until someone tells him, “Morning has come, morning has come.” (1) However, it is preferable that he know the time himself, since it may be difficult for him to find someone to inform him of it.

It may also be said that what is intended is that he knows the time himself or by following the judgment of a trustworthy person.

Knowledge of the times is attained through the signs which the Lawgiver has established as indicators: Ẓuhr begins when the sun passes its zenith; ʿAṣr begins when the shadow of everything becomes equal to its length, after the noon shadow; Maghrib begins with the setting of the sun; ʿIshāʾ begins with the disappearance of the red twilight; and Fajr begins with the rise of the second dawn.

In our time, these signs have become difficult to discern, since many people pay them little attention, and people have come to rely on timetables and clocks.

However, these timetables differ: at times, there may be as much as six minutes between one and another. This is no trivial matter, especially with regard to the adhān for Fajr and the adhān for Maghrib, because fasting is connected to them. Nevertheless, care must be taken in determining all the prayer times. Thus, when two timetables differ, and each has been issued by someone knowledgeable of the signs of the times, we give precedence to the later time in all cases, because the basic principle is that the time has not yet begun. This is despite the fact that both timetables have been issued by qualified people. The jurists explicitly stated something similar: if a man were to say to two men, “Watch the dawn for me,” and one of them said, “Dawn has risen,” while the other said, “It has not risen,” then the statement of the latter is followed, and he may eat