220. Adhaan Timings

By Asma Bint Shameem

The time on the app is usually more accurate, while the adhaan may be delayed for some reason or the other. 

So you should go by the App in my opinion. 

Also the adhaan for Asr is delayed in the Subcontinent because they follow the hanafi time of Asr which is clearly wrong. 

The time the Asr prayer begins is very clearly defined in the following hadeeth:

The Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam said:

“The (time of)Dhuhr is when the sun has begun to decline, until one’s shadow is as long as his height, until the entrance of ‘Asr time.”(Saheeh Muslim)

So as the Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam has explicitly mentioned in the above hadeeth, the time of Asr Prayer begins at a point between Dhuhr and Maghrib, when a person’s shadow is as long as his height.

However, Imaam Abu Haneefah had a different opinion from this hadeeth. 

And he was the ONLY one with that opinion. 

The REST of the ulama DISAGREED with him. 

In his opinion the time of Asr begins much later than the time mentioned in the hadeeth. 

Ibn Abdul-Barr said.  

“He (Imaam Abu Haneefah) has *opposed the narrations and the rest of the scholars*, and thus his own students opposed him in this,” (al-Mughnee (2/14)

In fact, Imaam Abu Haneefah’s own top two students OPPOSED several of Imaam Abu Haneefah’s opinions on various issues, *including* the opinion of the time of Asr, because they were NOT BLIND FOLLOWERS of Imaam Abu Haneefah. 

Rather they were followers of the TRUE SUNNAH of the PROPHET Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam. 

And Imaam Abu Haneefah DID NOT tell his students or anyone else to blindly follow him, either. 

Rather he said:

"When a hadeeth is found to be saheeh, then that is my madhhab." 

[Ibn 'Aabideen in al-Haashiyah (1/63)

And he said:

"When I say something contradicting the Book of Allaah the Exalted or what is narrated from the Messenger Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam then ignore my saying." 

[Al-Fulaani in Eeqaaz al-Himam (p. 50)]

That was his Taqwa and his eagerness to follow the authentic hadeeth of the Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam 

So the CORRECT time that Asr starts is when the time for Dhuhr ends. 

And that is the ‘earlier’ time. 

Remember we are supposed to follow the PROPHET Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam and no one else.

And Allaah knows best