Assalaam O Aliekum. Fajr Salat at the mosques in my locality start 30 mins before sunrise, and redishness in the furthermost eastern horizon is clearly visible. Is this indicative of the expiry of the time for Fajr? Would I be better off, offering Salat a little earlier without congregation at home?

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.

The time of the Fajr prayer ends only when the sun rises. As regards the appearance of the morning twilight and the spread of light, then this is not a sign that the Fajr time has ended as long as the sun has not risen. Hence, you should not perform the Fajr prayer at home alone; rather, you should wait until you pray with the congregation as long as they pray it on time.

Nonetheless, you should clarify to them that performing the Fajr prayer at the beginning of its time before the light spreads is better than waiting until the morning twilight appears according to the view of the majority of scholars . On the other hand, scholars of the Hanafi School of jurisprudence consider that praying the Fajr prayer when the morning twilight appears is more desirable.

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Allaah Knows best.