salah times

The daily prayers are considered obligatory ({{Transliteration|ar|fard}}) by many and they are performed at times determined essentially by the position of the Sun in the sky. Hence, salat times vary at different locations on the Earth. Wudu is needed for all of the prayers.

Some Muslims pray three times a day.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aKenKtONX2MC&dq=muslims+pray+three+times+a+day&pg=PA238 | title=Islam and the Secular State | isbn=9780674033764 | last1=Na | first1=Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im | last2=Naʻīm | first2=ʻabd Allāh Aḥmad | date=30 June 2009 | publisher=Harvard University Press }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIzC9N8-7Z0C&dq=some+muslims+pray+three+times+a+day&pg=PT23 | title=Muslims in America: A Short History | isbn=978-0-19-974567-8 | last1=Curtis Iv | first1=Edward E. | date=October 2009 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}Jafarli, Durdana. "The historical conditions for the emergence of the Quranist movement in Egypt in the 19th-20th centuries." МОВА І КУЛЬТУРА (2017): 91.

{{Main|Fajr prayer}}

{{See also|Fajr nafl prayer|Qunut}}

Fajr begins at {{Transliteration|ar|subh saadiq}}—true dawn or the beginning of twilight, when the morning light appears across the full width of the sky—and ends at sunrise.

{{Main|Zuhr prayer}}

The time interval for offering the Zuhr or Dhuhr salah timing starts after the sun passes its zenith{{Clarify|reason=not everywhere and everyday the sun passes the zenith|date=June 2024}} and lasts until call for the Asr prayer is given. {{According to whom|date=February 2020}}{{clarify|date=January 2018}} This prayer needs to be given in the middle of the work-day, and people normally make their prayers during their lunch break.

{{Main|Asr prayer}}

Asr salat is the third of the [https://prayertimetoronto.com/ obligatory prayers that Muslims offer daily].{{cite web |last1=Afzal |first1=Rabia |title=Prayer time Toronto |url=https://prayertimetoronto.com/ |website=prayertimetoronto |publisher=rabia |access-date=28 January 2024}} It is also known as “middle prayer." The Asr prayer starts when the shadow of an object is the same length as the object itself (or, according to Hanafi school, twice its length){{Citation needed|date=November 2017}} plus the shadow length at Dhuhr, and lasts till the start of sunset. Asr can be split into two sections; the preferred time is before the sun starts to turn orange, while the time of necessity is from when the sun turns orange until 15 minutes before Maghrib.

{{Main|Maghrib prayer}}

The Maghrib prayer begins, when the sun sets, and lasts until the red light has left the sky in the west.

{{Main|Isha prayer}}

{{See also|Chafa'a|Witr}}

The Isha'a or Isha prayer starts when the red twilight disappears from the west, and lasts until the middle of the night, which is the middle point between Maghrib Salat and Fajr salaat (others say it’s third of the night, or until fajr time)

File:Qingjing Mosque - entry to prayer hall - clocks - SCF8687.JPG, Quanzhou, China, with adjustable clocks displaying prayer times (the leftmost clock is for the Friday public prayer, then the next five are for Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha).]]

File:Equation of time.svg

File:Sun-declination.jpg

To calculate prayer times two astronomical measures are necessary, the declination of the sun and the difference between clock time and sundial clock. This difference being the result of the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit and the inclination of its axis, it is called the equation of time. The declination of the sun is the angle between sun's rays and the equator plan.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071012021011/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/SunApprox.php Approximate Solar Coordinates]

In addition to the above measures, to calculate prayer times for a specific location we need its spherical coordinates.[http://praytimes.org/calculation/#Calculating_Prayer_Times Calculating Prayer Times]

In the following;

• $Z$ is the time zone.
• $\backslash lambda$ and $\backslash phi$ are the longitude and the latitude of the considered point, respectively.
• $\backslash Delta\; t$ and $\backslash delta$ denotes the equation of time term and the declination of the Sun for a given date, respectively.

We first give the midday (Dhuhr) time. The midday time is simply when the local true solar time reaches noon:

$$T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Dhuhr\}\}\; =\; 12\; +\; \backslash Delta\; t\; +\; (Z\; -\; \backslash lambda/15)$$

The first term is the 12 o'clock noon, the second term accounts for the difference between true and mean solar times, and the third term accounts for the difference between the local mean solar time and the timezone.

The other times require converting the Sun's altitude to time. We use a variant of the generalized sunrise equation:

$$T(\backslash alpha)\; =\; \backslash frac\{1\}\{15\}\; \backslash arccos\; \backslash left(\; \backslash frac\{-\backslash sin(\backslash alpha)-\backslash sin(\backslash phi)\backslash sin(\backslash delta)\}\{\backslash cos(\backslash phi)\backslash cos(\backslash delta)\}\; \backslash right)$$

This gives, in hours, the difference between Dhuhr time and when the sun is at altitude $\backslash alpha$. Now we calculate three of the other prayer times:

• Sunrise (Shuruq) time and Sunset (Maghrib) times are given by $T(-0.833^\{\backslash circ\})$. (The astronomical sunset/sunrise that occurs at $\backslash alpha\; =\; 0$, but atmospheric refraction makes the sun appear 50 arcminutes higher.) So $T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Shuruq\}\}\; =\; T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Dhuhr\}\}\; -\; T(0.833^\{\backslash circ\})$ and $T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Maghrib\}\}\; =\; T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Dhuhr\}\}\; +\; T(0.833^\{\backslash circ\})$.
• If we consider the elevation of the point we should add $0.0347^\{\backslash circ\}\; \backslash times\; \backslash sqrt\{h\}$ to 0.833°, where h is the elevation in meters (see {{section link|Sunrise equation|Hour angle}}).
• Maghrib prayer is called for when the sun is completely folded behind the horizon, plus 3 minutes by precaution.
• For Fajr and Isha many conventions about the angle $\backslash alpha$ exist. It is of 17 and 18 degrees respectively for Fajr and Isha prayers according to the Muslim World League. As a result, we have $T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Fajr\}\}\; =\; T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Dhuhr\}\}\; -\; T(18^\{\backslash circ\})$ and $T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Isha\}\}\; =\; T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Dhuhr\}\}\; +\; T(17^\{\backslash circ\})$.
• The Asr time is defined in term of the length of its shadow, with differing opinions about how much longer the shadow is. Let $n$ be the required length of the object shadow relative to its own length. We first find the Sun's altitude as $A(n)\; =\; \backslash arccot(n+\backslash left|\backslash tan(\backslash phi-\backslash delta)\backslash right|).$ The Asr time is then given as $T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Shuruq\}\}\; =\; T\_\{\backslash mathsf\{Dhuhr\}\}\; +\; T(A(n)),$ where the ratio n is 1 or 2 depending on jurisprudence.
• It is possible to also correct for atmospheric refraction, but most sources do not do so. After all, the refraction error is much smaller for α > 10°.

Muslims use readily available apps on their phone to find daily prayer times in their locality. Technological advances have allowed for products such as software-enhanced azan clocks that use a combination of GPS and microchips to calculate these formulas. This allows Muslims to live further away from mosques than previously possible, as they no longer need to rely solely on a muezzin in order to keep an accurate prayer schedule.{{Cite journal|last=Gorman|first=Carma R.|date=2009|title=Religion on Demand: Faith-based Design|journal=Design and Culture|volume=1|issue=1|pages=9–22|doi=10.2752/175470709787375715|s2cid=143513427}}{{clear}}

• Canonical hours
• Direction of prayer
• Watchkeeping
• Zmanim

{{Reflist|group="note"}}

• [http://praytimes.org/ PrayTimes.org]

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{{Islamic prayer}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Salah

Category:Time in religion