Firstly: The evidence for abstaining from food and drink during Ramaḍān is legislative texts, including:

• The saying of Allāh, the Most High: “And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset.” [Al-Baqarah 2:187]
• The saying of the Prophet Muḥammad (prayers and peace be upon him): “Bilāl calls the ᾽adhān at night, so eat and drink until Ibn Um Maktūm calls the ᾽adhān.”

Bilāl used to call the ᾽adhān as a signal of the approaching time of imsāk, and his ᾽adhān was approximately fifty minutes before the ᾽adhān of Fajr. The text is clear in linking the beginning of fasting to the entrance of the legitimate Fajr time.

Secondly: The beginning of imsāk time, approximately ten minutes before the ᾽adhān of Fajr, is a matter of caution and alerting, and it is not obligatory from a legal point of view. Its implementation varied, sometimes being based on time, and sometimes based on sound, such as the firing of a cannon and others, depending on cultural practices.

The correct understanding is that the time of imsāk is the true ᾽adhān of Fajr.

Fatwa issued by Dr. Khālid Naṣr