that its time had begun, as Shaykh al-Safarini stated in Commentary on the Three-Narrator Reports in Ahmad’s Musnad (2/196). A similar explanation appears in Awn al-Ma'bud (1/467): “That is, Anas and others were not certain whether the sun had passed the zenith or not. As for the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he knew the prayer times better than anyone, and so he would not perform the Zuhr prayer until after the zenith. This provides evidence for hastening to perform the Zuhr prayer immediately after the zenith, without delay.”
Abu Dawud gave the hadith the chapter heading: “The Traveller Who Prays While Unsure of the Time.” The author of Awn al-Ma'bud commented on it: “That is, whether the prayer time has come or not. His uncertainty is of no consequence; rather, knowledge of the times is to be relied upon from the imam. If the imam is certain that the time has entered, then the uncertainty of some of those following him is of no consequence.”
As for his words, “from the imam,” I would add: or from those muezzins entrusted by the imam, for whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, prayed for forgiveness—those who give the call to prayer for every prayer at its proper time. Such people have now become rarer than red sulphur. Few of them give the call to prayer according to the timings prescribed by Islamic law; rather, most of them give it according to the astronomical timings printed in calendars and almanacs. These are incorrect because they contradict reality. For example, today—Saturday, 20 Muharram 1406 AH—the sun rose above the mountain summit at 5:45, whereas the Ministry of Awqaf calendar states that it rises at 5:33! And this is while I am on Mount Hamlan; so what of those in central Amman? Undoubtedly, its rising is delayed for them even more than it is on Hamlan.
Regrettably, here they give the call to the Fajr prayer twenty to thirty minutes before its time. Consequently, in some mosques they perform the Fajr prayer and then leave the mosque while dawn has not yet risen. This calamity has become widespread in many