Jurisprudence

Fatwās of the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei (d.)

1- Question: Is it true that according to your fatwā concerning true fajr in the bright moonlit nights, one has to wait for a while until the whiteness of the dawn becomes more distinct than that of the moon? If so, how long should we wait and in which nights?
Answer: In the nights when the brightness of moonlight dominates over the first rays of dawn, one must wait, until one becomes certain that fajr light is sighted.

1- Question: Must a person, intending to offer morning prayer in moonlit mornings, wait for fifteen to twenty minutes, though according to the appointed time, dawn has come and there can be certainty that dawn has arrived?
Answer: There is no difference between moonlit nights and other nights as far as determining fajr, beginning time for morning prayer, and the time when a person should stop eating and drinking (during Ramadan nights) for fasting are concerned, though caution is a favorable thing in this case.

2- The particular time for afternoon prayer is the short span preceding maghrib just enough to say afternoon prayer.

2-Question: Does the time of afternoon prayer extend to adhān of maghrib or to sunset?
Answer: It ends at sunset.

3- One can start offering his/her prayer as soon as one gets certain that the prayer time has arrived, or when two just men declare it. But the recitation of adhān is, by obligatory caution, inadequate, no matter how just and reliable the adhān reciter is.

3- In order to commence one’s prayer one must either be certain that prayer time has arrived or rely on the witness of two just men or on the adhān of an adhān reciter who is reliable and knowledgeable about prayer time to verify its arrival.

4- If a person mistakenly starts offering afternoon prayer before noon prayer and while praying realizes that he/she has made a mistake, then if it happens at a time common to both prayers, he/she must change the intention from afternoon prayer to noon prayer (i.e. he/she intends that the parts of prayer he/she has already performed, what he/she is offering and what he/she is going to offer are all for the noon prayer) and he/she must complete the prayer and offer afternoon prayer after that. But if this happens at the specific time of noon prayer, one must change the intention to noon prayer, complete the prayer and then say afternoon prayer. However, one may, by caution, offer noon and afternoon prayers again. This caution is a favorable act.

4- If a person, thinking that he/she has already performed noon prayer, is offering afternoon prayer and meanwhile realizes that he has not performed noon prayer, he/she must change the intention from afternoon prayer to noon prayer immediately, complete it and offer afternoon prayer afterward provided that it occurs at a time common to both prayers. But if it occurs at the specific time of noon prayer, one must, by obligatory caution, change the intention from afternoon to noon, complete one’s prayer and then perform both noon and afternoon prayers in the usual order. This rule is also applicable to maghrib and ‘ishā’ prayers.