The Time of Fajr Prayer
«عن زيد بن ثابت رضي الله عنه: أنهم تسحروا مع النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم ثم قاموا إلى الصلوة، قلت: كم بينهما؟ قال: قدر خمسين أو ستين، يعني آية»
Zayd ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that they ate the pre-dawn meal (suhur) with the Prophet ﷺ, and then they stood up for the prayer. I (Qatadah, the Tabi’i) asked him (Anas, may Allah be pleased with him): How much time was there between the suhur and the prayer? He said: About the time it takes to recite fifty or sixty verses.
Benefits:
(1) This hadith shows that the Fajr prayer should be performed early and while it is still dark.
In the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) it is written: We (women) used to pray Fajr with the Prophet ﷺ, and when the prayer ended we would return to our homes, and in the darkness no one could recognise us, the women of the believers.
(2) Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him)
and Umar (may Allah be pleased with him)
held the view of praying Fajr in the dark.
(3) In the narration of Tirmidhi where it is said: اسفروا بالفجر فإنه أعظم للأجر Pray Fajr at Isfar (when the light begins to appear), for in it there is great reward.
This is abrogated by the hadith which states that the Prophet ﷺ continued to pray Fajr in the dark until his death.
«كانت صلوته بعد ذلك التغليس حتى مات ولم يعد إلى أن يسفر»
Then the Prophet ﷺ’s prayer (of Fajr) remained in the darkness until his death, and after that day he never prayed in the light.
It has been declared authentic (sahih) by Ibn Khuzaymah
, Ibn Hibban
, al-Hakim
and al-Khattabi. The hadith of Usamah ibn Zayd al-Laythi is of hasan level.
etc., meaning that Usamah mentioned is a narrator of hasan al-hadith.
(4) In our region, the Deobandi brothers pray the morning prayer in Ramadan in very deep darkness, and in the other months they pray with plenty of light. It is not known which principle or subsidiary ruling of jurisprudence they rely on for this distinction. Since there is sleep after suhur, they perform the obligatory prayer early; they do not do this out of a desire to follow the Sunnah, because Allah does not grant the ability to follow the Sunnah of His beloved Messenger Muhammad ﷺ to an innovator.
