Darul-uloom Karachi

Assala­mualaikum Wa Rah­mat­ul­lahi Wa Barakatuh

In the moment the times of Subh Sadiq in Lon­don have become a dif­fi­cult issue. Before there were two Eids in one house; now we are observ­ing two dif­fer­ent suhoor times in one house. One per­son is per­form­ing his Fajr Salah whilst the oth­er broth­er is eat­ing his suhoor. (pre-fast meal).

The real­i­ty is that from the 22nd May till the 21st of July there is no night. ( night in Shari­ah terms). Mean­ing that the sun does not go 18 degrees below the hori­zon. We got away with Taha­jjud, as it was option­al. But fast are oblig­a­tory and cau­tion is most nec­es­sary. At the moment we have two timetables:

1. One is the Aqrab ul Ayyam (near­est day), mean­ing, the last time Subh Sadiq occurred which was on the 22nd May, is con­tin­ued for two months. The time was 1:17 AM.
2. The sec­ond timetable is the one in which for the sake of ease 3:15AM has been fixed. (The Hizb ul Ula­ma timetable subh sadiq time)

There are many peo­ple that say that lets keep subh sadiq accord­ing to the one sev­enth method. That would be about one hour three min­utes before sun­rise. The prob­lem here is that it becomes too bright. If on the above men­tioned issue Mufti Taqi Uth­mani has issued a fat­wa in the past can you please send it to me, or can you issue a new fat­wa which we could imple­ment with ease and our fast would not be ruined or spoilt. This year has passed, atleast in the fol­low­ing year we could act upon it in unison.

Yours Obe­di­ent
Asif Khan
Balham
London

Response:

As-salā­mu ‘alaykum wa-rah­mat­ul­lāhi wa-barakātuh

Lon­don is locat­ed at a posi­tion where it expe­ri­ences abnor­mal con­di­tions. In sum­mer time there are days in which the sun does not go 18 degrees below the hori­zon. If Ramad­han occurs in these days then the end­ing of Suhoor time will be cal­cu­lat­ed, and there are three meth­ods for this cal­cu­la­tion as men­tioned below:

1. Aqrab­ul Ayyam (near­est day): Mean­ing the last day Subh Sadiq occured when the sun went 18 degrees below the hori­zon, use that time for all the days that the Subh Sadiq does not occur. As men­tioned (in the timetable sub­mit­ted) 1:17 AM.
2. Aqrab­ul Bilaad ( near­est city): Use the Subh Sadiq times of that place near­est to you, where con­di­tions are nor­mal. What­ev­er time the sun went 18 degrees below the hori­zon at that place, use that time at those loca­tions where con­di­tions are abnor­mal. The coun­tries that are locat­ed on 48.5 degrees lat­i­tude are those coun­tries where the con­di­tions are nor­mal. The times of Subh Sadiq and Isha of these coun­tries can be made a stan­dard for coun­tries which expe­ri­ence abnor­mal con­di­tions. The time of Subh Sadiq which is when the sun goes 18 degrees below the hori­zon in the coun­tries locat­ed on 48.5 degrees lat­i­tude is 2:36 AM. The Suhoor could be end­ed on this time in London.
3. Nisf ul Lail (half of night): In this method the whole night (mean­ing the time between sun­set and sun­rise) will be divid­ed into two parts. The first part is for Maghrib and Isha ( fur­ther divide this part into two, one part for Maghrib whilst the oth­er part is for Isha) and the sec­ond part is for Fajr. Hence as soon as the sec­ond part starts the time of suhoor will end.

Prac­ti­cal­ly Aqrab­ul Ayyam (near­est day) and Nisf ul Lail (half of night) will work out near enough the same.

There will be no major difference.

One may act upon any three of these methods.

Apart from this, those that give an opin­ion of the one sev­enth method, this method is not for coun­tries locat­ed at a posi­tion where they expe­ri­ence abnor­mal con­di­tions. This method was devised by Hadhrat Thanvi RA for some loca­tions in India. Which always expe­ri­ences nor­mal con­di­tions. This method is cor­rect there. Not at places which expe­ri­ence abnor­mal con­di­tions, so do not act upon this method.

Attached with the ques­tion is a timetable of Bal­ham Masjid ( based on 18 degrees) this is in accor­dance with Aqrab­ul Ayyam (near­est day). The oth­er times on this table are also cor­rect. where­as the timetable pub­lished by ‘AL MUNTADA AL ISLAMI TRUST’ (Subh Sadiq times sup­plied by HIZB UL ULAMA UK) is NOT CORRECT. The times of Subh Sadiq is NOT CORRECT in it. Nei­ther is the time of sun­rise cor­rect. Hence DO NOT ACT UPON THIS TIMETABLE.

And Allah knows best
(Mufti) Sayed Hus­sain Ahmad
Darul Ifta, Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi
24th of Muhar­ram 1434 hijri
9th Decem­ber 2012
The answer is correct
(Mufti) Mah­mood Ashraf
27/01/1434 AH

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