Hadith 9
On the authority of Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī (may Allah be pleased with him):
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “People will remain in a state of goodness so long as they hasten to break the fast and delay the pre-dawn meal (suḥūr).”
Overall meaning
The Wise Lawgiver encourages believers to distinguish each act of worship and its allotted time from everything else, so that order and obedience become manifest when His commands are carried out and their limits observed. Thus, when He set sunset as the time for the fasting person to end the fast, He urged him to do so at the very beginning of that time and declared that people will continue to prosper as long as they break the fast promptly, for in doing so they preserve the sunnah. If they postpone breaking the fast, that is a sign that goodness has left them, because they have abandoned a sunnah that brings twofold benefit: religious—namely, following prophetic guidance—and worldly—namely, nourishing and strengthening their bodies with the food and drink they keenly desire.
Points derived from the hadith
- It is recommended to break the fast immediately once sunset is ascertained, whether by direct sighting or by the trustworthy report of a reliable person.
- Promptly breaking the fast is proof that goodness endures among those who do so, whereas delaying it shows that goodness has departed from those who postpone it.
- The goodness referred to in the hadith is adherence to the sunnah, even though this coincides with what the soul naturally inclines toward.
- The hadith counts among the Prophet’s ﷺ miracles: delaying ifṭār is a practice adopted by the Shiʿah, one of the deviant sects, whose only precedent in this is the Jews, for they do not break their fast until the appearance of the stars.
Hadith 10
On the authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him):
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When night approaches from this side and day withdraws from that side, the fasting person has broken his fast.”
Overall meaning
It has already been explained that the legally prescribed time for fasting extends from daybreak until sunset. Therefore the Prophet