I have seen many shia's fast when the sky become just dark or when just darkness arrives..
Now lets see what there imams told..
In Nahjul-balagha this is what Ali(ra) said about the times of prayer:
Letter 52:
"Lead the Zuhr prayer till the shadow of a wall becomes equal to the height of the wall and read the Asr prayer when the sun is still bright and enough time of the day is left for a person to cover a distance of six miles. The Maghrib prayers should be performed when people break their fasts and when Hajj pilgrims return from Arafat. And the time for Isha prayer is when the red glow of the even twilight disappears from the West, till one-third of the night is still left. The morning prayers are to be performed when there appears enough light of the dawn for a man to recognize the face of his companion."
[Note: Now the above is almost the word by word meaning of the letter. Unfortunately like a number of other letters and sermons of Nahj. the translators in al-islam.org has added some words in their tranlsation without using any brackets]
Anywz my point is to stress on the statement:
"The Maghrib prayers should be performed when people break their fasts and when Hajj pilgrims return from Arafat. And the time for Isha prayer is when the red glow of the even twilight disappears from the West, till one-third of the night is still left."
Means isha time is defined by "when the red glow of the even twilight ("diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon" or "This is the time before sunrise and after sunset where it is still light outside, but the sun is not in the sky") disappears"..
This means time of maghrib [or breaking fast] is before the arrival of isha.. means just before when the the red glow of the even twilight is disappered..
this looks same as what sunni's do!!
But shia break fast when there is some darkness!! But above Ali
said "The Maghrib prayers should be performed when people break their fasts "!!
this means ali break his fast before the darkness appear i.e. sun is not visible but sky have little redness (same as what sunni's do) !!
Now let me apply some scientific theories..
What science says: When the sunsets,, the sun appears 2-3min above the horizon bcoz of the refraction of light through the atmosphere..
Means when u just see the sun disappears (just on horizon),, this means the sun was already gone below horizon before 2-3mins.(see image)
i.e. shia break fast (after 10min. of sunni's time) when darkness just arrives.. means sun is much below the horizon.. (means 10+2=12min or 10+3=13min later..) not above the horizon which they fell doubted..
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Now it is proved that shia think when the darkness comes this means sun is below horizon but this is not true scientifically as well as by the words of ali in najhul-balagha..
& according to ali(ra) sunni's fasting time is similar to what S.A.W. told us i.e. some redness just before dark when sun goes down as seen by naked eyes..
Now lets see what there imams told..
In Nahjul-balagha this is what Ali(ra) said about the times of prayer:
Letter 52:
"Lead the Zuhr prayer till the shadow of a wall becomes equal to the height of the wall and read the Asr prayer when the sun is still bright and enough time of the day is left for a person to cover a distance of six miles. The Maghrib prayers should be performed when people break their fasts and when Hajj pilgrims return from Arafat. And the time for Isha prayer is when the red glow of the even twilight disappears from the West, till one-third of the night is still left. The morning prayers are to be performed when there appears enough light of the dawn for a man to recognize the face of his companion."
[Note: Now the above is almost the word by word meaning of the letter. Unfortunately like a number of other letters and sermons of Nahj. the translators in al-islam.org has added some words in their tranlsation without using any brackets]
Anywz my point is to stress on the statement:
"The Maghrib prayers should be performed when people break their fasts and when Hajj pilgrims return from Arafat. And the time for Isha prayer is when the red glow of the even twilight disappears from the West, till one-third of the night is still left."
Means isha time is defined by "when the red glow of the even twilight ("diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon" or "This is the time before sunrise and after sunset where it is still light outside, but the sun is not in the sky") disappears"..
This means time of maghrib [or breaking fast] is before the arrival of isha.. means just before when the the red glow of the even twilight is disappered..
this looks same as what sunni's do!!
But shia break fast when there is some darkness!! But above Ali
said "The Maghrib prayers should be performed when people break their fasts "!! this means ali
break his fast before the darkness appear i.e. sun is not visible but sky have little redness (same as what sunni's do) !!when i asked the question to one of the shia about: why u break fast after 10min. !!
He said: Shia break their fast about 10 minutes later. They doubt the sun went down! so to make sure they wait. if u think about its actually better to extend ur fast just a few more minutes cause if you broke ur fast a few minutes earlier than when ur suppose to break it, ur whole day's worth of fasting is gone and does not count and you must re-fast that day!!
Now let me apply some scientific theories..
What science says: When the sunsets,, the sun appears 2-3min above the horizon bcoz of the refraction of light through the atmosphere..
Means when u just see the sun disappears (just on horizon),, this means the sun was already gone below horizon before 2-3mins.(see image)
i.e. shia break fast (after 10min. of sunni's time) when darkness just arrives.. means sun is much below the horizon.. (means 10+2=12min or 10+3=13min later..) not above the horizon which they fell doubted..
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Now it is proved that shia think when the darkness comes this means sun is below horizon but this is not true scientifically as well as by the words of ali
in najhul-balagha..& according to ali(ra) sunni's fasting time is similar to what S.A.W. told us i.e. some redness just before dark when sun goes down as seen by naked eyes..
