The Imam of the Land of Hijra, Imam Malik ibn Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated in the Muwatta:
[Section on Hurrying to Break the Fast]
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “People will continue to be all right as long as they hurry to break the fast.”
‘Umar ibn al-Khattab and ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan would pray the Sunset Prayer when they saw the night darkening, before they broke their fast. That was during Ramadan.
Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated in his Musannaf that the great Follower al-Aswad, one of the closest and elite students of Ibn Mas’ud and Aisha (may God be pleased with them), would not break his fast in Ramadan until after he prayed the Maghrib prayer.
The first hadith is also narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim. The vast majority of Muslims, if not all of them today, understand this noble hadith to mean that one should break the fast as soon as possible after the call to the Sunset Prayer, before the prayer itself. According to this understanding, the narration by Imam Malik about the two rightly-guided caliphs Umar and Uthman (may Allah be pleased with them) would establish the permissibility of delaying the breaking of the fast until after the Sunset Prayer. This was a possible explanation given by Imam Shafi’i who also narrated this practice of Umar and Uthman. Imam al-Mawardi narrated in al-Hawi al-Kabir that Abu Bakr and Umar both delayed the breaking of the fast until the horizon turned black. Imam Mawardi said: “They did that to show the permissibility of delaying the breaking of the fast and that it is not obligatory to break the fast immediately.”
However, another possibility is that Imam Malik placed this narration after the hadith to explain the hadith. That is, it was to explain that the Sunna time to break the fast is not only before the Sunset Prayer, but that it simply means to not wait a very long time until the sky becomes extremely dark, like the time in which Jews and Christians break their fast. Abu Hurayra narrated a similar hadith with the addition: “Because the Jews and Christians delay the breaking of their fast.” (Narrated by Abu Dawud and Ibn Khuzayma and others). Those who have seen the fasting of the Jews knows that their fast ends much later than the fast of the Muslims, and our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) wanted to show that there is no piety in Muslims waiting until the Jewish time to break the fast. Therefore it is to explain that the Sunna of hurrying to break the fast covers both the time before and after praying the Sunset Prayer. It could even be to show that the correct understanding of the hadith is that hurrying to break the fast means hurrying to break it after one has first prayed the Sunset Prayer, which should be given priority. We will now investigate this possibility.
Sahl ibn Sa’d, who narrated the same hadith in the Muwatta said: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:
“My Ummah remains upon my Sunna as long as it does not wait for the stars to break its fast.”
(Narrated by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih and al-Hakim in his Mustadrak)
Imam al-Dawudi (d. 402 Hijri) was the second person to write a commentary on the Muwatta of Imam Malik, and one of the first two people who authored a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. He wrote,
“What Malik narrated in the Muwatta [regarding Umar and Uthman] does not go against the narrations about hurrying to break the fast, because they were concerned about the affair of the prayer first, and would hurry to break the fast after it, without much movement between them.” This was quoted by Ibn Battal in his commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari.
Similarly the great Maliki jurist al-Baji wrote: “They (i.e. Umar and Uthman) would hurry to pray the Sunset Prayer because hurrying to do so is established by the law as is agreed upon, and is not from the disliked delaying of the breaking of the fast. What is disliked is to delay the breaking of the fast in an exaggerated manner until the stars are so bright so their lights are all very clear, not delaying it for another act of worship.”
Some Sufis even said:
“It is more fitting to hurry to break the fast at the time of sunset but after the Sunset Prayer. That is because Allah made the Sunset Prayer as an odd-numbered prayer to seal the prayers of the daytime on an odd number (i.e. as He made the Witr prayer an odd-numbered prayer to seal the prayers of the night time, for Allah loves odd numbers that remind of His singularity and one-ness).
Therefore one should pray this prayer with the same quality which he possessed during the day time, which is refraining from food and drink. I prefer that once he has finished his obligatory prayer, he should then have his fast-breaking meal, even if just a sip of water or some dates, before the extra prayer (i.e. the Sunna prayer after the Sunset Prayer). He who does that will remain all right (as the hadith states)… Let the sips of water or dates be odd in number, and then pray (the Sunna prayer) after that.
We have said that one should hasten the Prayer, so that one breaks their meal after the Sunset Prayer and before the extra prayers, because it is from the action of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). We gave precedence to the Prayer above the breaking of the fast because Prayer, even though it is for the servant’s own benefit – is the right of Allah, and the breaking of the fast is your own right, and the right of Allah has priority of being fulfilled than the right of the created being.”
Note: it was the Companion Abdullah Ibn Umar who said: ‘The Maghrib Prayer is the Witr for the prayers of the day’ (Reported by Malik). It is also incorrectly attributed to the Prophet (pbuh) in other narrations.
In the very least, the purpose of this little investigation was to show that it is not disliked to break the fast after the Prayer, but only disliked to exaggerate the fast, and wait until the stars have become clear, thinking that this was an act of greater piety, as indicated by the other narrations. Often times people find the Prayer has started but they rush to find a way to break their fast before praying, thinking that they have to do that, when they can pray first and then break their fast.
Second, if we look at the wording of the hadith narrated by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih collection, we see that the Messenger of Allah explained the delaying of the breaking of the fast with the bright appearance of the stars. If he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had intended that people break their fast before the Sunset Prayer, one would expect him to use the Prayer as a reference point, as everyone who is fasting is expected to pray after the sun has set. However the hadith does not use the Sunset Prayer as a reference point for delaying the prayer, but rather the brightness of the stars, which indicates that the prayer has already ended and the next reference point is the brightening of the light of the stars. This makes this hadith an evidence for waiting to break the fast until after the Sunset Prayer, and Allah knows best. In the very least, however, this hadith shows that whether one breaks the fast before or after the prayer, both are considered within the Sunna as long as one breaks the fast before the sky becomes so dark that the stars become very bright.
Abdul Wahhab al-Sha’rani who authored many great works on hadith and comparative fiqh wrote in his hadith collection Minah al-Minnah:
“He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would break his fast on fresh dates before he prayed, and would often break his fast after the prayer….Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) would only break their fast after the prayer.”
Perhaps Sha’rani meant Umar and Uthman according to the authentic narration by Imam Malik, Imam Shafi’i, and Imam al-Bayhaqi, or perhaps he was referring to the narration by Imam al-Mawardi that Abu Bakr and Umar would delay the breaking of the fast until darkness has set. This implies that Abu Bakr broke his fast after having led the Muslims in prayer once the sun has set. Combining both narrations, results in each of the first three rightly-guided caliphs being known to delay the breaking of the fast until after they have prayed. It is possible to understand from this that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah be pleased with him) would eat before the prayer out of concern for the weaker Muslims, to show them its permissibility, but that Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman understood from him that the ideal time for the stronger Muslims who can wait, is to break their fast after the prayer, and Allah most wise knows best. May Allah azza wa jall guide us to the true understanding of the Sunna and set our hearts, intentions, and actions straight.
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Written July, 2014
Basira Academy 