Then the other matter which I want to remind of is what occurs in the previous hadeeth, "And they delay the pre-dawn meal"  Meaning: what is required here is the opposite to the case of the Iftaar.  So he, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, commanded us to hasten to perform the Iftaar.  But as for the Suhoor, then it should be delayed.  But what happens today is totally contrary to this, since many people eat their Suhoor before the appearance of Fajr by perhaps an hour.  This is not befitting.  This is contrary to the Sunnah shown by the saying of the Prophet, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, and by his practice.  So the Companions of the Prophet, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, used to leave the Suhoor so late, that one of them would almost hear the Adhaan and he would still be eating.  He delayed the Suhoor.

Indeed there is an authentic hadeeth reported from the Prophet, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, which shows the ease afforded by Islaam, which is to be counted as one of the principles of Islaam, which the Muslims are proud of, especially with regard to the matter of Fasting, since Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, concluded the aayahs concerning Fasting with His Saying:

Allaah desires ease for you, and He does not desire to make things difficult for you.

So from this ease is his, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, saying, "If one of you hears the call to Prayer and the vessel is in the hand of one of you, then let him not put it down until he fulfils his need from it."

" If one of you hears the call to Prayer and the vessel" the vessel containing food, whether it be milk, some drink, water, anything which a person may take as Suhoor, and he hears the Adhaan, then he should not say, Now the food is forbidden by the Adhaan being heard for the person who has had enough of it.  It is not allowed for him to then have any more, whether it be a drink, or some fruit, when he has had his fill of whatever he was eating.¹

But as for the one who hears the Adhaan and he has not yet taken what he needs from the food and the drink, then the Messenger, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, made that lawful for him. So he clearly said, in the clear and eloquent Arabic language, "If one of you hears the call to Prayer, and the vessel is in his hand, then let him not put it down until he fulfils his need from it."

And what is meant here by the call is the second call, the second Adhaan.  It is not the first Adhaan, which they wrongly call the Adhaan for withholding (al-Imsaak).  We must know that there is no basis for calling the first Adhaan the Adhaan for withholding (imsaak).

The second Adhaan is when we are to withhold, and this is clearly stated in the Quraan, since Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, says:

And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes clear to you from the black thread of the night.

So eating becomes forbidden at the start of the time of the Fajr Prayer.  There is no separation between these two things.  There is no withholding from food and drink for a quarter of an hour, or less than that, or more than that, before the start of the time for the Fajr Prayer.  Not at all.

Because the Prayer becomes due when the true dawn appears, and food becomes forbidden for the fasting person when the true dawn appears.  So there is no separation between these two matters at all.

So therefore there occurs in the hadeeth agreed upon by al-Bukharee and Muslim, from the hadeeth of ¹Abdullaah ibn ¹Umar ibn al-Khattaab, radiyallaahu ¹anhumaa, that the Prophet, sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam, said, "Let not the Adhaan of Bilaal deceive you Š" meaning, the first Adhaan, "Š because he gives the Adhaan in order to awaken the person who is sleeping, and so that the person who wishes to eat the pre-dawn meal can do so. So eat and drink until Ibn Umm Maktoon gives the Adhaan."

Ibn Umm Maktoon, and his name was ¹Amr, he was a blind man, and he was the one about whom the Saying of Allaah, the Exalted and Most High, came down:

He frowned and turned away, that the blind man came to him

to the end of the Aayahs.