Riyadh:A Saudi scholar has ruled that Muslims in the Kingdom can delay performing the Dhuhur (afternoon) prayer until it is close to the time of the Asr (later afternoon) prayer because of the unprecedented high temperature in Saudi Arabia these days which led to power cuts in various parts of the country.
"People in extremely hot areas are permitted to delay the Dhuhur prayer until late afternoon," Shaikh Abdul Mohsin Al Obaikan, religious adviser at the Royal Court told local Arabic daily Al Watan yesterday.
Cooling Sunna
"This is known as a cooling Sunna which the Prophet has made to relieve Muslims of the burden of doing the prayer during hot temperature," he said.
Al Obaikan said he suggested to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to instruct all mosques in the Kingdom to delay the Azan [prayer call] for the Dhuhur prayer until late in he afternoon.
"The ministry should carefully study this proposal which is in line with the cooling Sunna of the Prophet," he said.
Al Obaikan is the same scholar who came up with the fatwa (religious ruling) that women may breastfeed their foreign drivers in order to be their milk sons and to mix with them any time without breaking the Islamic ruling that prohibits gender mixing.
Saudi Arabia is currently witnessing an unprecedented high temperature which caused repeated power cuts as many of the power generating turbines stopped functioning.
Temperature in some areas reached more than 51C.
Weather experts had earlier predicted that the kingdom would this year witness an extremely hot summer.
They said the worst is still to come, especially between July 20 and August 20.
