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Fatwa CenterBreak your fast whenever the sun sets
Question
I work as a pilot. I am now out of the country; I am not home. I am coming back home today. The iftar (fast-breaking) time will start 20 minutes before I leave the hotel. This means that I will not be able to have my iftar meal until two hours after the flight takes off. This is because meals are served to passengers first and then to the crew members and attendants. As I have mentioned, I am the captain. The flight takes four hours and there is a 2.45 hour difference in time between the two destinations. May I break my fast?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
If the iftar time starts in the country where you are, then this is not a big problem. The answer is that you should break your fast whenever the sun sets, no matter where you are. Allaah, the Exalted, says (what means): {Then complete the fast until the sunset.} [Quran 2: 187] That you will not be able to catch a meal at the very time of the iftar does not change the ruling. With this in mind, you should break your fast according to the local time of the country in which you are when the sun sets, even though there is a time difference between the place that you are flying from and the destination that you are flying to.
Allaah Knows best.
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