Sundial indicating prayer times, situated in the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia. Author: Keith Roper The Isha'a or isha prayer starts at civil dusk when the darkness starts to spread across the sky, and lasts until nautical dusk when the western horizon gets completely dark and cannot be observed through naked eye.

T ( α ) = 1 15 arccos ⁡ ( − sin ⁡ ( α ) − sin ⁡ ( ϕ ) sin ⁡ ( δ ) cos ⁡ ( ϕ ) cos ⁡ ( δ ) ) {\displaystyle T(\alpha )={\frac {1}{15}}\arccos \left({\frac {-\sin(\alpha )-\sin(\phi )\sin(\delta )}{\cos(\phi )\cos(\delta )}}\right)} t {\displaystyle \Delta t} and δ {\displaystyle \delta } denotes the equation of time term and the declination of the Sun for a given date, respectively. Shia (Jafari madhab) differs regarding start of asr time. Per all major Jafari jurists, [ citation needed] start of asr time is about 5 minutes after the time of sun passing through zenith, that time belongs exclusively to dhuhr prayer. Time for dhuhr and asr prayers overlap, but the zuhr prayer must be offered before asr, except the time about 10 minutes before sunset, which is delegated exclusively to asr. In the case that the mentioned time is reached, asr prayer should be offered first (ada - on time) and dhuhr (kada - make up, late) prayer should be offered after asr. Salat times are prayer times when Muslims perform salat. The term is primarily used for the five daily prayers including the Friday prayer, which takes the place of the Dhuhr prayer and must be performed in a group of worshippers. Muslims believe the salah times were taught by Allah to Muhammad. Most Muslims pray five times a day, with their prayers being known as Fajr (before dawn), Dhuhr (afternoon), Asr (late afternoon), Maghrib (after sunset), and Isha (nighttime), always facing towards the Kaaba. [1] Some Muslims pray three times a day. [2] [3] The direction of prayer is called the qibla; the early Muslims initially prayed in the direction of Jerusalem before this was changed to Mecca in 624 CE, about a year after Muhammad's migration to Medina. [4] [5]

Weekly prayers

In addition to the above measures, to calculate prayer times for a specific location we need its spherical coordinates. [12] Prayer times are standard for Muslims in the world, especially the fard prayer times. They depend on the condition of the Sun and geography. There are varying opinions regarding the exact salah times, the schools of Islamic thought differing in minor details. All schools of thought agree that any given prayer cannot be performed before its stipulated time. Sunrise (Shuruq) time and Sunset (Maghrib) times are given by T ( − 0.833 ∘ ) {\displaystyle T(-0.833 The five intervals were defined by Muslim authorities in the decades after the death of Muhammad in 632, based on the hadith (the reported sayings and actions) of the Islamic prophet. displaystyle \lambda } and ϕ {\displaystyle \phi } are the longitude and the latitude of the considered point, respectively.

This gives, in hours, the difference between Dhuhr time and when the sun is at altitude α {\displaystyle \alpha } . Now we calculate three of the other prayer times: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] plus the shadow length at zuhr, and lasts till 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 sunset. The five daily prayers are considered obligatory ( 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. [9] [3] Overview of prayer times considered obligatory by most [10] Compulsory (fard) prayer