigger issue at the higher up, you go in latitude. And the two timings that we are particularly concerned with are the timings of the beginning of the Fajr, which is the end time of the eating Soho, and the beginning of Asia. And we are more concerned with the beginning of Fudger. Because obviously, that's when we're going to be eating our soul. And the, we need to understand that the beginning of Fudger and also
the beginning of Russia, these two times are not times that can be calculated precisely, rather, they are a generic timeframe depending on the observation of the eye. Allah says in the Quran for Kulu, which caribou had Yatabe and hola como Hayato. OBO men are hytrel SVOD mineral Fajr, eat and drink, until you can discern, differentiate, tell the difference between the white thread of dawn from the black thread of the night. Okay, this is a verse in the Quran, and the prophets has interpreted it that you can see the entire horizon light up in a horizontal thread horizontal white thread, that is the time that the true Dawn begins because there's something called a false dawn.
And the false dawn is when you see the twinkling, when you see some brightness of the sun, but it's not horizontal, it is vertical. And slowly but surely, that vertical becomes more and more until you see that clear horizontal. That is the time when we're supposed to stop our server. And we're allowed to pray Fudger however, that timing is not something that is dependent 100% on the position of the sun, but rather on multiple factors, it depends on the light that is that our eyes are able to catch. And that amount of light is not scientifically predictable via an equation for each and every location on Earth. In fact, it varies from season to season, and place out altitude. If you're
on the top of a mountain, it's not going to be the same. If your city is higher up from sea level, it's not going to be the same as if it is at sea level, it varies depending on geographical barriers, and many other factors. In fact, it even varies on your own perception. And the the the
how powerful your eyes are, you know, so weak eyes, perceptive eyes, all of this is going to be there. And also judgment, there's a judgement when exactly does that full line comp. And to give you an example, let's give you a diagram. Let's move on to our first diagram, I have a number of diagrams to show you. Let's move on to our first diagram here. So you see over here that the sun rises from the east and sets in the west, right? We understand this, the sun rises in the east, from our perspective and sets in the west. And when the sun is rising from the east, when the sun is below the horizon by around 18 degrees or so there is a time known as Twilight. And Twilight means
that the sun is not actually visible, but the rays of the sun are visible to us, okay, so the rays of the sun, they start glowing, and they start showing certain things around us but the sun itself is not visible, then of course the sun rises and it keeps on going all the way down. And then it goes to the west side for us. Obviously, I'm being relatively obviously the sun itself does not you know, go east or west of that it is the earth does that but still, from our perspective, the sun rises in the east sets in the west and when it sets in the west once again the same thing happens as soon as the sun sets. As soon as the sun sets, there is some time that twilight time that we can
still see things and then the Orisha comes when that twilight time finishes. So, we see the beginning of Fudger and the beginning of Russia are essentially the two opposites of the sun rising of the sun setting meaning that when you include the twilights right so not the actual sunrise and sunset, the actual sunrise is the end time of Fajr the actual sunrise is when Fajr ends and we are talking about when Fajr begins which is that that gray area of the Twilight and the sunset is when Margarita begins and then when the Twilight finishes when the reddish Enos of the sky finishes, then Russia begins Okay, now we can move back inshallah. So to make things to make things more complex.
In fact, that area of Twilight is actually not one area where there are actually multiple areas within it. And you also have to consider the fact that every single person when they look at the horizon, they're not necessarily seeing the actual horizon. There are many, many factors that come into play. Sometimes the horizon is obscured by trees.
by buildings by mountains, sometimes you're of course, if you're in the ocean, that is the ideal. If you like horizon, that's really the best horizon that you have over there. But the main point I want to emphasize we saw that Twilight area, in reality that Twilight area can be subdivided into many different categories. And this is what the astronomers have done from the beginning of time, and especially in our times, they have it down to a science. So if you can look at the second slide over here, we can see the actual zones that astronomers have demarcated for the angles of the Sun visa vie the horizon, and we see very clearly that what we call Twilight is actually at least three
different levels or layers, and that is astronomical, Twilight, nautical twilight and civil twilight. And so in reality, there are three different Dawn's from a purely astronomical perspective, there is an astronomical Dawn, there is a nautical dawn, and there is a civil Dawn and the civil twilight, which is of course, the closest to the sunrise and sunset, the civil twilight is when the sun is the light of the sun is still bright enough that we don't actually need any artificial lights. So for walking outside, you know, after we pray, Fudger, and before the sun rises, right, so right before the sun rises, in fact, it is so bright and so beautiful, that really
you don't need any light that is the civil that is the civil twilight. And before that is the Nautical twilight. And the Nautical twilight is defined to be when the geometric center of the Sun is 12 degrees below the horizon in the morning, and it ends when the geometric center is six degrees in the morning. And you can also say that nautical twilight is when the horizon at sea, that's what it's called nautical, on the horizon at sea level is no longer visible and altitudes cannot be determined by referring to the horizon. That's why it's called nautical because it does play a role when you're in the ocean. And then we have astronomical twilight, and astronomical twilight begins,
obviously, after astronomical dawn, when the geometric center of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the morning, and it ends when the geometric center of the Sun is 12 degrees below the horizon and the nighttime so we have here, astronomical, nautical and civil Okay, now what I want you to understand is very, very important here. I hope you guys are paying attention to this to this sign to this diagram in front of us. What I want you to understand is that most of the Islamic apps and many of the FET was from earlier timeframes, which had been replicated to our timeframes, they took the notion of astronomical twilight which is 18 degrees, and they said that is the time for him
sack and they base this primarily on the fact that that is the definition of astronomical twilight. Now we can get back to the lecture who was the diagram is now done. The point here is that the shorter the time of M sack, the shorter II time of not eating and drinking is not related to the astronomical definitions. And in fact it is in between the astronomical twilight, the astronomical Dawn and the nautical dawn, the shorter am sack is not the same as the astronomical Dawn because the shutter am SAC is not defined by the astronomical dawn the shutter em sag is defined by the Quranic verse that you can eat and drink until the white tissue thread is separate from the darkish thread
or the black thread and the versus the white thread meaning the threads of the horizon here and therefore, because the shutter am sock because the timeframe of not eating and drinking is in between those two, you cannot have a precise equation that measures and out because as we said there are many many factors that are involved in demarcating that moment in time and of those factors as we said is altitude of those factors this season it's very interesting to know that sunsets in the summer will have different variations of Twilight and different shades of Twilight then sunset in the winter, as well of the factors that affect the exact timing is the air pollution we call it
there's something called Air dust and air pollution dust particles and what that doesn't is that it makes it difficult for us to once again verify when exactly that whitish thread can be sweet seen and two people standing next to each other can disagree and both of them are trained and both of them are specialists, they can disagree about the exactly the minute that that whitish thread becomes absolutely clearly visible from the darkish thread you cannot predict this depends on too many variables as we said time location season person person's eyesight observation a bit of HD had also in terms of in terms of when it is exactly the straight line.
Because the problem is that the the whitening the the false dawn which occurs basically after 18 degrees, the false dawn, the white Titian is begins and then the true dawn when the white tissue this becomes a very clear thread that is very visible. And the as we said the exact minute that happens it is very, very difficult to to demarcate and we have to also realize somebody can say, Okay, what's the big deal, just stop eating, you know some time before all of this and we say if you're able to do that Alhamdulillah if you're able to give 1520 minutes, you know extra time, that's great, but let's be real here, and especially where in some places the fast might be 18 hours
or something. Not everybody can wake up, you know, two hours before an hour and a half before and every single minute counts as well. What if somebody wakes up late and they have to look at the time and 510 minutes left we really need to know as accurately as possible. And also Dear brothers and sisters, and this is a very important point. It is the part of the sunnah to eat and drink until a little bit before the event. It is a part of the sunnah to do so and there's nothing wrong with eating and drinking until the very Advan. In fact, so much so that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there used to be two more events in Medina. By the way, all of you should know this. There
was Bilal and there was even Omen baktun Radi Allahu Anhu. And beloved would give the event earlier than even among baktun there was some timeframe between the two of them. And even Amin Maktoum was blind and beloved would give the other one. And then after a while, it would only work Tim would give the other one and our Prophet Sall Allahu Allah He was selling them said that in Erbil Island, you have zero belay in in Bilal gives the Advan at night for Kulu wash, caribou Hattah, you are then able to mimic to go ahead and eat and drink until even a mimic tone gives the advantage. And the difference between the two was only a few minutes, according to some reports. And according to
others, sometimes you wait longer and because even Ahmed Maktoum was blind, he would rely on somebody else to alert him that they could see the visible whiteness and sometimes he would be late and people would say hey, there's white, there's whiteness that I can see the dawn and so he would then give the other than So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam explicitly said Go ahead and eat and drink even after the dawn of Bilal, because Bilal is doing too early and Ibn Al Maktoum is doing it closer to the time and this shows us that Allah wants ease for us and Allah wants to make things not difficult for us and therefore there is nothing wrong with figuring out basically as as
accurately as we can when the exact time when the stock time is and we then eat you know yes give when one or two minutes gap or five minutes gap no problem is good if you do that, but in case you're not able to then go ahead and eat until that time so much so our prophets Allah Allahu Allah he was sending him said that if the glass of water isn't one of your hands
had the water had to drink it if the glass of water is in one of your hands and you hear the other then go ahead and take your fill from it before you put it down. Subhanallah that's how beautiful our Sharia is not that you intentionally delayed drinking till you heard the other but what if you are drinking and suppose it's 535 on your calendar and you're like oh my god is 535 Well the water is in your hand it's like if you just take the sip and put it down it's not to eight milli second it's a you know as accurate as you can but don't make Islam more difficult than what the Sharia wants it to be. So based upon this now let us see if we can take a quick look at a video about the
different types of Twilight's that and and understand really what we're talking about astronomical twilight versus civil twilight versus nautical twilight. So let's put the video on okay, this is a video that I found on YouTube and each second is a minute now this is nighttime okay? You don't see any light. Now astronomical trying to look how dark it is. Look how dark it is. This is not the time of Fudger not at all look complete dark but see what's happening. Slowly the light is coming slowly we see it now there's the false on if you look carefully you can see the white tissue bit coming there. Okay you can see a little bit of a background if you like white you see that in there. Aha
now you see you see close slowly it's coming now not typical Twilight begins you see this is now not typical. Then we keep on going every second is a minute look at the time clock nautical twilight still this is nautical twilight. Okay. And then after nautical will be what will be the civil twilight. Look at how bright now the civil is let's wait till the civil and you will see how much it is
still mashella Still in an article here. Now we get to the civil look how bright it is. You don't even need any fake lights. You don't need any this is still the sun has not risen and it is civil twilight here. Okay, this is now the sun is
is within 12 degrees and is still coming until finally when the sun actually I will see the sun you will see the tip of the sun when the sun actually hits there that is when the actual there you see that colors Bismillah Tabata kala then the Fajr time finishes that is the actual dawn. Okay, so we can now come back over here now, I hope you understood from this video this video is very very, very clear to your brothers and sisters. And by the way this is on YouTube, you can Google it it's a very high definition somebody did it amateur while it looks very professional Mashallah. But it's just one of our some somebody put it put it online, and it's a very good video that demonstrates the
reality of what astronomical Dawn is. And again, I reiterate astronomical dawn for our eyes is pitch black, pitch black, there is no actual federal solder you cannot see it at astronomical dawn, and many of our
earlier rule AMA, they gave the 18 degrees for to a based on their own original calculations and other ulama objected to that. And we're going to come to this point here that it is true that a lot of of earlier councils did consider 18 degrees to be the time for Fudger and one of the Muslim astronomer historians by the name of Mohammad Ilyas, he has a book called astronomy of Islamic times for the 21st century. And in this book, he says that 18 degrees was a commonly used value for Fajr and Russia in the medieval period. And it was based on careful observation, okay, and quote, valid point and I agree in my own I've done quite a lot of research in this regard. Yes, a lot of earlier
astronomers of the Muslim community did say 18 degrees. However, 18 degrees when they're talking about is not necessarily the timing of insock. It is the timing of astronomical Dawn and astronomical Dawn is not the same as him sack and a number of early authorities pointed this out, including the famous polymath a Buddha Han and Biruni who died 1048 By the way, I have an entire lecture on beone if you log on to my YouTube channel, you can listen to the POLYMATH al Biruni one of the greatest minds of the OMA and I have an entire hour lecture about his life and times and but you're only mentioned that 15 degrees is the Islamic Twilight he from he mentioned the 15 degrees.
Another early astronomer, Al jazz meanie who died 1344 also mentions 15 degrees and l Bergeon. D who died. 1528 also said that 15 is a better calculation for the M sack. So we do have other scholars from earlier timeframes mentioning that, hey, 18 isn't the exact time m sock is actually after this point. And they suggested the degrees of 15. And also, by the way, again, they're very the way that they calculated and the exactly what they're calculating a number of modern Muslim astronomer historians and and scientists have pointed out that there is actually a very a number of variables from our calculations to theirs. So we should take their numbers with a bit of a grain of salt. Now,
in our times, throughout the world groups of scholars, when I say scholars here, I mean, both through lemma, and astronomers have visually observed the timings of the sack the timings of the sunrise and sunset. And generally speaking across the globe, the number 18 has not been verified. So by visual sightings, the default is that it is not a team, it is less than a team and one of the scholars of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by name of Sheikh Abdul Aziz al Fosun, who is one of my mentors and teachers may Allah free him from prison, that he did a survey an extensive survey with a team of observers, and he went out to the deserts of rehab. And he concluded that the actual Fajr
begins at begins at 15 degrees 15 degrees. Also, a decade ago, a number of Jordanian scientists, most of them were actually astronomers trained in astronomy and wanted to throw them out. They went out into the Judean desert outside of Amman, and they published their findings, you can find it online. And they documented that again. In their opinion. 15 degrees was a better angle for him sack in 1983, a group of Roma from the UK they documented their findings for a number of months and I have a copy of that book. And throughout the year, they documented it. And it varied from 12 degrees to 16 degrees throughout the year depending on the season from 12 degrees to 16 degrees. And
similarly in 1988. Another group from the UK called Hizbollah map they published a report and again this is published you can find this and I have a copy of it as well that they performed daily observations throughout the entire year. And once again, their number
fluctuated beginning from 12 degrees at some times of the year. 12 degrees. By the way, England is of course higher than us in America, right in terms of latitude. And that's why, as I said, one number cannot be used globally, it doesn't make sense one number cannot be used globally. And to just stick with 18. Actually, it doesn't even make astronomical sense. But in any case, they documented that from season to season, it varied and they went from 12. And yes, during some seasons, it went up to 18. Here in America, Moon sighting.com is one of the premier websites that collects data from around the the country and different observers in America and in Canada have put
in their their observations to the the group of scientists that are these are all Muslim [email protected]. And they have calculated that for North America, generally speaking, the angle for Fajr is 14.8 to 17.2. This is the general for North America. And for Asia, they said 11 to 17. Throughout the season, it varies as well, me personally, I have a number of trusted friends and colleagues of mine, who, in the deserts of California, they they spent an entire month before Fajr going out, and three or four people would stand in a line. And they would write observations without talking to one another, so that they can then compare later on. And they would independently record
when they saw the actual future of solder. And generally speaking, the average was once again 15 degrees plus or minus 1.5 degrees. So you know, the average amongst them was closer to 15, than it was to 18. And so based upon all of these variables and all of these issues that I mentioned, the fifth Council of North America, which in your app is called ISNA, actually isn't simply follows the fifth Council on North America, and the third Council North America is the oldest Council the fifth are based in North America. And it hamdulillah I'm one of the current members, one of the younger members actually there for senior scholars to me, Dr. Muslim is deeply Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Dr.
Xena, Bologna, many people are there, Sheikh Mustafa Omar is there, and others of the people of knowledge are there. So the field counselor, North America, based on all of these factors that I have explained in the previous 2030 minutes, they have said that for North America, this is not a global fatwa for North America, meaning USA and Canada, an average of 15 degrees is acceptable, right? This is acceptable, an average of 15 degrees is acceptable. And therefore the opposite you have if you put in a snap, you're gonna get 15 degrees. And if you put an Omokoroa, you will get 18 If you put it another I don't want to mention, but I forgot which one but one of them is like 13
degrees, for example. So depending on which of the names that you put in, because there are some councils around the globe, one council in Europe recommended around 13 degrees, for example. And that's fine, maybe for Europe, because we're going to come to this point in the second question today that Europe is a different scenario. And Northern Europe is a different scenario than South Africa, for example, right? You cannot use the same number across the entire globe. And therefore based on all of this, we conclude as follows that dear brother or sister who is watching, this was for information purposes only. In the end, you will follow your community, your government, if it's
a Muslim government, you are Mufti follow the people of your town or your locality. However, if it so happens that you do not have a unified land of Muslims that you're in, and your own, besides that have different and so one mestu, to the right of you has this, the other much to the left of you has that and you are completely, you know, confused what to do, you should just simply be aware that the fifth Council of North America has recommended 15 degrees as a good average. And if you put that into your app, and again, this is only for North America, each of the lands that is especially extremely north or extremely South closer to the the north or south pole, they should ask their
local scholars about which degree fits best. And I do know that as I said, in some lands of Europe, there are some councils that have gone less than 15. Because again, so if you go a higher number you're going down. So a higher number means that is going to be earlier. So an 18 degree 18 degrees versus a 15 degrees might be a difference here in America. I'm in the state of Texas, and in Texas. The two charts between 18 and 15 typically are 20 minutes, 20 minutes, that's it? 15 minutes sometimes, okay, so 15 minutes, 20 minutes, it's not that big of a difference. However, if you were to go to Northern parts, let's say of even Canada, right, you go to some of those small places,
Edmonton or one of those, you know, places up there and in Canada, you might actually get a difference of an hour
or 50 minutes between 18 degrees versus 15 degrees. And then in Europe, you might even get a completely different reality altogether. So in the end of the day, I hope that inshallah this explains to you why there is a difference of opinion and that there is no scientific equation, there is a vague estimation about which degree of angle should be used when the sun is below the horizon. And for North America, the field Council of North America recommends 15 degrees to be a reasonable estimate for the entire portion of the world that we live in. And Allah subhanho wa Taala knows best.
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.
So this question comes to us from the other side of the world from a land far far away. And on a personal anecdote, I 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 in Norway in the city is called Trump's o TR o MSO. So I wanted to visit that 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 where there 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 a masjid mashallah Tabata kala 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, though 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 that there's a month or two which in which there's a little bit of day and night. And then 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 summer time, 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 there there there is 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 were the days of the faster 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 ruler mark for the specifics. I can speak generics and 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
In my opinion, you should listen to the opinion of Omar who lived 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 it because I don't live in your lands. And I want you to follow trained lemma reputable ulama, who live in your lands, if you have an ad 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 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 it 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 call 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 down to the other media hub 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 RollerMouse 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, would we think like 6pm Over here, Twilight, it's not dark, you think like it's muddy, we're a little bit after Muhammad, right? Well, after Mocha, but it's not gonna go full dark over there. So that's far north. So it's the 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 tahajjud 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 odema This is for information purposes. No all of these different factors are there, whichever one you choose Alhamdulillah rhodium are bigger than me have said them and inshallah if you couldn't fail, it's not something that it's not something that inshallah nem 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 subhanho wa Taala follow your community and follow your local rules, 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 aroma. 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 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're 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 physical Islami, which is one of the bodies that I look up to the most, they actually also give the exact same photo that as long as there is actual sunrise and sunset. Well then we're going to 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 Zarco 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 the people can follow MCCA they can follow maca, or they can follow the closest Muslim land where the fast or reasonable and the market 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 is 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 photo of the image Merryfield called Islamic and it is the one that I personally am sympathetic to, but again, don't listen to me. Listen to your local aroma. Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah. And by the way, this fact was also the photo of the director of Saudi Arabia, also my teachers government with me and also just members and others. They also give the same factor 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. Muhammad Hamidullah, a great alum of Hadith and I'm a person who authored many, many books and discovered many treatises, Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah, he had an interesting fatwa 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 you realize in 1520 years when Ramadan 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 false report. By the time it's constantly thorough, like Yes, all right, I'm full. I don't need to eat you know that because that's you're gonna have a full circle, right? And then you're not going to eat in two hours. So chef Hamidullah said, just like the people have to suffer in the winter in the summer time. 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 zero, whenever there's Fudger. 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, great on him and the person who really did a lot for the Muslims of the Ummah should face, more mall, we share facial mall, we have 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 and 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 isn't in
twisting position. Yet another opinion states that they should follow the timings of the sunrise and sunset of 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 factor of the data Lifta of Egypt, which is part of connectivity as a university as well. And the dark rift of Egypt is perhaps the factor 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 this situation now.
And the Doublelift of Egypt, they said that in those northern lands, the people should follow maca. And so the the timing was meaning when I say the timings I mean, how long is the fastest, if it's 14 hours, 15 hours, 13 hours, however long it is, right? Generally, the faster generally around 14 hours are generally in Arabia. So they should look at maca, and the timing of the Ramadan. How many hours is the fast day then start from fidget? Whenever they're going to pray Fajr. And from that, they simply add the timings of Makkah, 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 Mark 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 hair and good in it the most important
thing for duckula Mr. Thorium, you fear 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 co founder 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 and hamdulillah if not Alhamdulillah and there are alternatives that need to be done with that inshallah. Tata I will see you next week until then Salam aleykum rahmatullahi wa barakato shareholder on our wall at
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