Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
What if a person finishes praying the fard Fajr prayer before the sunrise time that is displayed on timetables on multiple websites or the weather app on the person’s phone? But other schedules on websites and a phone application display the sunrise time at an earlier time, so he didn’t finish praying the fard Fajr prayer before sunrise if looking at those timetables. What should he do in that situation? The person looks at the timetable on the phone application to look at the Fajr start time, but he looks at the sunrise time on the weather app. In such situations, should he assume the prayer is valid, or should he pray a make-up prayer to be cautious?
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
The use of timetables has been recognized and accepted by reliable contemporary scholars.
If at least one reliable timetable informs you that you have prayed on time, you can assume that your Fajr prayer was valid and that you don’t have to repeat it.
Don’t make things difficult for yourself.
The mother of the believer, Aisha (Allah be pleased with her), said:
“Whenever Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings upon him) was given the choice of one of two matters, he would choose the easier of the two, as long as it was not sinful to do so, but if it were sinful to do so, he would not approach it.” [Bukhari]
And Allah knows best.
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.
Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha’ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.
He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.