Does My Fajr Count If I Completed One Rak‘a Before Sunrise?
Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Question
I would like to clarify the validity of my Fajr prayer according to the Shafiʿi school. The published sunrise time was 7:10. I was praying Fajr and completed my first rakʿa, including the second prostration, before my phone reached 7:10. I then completed the remainder of the prayer shortly after 7:10. However, I noticed that the mosque’s clock was approximately 20 seconds ahead of my phone, as I had previously observed when checking the time during Asr. Does my Fajr prayer count as having been performed within its prescribed time (ada) because I completed one full rakʿa before the published sunrise time? Does the fact that the mosque clock was ahead of my phone make any difference?
Summary Answer
Yes. Your Fajr counts as performed in its time, because you finished a full rakʿa, through its second prostration, before sunrise. The mosque clock running ahead doesn’t change this.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate.
In the Shafiʿi school, your Fajr is valid and counts as performed in its time (ada), because you completed a full rakʿa before sunrise.
The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever catches a single rakʿa of the dawn prayer before the sun rises has caught the dawn prayer.” [Bukhari and Muslim] Imam Nawawi (Allah have mercy on him) states that when one rakʿa falls within the time, the whole prayer is ada. [Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin] The rakʿa is complete once you finish its second prostration, which you did. [Ibn Hajar, Tuhfat al-Muhtaj]
The Clocks Don’t Change This
Sunrise is the sun rising, whatever any one clock shows. A mosque clock that runs fast reaches 7:10 before your phone does, so it can only make sunrise seem earlier than it was. And where there’s doubt about whether the time had ended, the time is presumed to remain. [Baghawi, al-Tahdhib] So don’t revisit this prayer.
For the future, start Fajr with enough time to finish it before sunrise. On the sounder view in the school, beginning a prayer when the time left can’t hold it is sinful, even where it still counts as ada. [Ghamrawi, al-Siraj al-Wahhaj]
Allah Most High says, “Keep the prayer faithfully and well at the passing of the sun’s high noon to the black-fall of night; And the recital of dawn; Verily the recital of dawn is attended and witnessed.” [Quran 17:78; Keller, The Quran Beheld]
May Allah make your dawn prayer a light for your day.
And Allah knows best.
Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Related Answers
One. What is Correct Time for Fajr and Sunrise? — Shaykh Irshaad Sedick: When Fajr ends at sunrise, with a window around the sunrise time.
Two. How Can I Reliably Determine the Prayer Times? — Shaykh Irshaad Sedick: How to determine prayer times reliably.
Courses for Further Study
Every course here is free, each has a named teacher, and you can put your questions to the teacher as you study.
One. Essentials of Shafiʿi Law: Hadrami’s Safina al-Najat — Shaykh Irshaad Sedick: The essentials of purification and prayer, prayer times included, from a short Hadrami primer.
Two. Quran: The Fatiha and Short Suras Explained in Depth — Shaykh Faraz Rabbani: The meanings of the suras recited most often, with reflections on living them each day.
النصوص · Source-Texts
[البخاري ومسلم] «من أدرك ركعة من الصبح قبل أن تطلع الشمس فقد أدرك الصبح»
[النووي، منهاج الطالبين] «ومن وقع بعض صلاته في الوقت فالأصح أنه إن وقع ركعة فالجميع أداء وإلا فقضاء»
[ابن حجر الهيتمي، تحفة المحتاج] «وكون الركعة تنتهي بالفراغ من السجدة الثانية إذ ما بعدها ليس منها كما هو واضح من كلامهم»
[البغوي، التهذيب] «بعد الفراغ من الصلاة، فلا إعادة عليه؛ لأن الأصل بقاء الوقت ومضى الصلاة على الصحة»
[الغمراوي، السراج الوهاج] «وإذا شرع فيها والباقي من الوقت لا يسعها فالأصح أنه يحرم عليه ثم إن أدرك ركعة في الوقت سميت أداء وإلا كانت قضاء»
Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan. Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others. He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town. Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town. He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.
