Fasting during Ramadan, Muslims and a Skyscraper

Muslims’ month long fast enters the second week. I wrote last week to show how God Almighty did not institute it. You can read my article, which utilizes the Qur’an to arrive at its conclusion, HERE. I discussed how the Qur’an envisaged the Muslim fast to go strictly according to the position of the sun.

Some Muslims have protested. One of them claims in places like Barrow, Alaska, where the sun rarely sets or rises during certain summer or winter months, a Muslim in “Alaska follows Vancouver or Seattle.” He totally dismissed the Qur’an, which clearly shows the position of the sun should determine fasting in Islam. Then came this bombshell out of Dubai where a prominent Muslim cleric issues a fatwa requiring certain residents of Burj Khalifa—the tallest skyscraper in the world—to wait longer to break their fast than the rest of Muslims in Dubai.

Gulf News reports:

Dubai: Muslims residing above the 80th floor in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa must delay their iftar meal during Ramadan by two to three minutes as they see the sunset later, according to the Dubai Islamic Affairs Department.

Those residents should also start their daily fasting two minutes earlier on the grounds that dawn descends on them before those living on lower levels, the Department said in a Fatwa (edict).

“Residents in Burj Khalifa should observe varied timings for iftar, sunset and dawn prayers depending on the level where live,” the paper said, quoting Ahmad Abdul Aziz Al Haddad, head of the Fatwa division at the department.

He said Muslims living on the 80-150 floors in the tower, the world’s tallest structure, should delay their iftar meal by two minutes while those on the 151-160 floors should break their fasting three minutes late.

“Residents on 80-150 floors should also perform evening and night prayers two minutes late and dawn prayers two minutes earlier while those above the 150th level should delay their evening and night prayers by three minutes and bring forward dawn prayers by three minutes,” he said.

“This difference in timing on the 160-storey building is because sun sets later for residents on top floors while these residents are the first to see the sun at dawn.”

I wrote last week about the Qur’an stating that the sun sets “in a spring of murky water.” It tells a story of a man who traveled on a road and “reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water.” Prophet Muhammad invented the fast during the month of Ramadhan. If Muhammad didn’t invent it, then the “God” in the Qur’an—contrary to all his attributes in the Qur’an—was limited to seeing the sun “going down” into the horizon, hence instituted the fast according to his limited knowledge.

The fatwa in Dubai is another proof the Muslim fast is according to the sun; further proving someone fallible instituted it.

Please pray for Muslims. May the Lord show them His Light so that they break free!