Prayer Times

Fiqh of prayer

It is not permitted to delay the prayer beyond its time without a valid excuse. Prayer is the first thing a person will be questioned about on the Day of Resurrection, and it is not lifted from a person — unlike the other pillars of Islam such as zakāt and fasting. Prayer was enjoined on the night of the Isrāʾ and Miʿrāj, and it is an appointment God has set for you to converse with Him in private. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Indeed the first deed by which a servant will be called to account on the Day of Resurrection is his prayer; if it is sound, he has succeeded and prospered, and if it is corrupt, he has failed and lost" (Tirmidhī).

Chapter of prayer

Whoever leads people in prayer must possess the fiqh of prayer.

The time of prayer is of two kinds:

1. Time of performance (adāʾ): the time in which the prayer is performed on time. 2. Time of making up (qaḍāʾ): the time in which the prayer is performed as a make-up.

Whoever takes the prayer out of the time of performance without a valid excuse falls into a major sin; for Allah said: "So woe to those who pray, [but] who are heedless of their prayer" (al-Māʿūn 107:4-5).

The time of performance is either ikhtiyārī or ḍarūrī:

- Ikhtiyārī (preferred): the time in which it is permissible to perform the prayer in any part of it, without sin and without dislike. - Ḍarūrī (necessity): the time into which it is not permissible to delay the entire prayer without an excuse; it is called the "time of necessity" because the permissibility of delaying into it belongs only to those who have necessities. - Al-waqt al-mukhtār (the chosen time): the time in which it is permissible to perform the prayer in any part of it. - Al-waqt al-ḍarūrī (the time of necessity): it is not permissible for anyone other than those with necessities (aṣḥāb al-ḍarūrāt) to delay the whole prayer into it, and whoever delays into it without an excuse has sinned.

Those with necessities (aṣḥāb al-ḍarūrāt) are five: the menstruating woman who becomes pure, the one overcome who recovers, the child who reaches puberty, the disbeliever who accepts Islam, and the forgetful one who remembers.

Whoever takes the prayer out into its ḍarūrī time without a valid excuse falls into a sin (scholars differed whether it is major or minor; the well-known view is that it is minor).

The zenith shadow (ẓill al-istiwāʾ) is the shortest shadow that can be reached during the day.

Time of Ẓuhr:

- Ikhtiyārī time: from the declining of the sun (zawāl) — i.e., its deviation from the middle of the sky toward the direction of sunset — known by the beginning of the shadow's increase after it reached the end of its decrease (so the shadow of a thing moves and grows smaller until it is very small, then it moves and grows longer). - Its end: when the shadow of each thing equals its own length, excluding the zenith shadow.

Time of ʿAṣr:

- Its beginning: when the shadow of each thing equals its own length, excluding the zenith shadow. - It continues in the ikhtiyārī: on the most well-known view, until the yellowing of the sun. The sun's rays are white originally and tend to yellow at sunset; so when the sun becomes yellow as its light reflects on a wall, or when you look at the sun without it dazzling you, it has turned yellow. So as long as the sun is white and pure, the time of ʿAṣr remains. - The other view: when the shadow of each thing becomes twice its own length (×2), excluding the zenith shadow. Example: a vertical object of height 40 with a zenith shadow of 8 gives 88.

The complete time for both prayers — Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr:

- The performance time of Ẓuhr: from the declining of the sun to the middle of the sky to sunset (the complete time). - The performance time of ʿAṣr: from the end of Ẓuhr's ikhtiyārī time to sunset (the complete time).

Time of Maghrib:

- Its beginning: sunset, i.e., the complete disappearance of the sun's disc, on level ground. - Its ikhtiyārī end: as much as suffices to pray in it after its conditions — purity, covering the ʿawra, and the time of the adhān and iqāma (about 20 minutes). - The other view: until the red twilight disappears — the redness in the horizon. - In the ḍarūrī time: until Fajr.

Time of ʿIshāʾ:

- Its beginning: with the disappearance of the red twilight. - The ikhtiyārī time: it extends to one third of the night, and they said to half the night. - How do we calculate one third of the night? The first thing required is knowing the length of the night, which is from Maghrib to the rising of the true dawn (al-fajr al-ṣādiq); then we take its third. - The ḍarūrī time of both Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ: it extends to the rising of the true dawn.

Time of Ṣubḥ (Fajr):

- Its beginning: with the rising of the true dawn, because a false dawn precedes it. - The false dawn: a vertical whiteness like the tail of a wolf. - The true dawn: a horizontal whiteness in the horizon that spreads and increases, and it extends to sunrise — the rising of the first part of the sun's disc. - The ikhtiyārī time: some scholars said it is all ikhtiyārī; as for the first view, they said it extends to al-isfār. - Al-isfār: brightness — the time when faces appear clearly, such that a person can be distinguished from a distance of 400 cubits — male or female — whether approaching or turning away. - The ḍarūrī time: from al-isfār to the rising of the sun's disc, on level ground.

The times of the five prayers: ikhtiyārī and ḍarūrī

| Prayer | Ikhtiyārī time | Ḍarūrī time | | --- | --- | --- | | Ẓuhr | from the decline (zawāl) to the shadow of each thing equalling its own length, excluding the zenith shadow | from that to the disappearance of the sun | | ʿAṣr | from the shadow of each thing equalling its own length to the yellowing | from the yellowing to the disappearance of the sun | | Maghrib | from the disappearance of the sun, as much as suffices to pray in it after its conditions | to the rising of the true dawn | | ʿIshāʾ | from the disappearance of the red twilight to the first third of the night | to the rising of the true dawn | | Ṣubḥ | from the rising of the true dawn to al-isfār | from al-isfār to sunrise |

Definitions

- The true dawn (al-fajr al-ṣādiq): the light that emerges toward the east — the horizontal whiteness in the eastern horizon that appears thin and then spreads and widens. - The red twilight (al-shafaq al-aḥmar): the redness that is on the side of sunset after the sun has set. - The night (al-layl): it begins from the setting of the sun to the dawn. - Al-isfār: brightness — that in which faces appear clearly and the stars disappear.

Note: the ikhtiyārī time of Maghrib, on the well-known view, begins at sunset and continues as long as suffices to pray in it after its conditions — purity, covering the ʿawra, the adhān and the iqāma.