Question 707

Question

Question and answer [link]

A question from Shaykh Muhammad Atiyyah of Egypt: We are those who became rightly guided and moved from the authority of the Saqifah of Banu Sa‘idah to the authority of the Household (a), and we live in Sunni societies. The issue arose of the true dawn and disagreement concerning its time. What was common among those who became rightly guided was that the true dawn came twenty minutes after the general public’s call to prayer. They were divided into two groups. One group abstained from food and drink shortly before the general public’s call to prayer and prayed twenty minutes after them; by Allah’s favor, my family, I, and the supporters who listened to me were among this group. The other group ate for twenty minutes after their call to prayer and then prayed. Now, after reading question 345 in volume four of The Enlightening Answer, it has become clear that the general public’s dawn call to prayer occurs ninety minutes before sunrise and that this is the true dawn according to the Yamani of the family of Muhammad (a). What is now the religious ruling concerning those who ate after the general public’s call to prayer, believing that the true dawn came twenty minutes after their call, and it then became clear that they had been eating after the true dawn, interpreting it ignorantly or believing so ignorantly?

Source: The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 7; Author: Imam Ahmed Al-Hasan; Question 707; Page Not available; AL-JAWAB-AL-MUNIR-V7-Q707. View Arabic source · Open the original Arabic source ↗

Accepted Answer

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them peace. The question contains an imprecise statement attributed to me, namely, that I say the true dawn is ninety minutes before sunrise. Please read my answer in The Enlightening Answer carefully. I arranged the matter in my answer as follows: ‘Regarding the time of dawn, if it is possible to watch for and recognize it by its sign that I explained in The Laws of Islam, then that is the method. Otherwise, it is when the sun is nineteen degrees below the horizon. If this is not possible, then it is one and a half hours-ninety minutes-before sunrise.’ In general, determining the time of dawn on the basis of the sun’s angle can be achieved easily. There are programs on the internet through which the time of dawn at your location can be known with ease. This is if you are unable to determine the time by watching for it, as I explained in the answer above. The matter of ninety minutes is a general ruling from which one who is compelled to use it benefits, as I explained in the rulings concerning prayer and fasting at and around the pole. As for the question concerning one who earnestly and diligently investigated the time of dawn and did not treat the religious ruling lightly, but ultimately reached an estimated time that later became clear to him to be mistaken, there is no problem with his prayer or fast so long as it and the time for performing it have passed.

Question 707 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 7

Question and answer [link]

Question 707

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

References