Is My Fast Valid If I Was Eating and the Masjid Offered the Call to Prayer before Time?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

I was eating Sehri/suhoor and heard a faint sound from outside. I checked my phone, and since there were still nine minutes left until fajr, I continued eating according to the calendar (3:58 am). Then I went outside and heard the sound of one Azaan. I got confused and stopped eating. Then 9 mins later, I went outside to check whether there were any Azaans according to the Azaan calendar. (at 3 59 am) I heard several Azaans going off at once.

So can I dismiss the first Azaan as being before fajr? Since most mosques have Azaan according to the calendar, is the first early Azan worth worrying over? Is my fast valid?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Your fast is valid; as long as you did not eat after the scheduled Fajr prayer time, according to your calendar, your fast is valid.

The call to prayer (adhan) is supposed to inform people of the prayer time and when it enters.

However, for multiple reasons, some mosques wrongfully call the adhan early. This is problematic, and the adhan must be repeated in such a case. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Summary

Pick a prayer calendar that you find consistent with most of the mosques in your area, or follow the prayer time charts made by those mosques. With this, you can be assured that your prayers and fasts are valid.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.