Questioner: A friend of mine asked, you know, if he’s thinking about going to Antarctica to do some geological work and he’s saying that, you know, if I was a Muslim, which he’s not, you know, what would I do? Would I be allocated times of sunrise and sunset to the nearest town? Or how did I go about attributing time for fasting at the North and South Pole?
Huzoor (rh): Well, this issue has already been explained by me repeatedly. In fact, because, not because, but this, before the Ramadan, during the last sermon, I spoke on this subject.
Questioner: Oh,
Huzoor (rh):but you didn’t see it. You see, if Islam is really a religion for the whole mankind, and if Islam is really a religion for all times to come until the doomsday, then such questions must have been answered by Hazrat Muhammad Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, if not in so many ways by the Quran. Because the Quran is a book of principles and it speaks in principle of everything, but it can’t discuss everything in detail. So, where details are left out, there Hazrat Muhammad Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was guided by additional Wahi, additional revelation, as to what is meant by the Quran in that regard, in that regard. So, many times he explained things which otherwise would have always remained a moot question for us, like this one. Once Allah told him through Jibril that during the days of Dajjal, the Antichrist, the days will be not equal on the entire surface of the earth. They will differ. Some days, and most of them, would be the normal days of 24 hours. The others would vary up to a day of full one year. Everybody was amazed, because as yet, the concept of how the earth is rounded and what happens close to the pole or at the pole, there were unknown things by the society at that time. So, the first question which arose was about the prayers and fastings, etc. So, one of the present, inquired from Hazrat Muhammad Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, if the day is lengthened to full one year, shall we be saying five prayers during the whole day, or should it be different? The answer was, of course not. You should judge your days according to the normal days you know, and measure your days, divide them into normal days, that is again 360 days per year. According to Islamic calendar,
Questioner: it is 55, not 60,
Huzoor (rh): 360. Because the Islamic calendar was 10 days shorter. So, I reduced, but not correctly, I should have said 350 days, 355 days. Because I am talking in relation to the time when Hazrat Muhammad Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was instructing him, and there they knew the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar. Anyway, small thing. What he said was, the day should be divided into 24-hour day sections, and each section should be attended according to the Islamic instructions.
(Audio ends)
Now, this automatically resolves so many other questions about the fasting, about the prayers. If you have to divide the day into five prayers, then according to the normal days, you have to fix, let’s say, not fix, but carve out a portion of the 24-hour day into a day time, and the second into a night time. This also brings to light the question of what he meant by one year day. When he said a day would be as long as full one year, what he meant was including the night and the day. Because he was talking of 24-hour day. Right? Fasting. So that means six months night and six months day, according to the relation of day and night to the appearance or disappearance of sun. So this is exactly what happens at the point of North Pole. So also it happens at the point of South Pole. There, six months night and six months day follow each other. And in between, as he has explained, the days will vary. So as you go close to the North or South Pole… At the North and South Pole, and they sort of carved out this time and said, well, this is when we’re going to do morning prayers and evening prayers, and that sets our time. Approaching the Pole, when you do have the sun, you know, like, say, 500, 600 miles away, there will be a time when it will be a tremendously long day. That also is a subject which I discussed during my sermon, finally. I’ll send you the tape, I think. It’s a very, very interesting answer which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, gave. Because it relates to the signs by which normal days are made to disappear. This is the basic message. When those signs by which we make the normal days disappear, then the right of people there to judge, to decide, I mean, not decide, but to divide the 24 hours into days and nights, begins to operate. Now, in case you are approaching the North Pole, although the day may still be 24 hours day, but according to the Quranic signs, they will not be applicable between many latitudes, situated in a certain closeness to the North Pole. For instance, if the night is reduced to four hours, the dawn would lengthen so much, so also the dusk, that they would join each other. And I have seen it myself. When we went to the North Pole, not North Pole, but North Cape in Norway, we experienced all these various, you know, changing pattern of days and nights. What happened was, at times we found that although the sun set and sun rose, yet there is no separating line between the evening dusk and the morning dawn. And the Holy Quran, speaking of fasting as well as speaking of the prayers, describes the time with relation to the sun, and the dusk, and the position of sun, and what happens after the sun has set, right? So, when the conditions disappear, then you are given the right to judge for yourself. So the secret lies in the very normal days. What he said was, judge according to the normal days. In normal days, the signs of the Quran are applicable, and when they are no longer applicable, then begins the period of abnormal days.
