as in the words of Allah, glorified and exalted is He:

“And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and during the early hours of the night.”

Likewise, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Fast one day and refrain from fasting the next.”

And he said:

“Like one who fasts by day and stands in prayer by night.”

In these and similar statements, he meant fasting during the daytime beginning at dawn. Likewise, dawn marks the beginning of the time for the dawn prayer and for fasting, as established by mass-transmitted reports known to scholars and ordinary people alike, and by the Muslim community’s unquestionable consensus. The same applies to statements such as his saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“The night prayer is offered two units at a time. If you fear that dawn is approaching, conclude with a single unit to make your prayer odd-numbered.”

For this reason, scholars—including Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others—said that the dawn prayer is a daytime prayer.

However, when the Lawgiver, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, says “midday,” he means the midpoint of the daytime beginning at sunrise. Neither he nor any Muslim scholar ever uses “midday” to mean the midpoint of the daytime beginning at dawn, since that midpoint falls before the sun passes its zenith.

This is why a certain later jurist made a mistake upon reading the scholars’ statement that someone observing a voluntary fast may form the intention to fast before midday, while there are two opinions on whether he may do so afterward, both transmitted from Ahmad. He assumed that “daytime” here meant the fasting day, which begins at dawn. His mistake arose from failing to distinguish between what “daytime” denotes when used without qualification and what “midday” denotes. The day whose midpoint is meant in the words of the Lawgiver and the scholars of his community begins at sunrise, whereas daytime, when used without qualification in connection with the times of prayer and fasting, begins at dawn.

When the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, spoke of the descent when a third of the night remains, the night in question