Fiqh Al-Ibadah 5 — Mawāqīt aṣ-Ṣalāh — the prescribed times of the five prayers مَوَاقِيتُ الصَّلَاة

You met the seven maqāmāt of ṣalāh in Lesson 4. This lesson takes the next topic: the mawāqīt, the prescribed times of the five daily prayers.

1 · The point of the chapter: knowing the times with the evidence #

Everyone already knows roughly when Ẓuhr is and when ʿAṣr is. That is general, informal knowledge — and the chapter exists to replace it with knowledge backed by evidence.

Once you know it with the evidence, it becomes ʿibādah. Doing the right thing without knowing why is habit; knowing why is worship. Understand it at our own level, properly — not at a scholar's level, badly.

Each of the five prayers has a beginning time, before which the prayer is not valid, and an ending time, beyond which it is not permitted to delay it.

2 · The two evidences the chapter rests on #

The Qurʾānic evidence:

That is: an obligation fixed at specific times.

The Sunnah evidence, in two layers:

The ḥadīth of Abū Mūsā, which is the spine of the whole chapter. The Prophet ﷺ prayed with the man on two successive days — once at the beginning of each window, once at the end:

Then he called the man and said:

3 · Fajr — from the true dawn to sunrise #

Its time begins with the appearance of the true dawn and continues until sunrise.

The two dawns #

This is the one time the book's rule is not enough on its own, because there are two lights before sunrise and only the second one starts Fajr.

"What do we call this — horizontal, or vertical?" … "Only when you can tell horizontal from vertical clearly can you say that Fajr has begun." You can still see it for yourself in an area with no artificial light — which is how the time was fixed in earlier times, before everyone kept a clock.

The rule:

Why Fajr is the hard one to calculate #

Every other prayer time is settled easily and accurately. Fajr is harder — there are two dawns, so where exactly Fajr begins is a matter of calculation, and the same problem applies to ʿIshāʾ at the other end of the night. Hence the five international calculation systems — among them Karachi University, Umm al-Qurā and the Islamic Society [of North America] — and Sri Lanka uses its own local reckoning. They differ only slightly and all land at nearly the same moment.

The Ṣubḥ dispute: pray it in the dark, or pray it in the light? #

This is a difference in the preferred moment inside a window both sides agree on, not a difference about when Fajr enters.

4 · Ẓuhr — from zawāl, and the shadow that has to be subtracted #

Its time begins when the sun moves away from the middle of the sky toward the west — this is zawāl. At that moment a small shadow appears for an upright object and begins to extend eastward; that is the shadow of zawāl.

It continues until an object's shadow becomes equal to the object itself — plus the shadow of zawāl that marked the beginning.

Why the extra shadow exists at all: "if I stand with the sun exactly overhead, will a shadow be visible or not?" — it will not. But the earth's shape means the sun is almost never exactly overhead; on most days it stands a little to the side and a small shadow remains. So in a calculation system that residual shadow is subtracted, and only then is Ẓuhr taken. And today: "now we do none of this ourselves — everyone uses the phone."

5 · ʿAṣr — shadow equals object, and the Ḥanafī double #

Its time begins when the time of Ẓuhr ends and continues until sunset.

The preferred time, however, is not to delay beyond the point where an object's shadow becomes twice its length (again, in addition to the shadow of zawāl).

This is understood as referring to the preferred time, not the outer limit.

To make it physical, plant a stick — "when the stick's shadow becomes equal to the stick itself, ʿAṣr has begun." Delaying ʿAṣr into the disliked stretch is makrūh — the prayer is still valid — while genuine excuses, oversleeping or being delayed in travel, are another matter.

The dispute:

So their ʿAṣr begins after ours — "by the time we have prayed and finished, theirs begins."

6 · Maghrib — sunset until the red twilight goes #

Its time begins with sunset and continues until the red twilight disappears and no trace of it remains in the western sky.

What the red twilight is: what remains of the sun's light. It lingers on the western horizon after sunset while darkness spreads across the sky from the east. When no trace of the red remains in the west, Maghrib has ended and ʿIshāʾ has begun.

The sky passes through the two shafaqs in order:

The altitude problem #

The adhān is called but the sun has not set. Unlike the other prayers, Maghrib requires that the sun has actually set — so the clock is not sufficient by itself. On a high floor the sun sets later: praying on the top floor of the Burj al-Arab in Dubai and praying at ground level are not the same — up high you must delay by two or three minutes. The same applies in flight: "we must not go by the clock alone — we must look at the sky" and see whether the sun has fully set.

7 · ʿIshāʾ — from the end of the red twilight to the true dawn #

Its time begins when Maghrib ends and continues until the appearance of the true dawn. The preferred time is not to delay beyond the first third of the night.

What the true dawn is: a light that spreads along the eastern horizon — a reflection of sunlight approaching from a distance — which then rises gradually until it is complete at sunrise.

This indicates that a prayer's time does not end until the next prayer's time begins — and Fajr is excluded from this general rule.

Work the night out in thirds to locate the preferred limit. The Ḥanafī practice is to pray ʿIshāʾ around half past nine, as is common in India.

8 · Pray early: the times are windows, not deadlines #

A Muslim should not deliberately delay a prayer to the end of its window on the argument that the window is wide — because that leads to taking the prayer outside its time, and such carelessness can lead to abandoning it altogether.

It is Sunnah to pray at the beginning of the time. The Prophet ﷺ was asked about the best deeds:

— that is, at the beginning of its time.

9 · One rakʿah inside the window: adāʾ or qaḍāʾ #

If part of a prayer falls inside the prescribed time and part outside:

The same rule the other way round: you are late for Ẓuhr, you make the takbīr and pray one rakʿah, and the ʿAṣr adhān is called during the second — Ẓuhr still counts as performed in its time.

Two cautions attached to it:

• Do not build a habit on it. Some hold that catching the takbīr suffices; do not rely on that — "you must pray [in the time]."
• The concession is for dire need and exceptional circumstances — travel, sleep and the like.

10 · Practice: learn the times by sight #

"After this, observe it a little." Stop going purely by the clock: look at the sky yourself. Watch when the red glow clears and Maghrib gives way; and in the morning look to the eastern side and work out whether what you are seeing is the true dawn or the false dawn. Come to know this by sight.