My previous fatwa on the issue of prayer times for Isha and fajr times during Summer is in accordance with the decree of the Islamic Fiqh Council. I also believe that if there is a difference between my fatwa and the one issued by the Council then the latter should be endorsed and implemented. Below is a relevant selection of the Council’s decree from the second decree of the 19th assembly in Makkah al-Mukarramah held on 8/11/2007 concerning prayer times for countries situated between latitudes of 48 and 66 degrees North and South.

‘To clarify this decree further in order to answer the specific problematic scenario put forward to the Council, the Council views the previous decree instructing the use of refering (to other regions) for reference, for countries with latitudes between 48 and 66 degrees North and South, to be specifically for the case where astronomical signs for the times are non-existent. As for the case where the signs of prayer times do occur but the disappearance of twilight, indicating the start of Isha, is very late, the Council views it as being obligatory to pray Isha in its legally specified time. However, whoever experiences difficulty in waiting to pray it in its time, like students, office-workers and labourers during the days of their work, they can combine prayers in accordance with the textual evidences relating to the removal of burdens from the Ummah. One example of this is the narration of Ibn ‘Abbas, and others, may Allah be pleased with them, “The Messenger of Allah combined Zhuhr and ‘Asr, and Maghrib and Isha in Madina without (cause of) fear or rain”. Ibn ‘Abbas was questioned about this to which he replied, ‘He wanted to not burden his Ummah’ . The condition for this though is that the practice of combining should not be the norm for all people in that country for this whole duration because this will in effect change the concession of combining into a permanent and intended obligatory action from the onset. The Council also views the adoption of approximating and distributing the times in such a situation all the more (appropriate).‘¹

Click here to read my discussion in full.

___________________________________________________________

Notes:
Source: www.islam21c.com

1.http://www.themwl.org/Bodies/Decisions/default.aspx?d=1&did=288&l=AR

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

---