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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