Do you start the fast at the beginning of Fajr

[psyah]

Re: Do you start the fast at the beginning of Fajr

@Sahar02

I got a little more info on this: Apparently the thought is that in the ME and other Muslim countries, life caters to those fasting, and people are aware of the struggles and accommodate. In the West that is not the case, and so some scholars have developed an amended version. They pick one place to follow, and use the sunrise time rather than the fajr time.

I haven’t seen any actual writing on this.

Peace Sahar02

I don’t know a single establishment, country or otherwise that do sahur at sunrise there is some sort of mistake that people are propagating …

There are a number of methods for determining fajr start time - note - FAJR start time - when the shari’ (phenomenon of first light) does not exist … i.e. when the sun does not decline below 18 degrees from Maghrib through to sunrise … in such case neither 'isha nor fajr are “real” but they need to be “calculated” … the methods acceptable are:

Aqrab-al-balad - nearest city where the phenomenon does occur
Thulth-ul-layl - Night in three parts
Saba-ul-layl - night in seven parts
And The last real time - the Arabic name for this I have forgotten …

Without going in to any details here … there is difference of opinion on ‘isha start and difference of opinion on fajr start … however there is NO DIFFERENCE of opinion of fasting start … which is supposed to be done before Fajr and as a result there is no dispensation allowed for it … so where the shari’ start of fajr does not exist then we are obliged to used to strictest interpretation for fasting start … which is the last recorded real time … Say on May 20th through to July 10th the sun never goes below 18 degrees then regardless of the different views that 'isha starts on shafq ul ahmer or shafq ul abyad the fact that sayam starts before the white thread which is unanimously taken as 18 degrees then May 20th through to 10th July has to be done without calculation based on the last observed real time … until a point afterwards when the real time starts to occur again …

So as in this case the fasting period is in August the days for some latitudes are very long and even though there may be dispensation allowed for prayer there is not the same level allowed for sayam (roza) start.

Now … when it comes to sunrise I have no idea who has issued this permission but it surely is not from the consensus of the scholars … and I don’t even know who is actually doing this anyway. That I feel you need to ask the ones who are doing it this way to justify.