The Muslim News

July

2014
Issue 24

Some of the Lahore-Ahmadiyya mosques in Suriname

NEWS

The next meeting

will be held in August.
There will be no monthly meeting in July
on account of Ramadan.

part of Maulana Muhammad Ali's comment

on verse 2:187 of the Quran:
Start: 29 June 2014
An important question arises here
regarding countries in which the days are
Communal Iftars
sometimes very long, where it would be
Dates: 5 July 2014
beyond the power of ordinary men to ab12 July 2014
stain from food from the breaking of the
19 July 2014
dawn to sunset. There is a report according
to which the companions of the Prophet
Id: 28 July 2014
are related to have asked him about

Id
Salaat
Zakat is compulsory.
their prayers in a day which extended
Please send the Jamaat
11:00 sharp to a year or a month, and the Prophet
a cheque or use CAF.
is related to have answered that they
If you use CAF please let the
should measure according to the measure
Treasurer know your reference. We
of their days (AD 36:13). From this it
suggest it is best to pay Zakat to the
would follow that in countries where the
Jamaat in the UK.
days are too long the time of fasting may
be measured in accordance with the
Fitrana: 5.00 per person.
length of an ordinary day, or where practicable postpone the fasts to shorter days of
Fasting in Summer
about normal length.
and Winter:
Based on this view of the Maulana, we
a Spiritual Approach
would like to provide the reader with some
The month of Ramadan is approachmore arguments to fast shorter hours in the
ing, and especially in areas with very
case of very long days.
early sunrise and late sunset, the
The first point is the spiritual meaning
fasting hours may be very long.
behind the rituals we perform.
Hence, some Muslims will be unQuran 2:183 tells us that fasting should
willing or physical unable to fast
lead us to greater taqwa (to guard ourselves
such long hours. In this Note we
against evil). The goal of prayer, as well, is
will try to express an alternative
to strengthen our taqwa. Quran 29:45
view on fasting in summer, which
states: Prayer keeps one away from indemay enable these brothers and siscency and evil. Also, in the case of sacrifice,
ters to fast in Ramadan as well.
as 22:37 states, it is not the flesh or blood
First we would like to quote a

Ramadan

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Friday service: 13:00
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Day: Sunday
Time: 10:00 am (BST)
(the physical part) that is most important, but observance of duty. And
several ahadith (traditions from the
Prophet Muhammad) on fasting show
us that our fast is not complete if we
find ourselves in false talk and illicit
conduct during fasting (Bukhari,
Muslim). So, it is not the outer acts
of fasting that are more important,
but the inner part.
The second point is that fasting
and prayer keep us away from indecency and evil. Indecency and evil to
whom? Most likely not to ourselves,
but to others. Therefore, if we should
desist from doing evil to others, our
fasting should cover at least that period in which we are in contact with
other people.
There is a hadith which tells us

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK)

15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ
aaiiLahore@gmail.com

The new mosque in Rotterdam

that the Prophet disliked having

conversations after Isha prayer (late
night prayer) (Maulana Muhammad
Ali, A Manual of Hadith, chapter 9,
hadith 10). This is probably because
the Prophet wanted Isha to be the
last action of the day. The advice to
his followers is not to have conversations (after Isha) to avoid the risk
of getting involved in unnecessary
talk. Isha enables us to make up for
the mistakes of the day just before
going to sleep. So it is our last action after having social contact with
others, and Fajr is our first action
before our social interacting. Between Fajr and Isha are our social
activities, with emphasis on the
time just after Fajr and just before
Maghrib at normal sunrise and
sunset times (the working hours).
Thus, if fasting should keep us
away from committing evil against
others, then there will be no need
to start fasting at 3:00 am (for example), as we will have little or no
social contacts until a few hours
later.
In winter, the situation can be
reversed. Some are not willing to
fast the long hours of summer, but
take the opportunity to fast the very
short hours in winter. We are of the
opinion that in winter the fast
should also cover at least the period
in which we are involved in social
activities, which is most likely between 6:00 am and 7:00 pm (at
least). For example, in December in
Holland one would fast less than 10
hours if calculated from dawn till
sunset, and iftaar (breaking of fast)
would be around 4:30 pm, while
the time for social activities will not
yet have passed (in Europe, social
activities, even work, go on till 6:00
pm in many cases). Therefore, in
this case fasting should be extended
till at least after 6:00 pm.
Furthermore, 2:187 of the

Celebrating 25 years of the Stichting (The Netherlands) Jamaat:

Azhar ud Din Ahmad (speaker); Dr Z. and Mrs F. Aziz (front left table);
Mustaq Ali, Secretary UK Jamaat (front right table at far end) with his
daughter, Adeeba, and wife, Nazra.

Quran gives permission to go to

ones wife in the nights of Ramadan.
This permission will not be valid if
we keep fast in the mid of summer
between dawn and sunset. Allah desires ease and not hardship for us. If
we take fasting between dusk and
dawn literally in summer, we put
hardship on ourselves against Allah's
will (Quran 2:185).
For salaat times as well, it would
be an option to fix these around the
period in which we are involved in
social activities (in case of nonstandard times of sunrise and sunset).
There is, for example, no need to
perform Fajr at 3:00 am and go to
sleep again. Even if sunrise is at 3:00
am, people may consider performing
Fajr between 5:00 and 6:00, just
before starting their social activities.
The same goes for Isha. It can be
performed before going to bed, even
if the sky is not yet dark.
For example, in June, sunset will
be after 10:00 pm in Holland and the
end of twilight will be after midnight. According to a hadith, the
Prophet disliked sleeping before Isha
(A Manual of Hadith, chapter 9, 10).
In our opinion, there is no point in
staying awake till after midnight to
perform Isha and then get up only
four hours later for Fajr. Furthermore, this short period of time does
not leave much space for those who
would like to perform the voluntary
night prayers, tahajjud salaat (in particular these people might not find
spiritual fulfillment in the short summer nights when seeking for the
Lailat al-Qadr, the blessed night in
which the revelation of the Quran
started). In fact, going to sleep after
Maghrib and getting up for Isha after
midnight will give the Isha salaat the
characteristics of tahajjud prayer.
Remember that the main goal of
praying is not to keep certain hours,

Celebrating the centenary

of the Centre of the Lahore
Ahmadiyya Movement

but to stay away from indecency and

evil (Quran 29:45).
These are our opinions, in case
of non-standard times of sunrise and
sunset: to keep fast at least during
the period covering our social activities, with a maximum of 15 hours
and a minimum of 13 hours approximately (15 hours is about the longest
fasting time in Makkah), and to keep
the prayer times around these times
as well. Of course this is only our
opinion, based on Quran and Hadith,
and if one chooses to match his or
her fasting or prayer times according
to sunrise and sunset, one may do so
according to the literal interpretation
of the verses. This note is meant for
those in the first place, who planned
not to fast due to the long hours in
summer, to get them an opportunity
to fulfil their duties in an easier way.
[Source: the IVISEP website at the
following link:
http://ivisep.org/index.php?
option=com_content&view=
article&id=687:summerwinter&catid=25:spiritualnote&Itemid=35]

A Message from Shahid

The month of Ramadan is upon us.
There is in this month a lesson for all
those who love Allah and that is to
give up for His sake the things of this
world that we not only enjoy but on
which our very survival depends.
We fast because the Holy Quran
commands us, but there are in the
Holy Quran many other injunctions
which we need to act upon. The
Promised Messiah encapsulated these
into one sentence: I shall give preference to my religion over my worldly affairs. Ramadan is a time to reflect
upon that, and remember that it is
not enough to do acts of personal
goodness. Islam requires us to carry
out acts of communal good as well,
even when it means that we have to
suffer a personal loss.