Do you start the fast at the beginning of Fajr

psyah · August 3, 2011, 4:35pm

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

Im finding this confusing too…so Im in UK…

so looking at two diff websites for slough it says the following:
1st website:
Fajr is at 4.14 and sunrise is at 5.28..So does this mean you have to stop eating 30 mins before fajr? I would think u can eat up until like 4.12

2nd website:
First light of dawn is at 2.40 and sunrise is at 5.25-This seems completely wrong to me coz its not bright at that time!!

My husband says that you can eat up until the light of sunrise…in the old days people used to eat about 30 mins before fajr time because they used to go mosque to pray and so by the time they would come back fajr time would be over…Allah paak only knows if thats true or not…but thats what hes heard..

Its so confusing…!!

It should be pretty simple to follow but I think everyone just ends up confusing each other…so like the radio and TV say fast starts at like 3:38…who to follow? I think local mosque has some crazy time of 3:15…which sounds wrong coz its 1hr before fajr time??

Thanks in advance

Peace TabuB

I’ll explain this for you in the best way I can … from the way you posted I can see where the problems are …

Imsak = First Light - Also called the “False Dawn” - white thread of dawn - light goes vertically upwards
Subh Saadiq = “True Dawn” - light spills over the horizon …
TulootuShams or Ashrooq’ = “Sunrise”

Now Fajr Starts at Subh Saadiq - however people disagree about when Subh Saadiq happens relative to the position of the sun … some say 15 degrees below … but I don’t agree with this … it is more like 17 degrees below …

Imsak happens before Subh Saadiq and some say this happens at 17.5 degrees and this generally true but to exact it is 17.8 degrees below …

Because of one hadith which says that Sahur ends when Fajr starts some people say that Subh Saadiq is also when we stop eating … but other hadith and scholars say otherwise - they say that Sahur is related to a time earlier … which is at False Dawn - Or Imsak … Generally the observation from first light to second light takes normally between 5 - 15 minutes … (but only if you consider second light to be 17 degrees and not 15 degrees)

Some translations are saying “the light of sunrise” - this is a mistranslation - it should be “the light of dawn” sunrise is when the sun is already above the horizon … and fajr is qaza already at sunrise. So how can we be allowed to eat during fajr time until sunrise?

Further problems are raised when Subh Saadiq never happens or due to the longer days the sun takes longer to come up and hence the time difference between Subh Saadiq and Imsak will also be more pronounced …