Salah Times 2023

As-salā­mu ‘alaykum wa-rah­mat­ul­lāhi wa-barakātuh

[4:103] Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believ­ers a decree of spec­i­fied times.

Salāh is the sec­ond pil­lar of Islām and the most impor­tant oblig­a­tion upon Mus­lims. It has to be estab­lished, metic­u­lous­ly cared for and immac­u­late­ly discharged.

The tim­ings for Salāh have been dis­tilled from the com­mands of Allah Ta’ala and the Sun­nah (noble exam­ple) of our Prophet Muham­mad (Peace be upon Him). Coun­tries which are locat­ed beyond 48 degrees have per­pet­u­al twi­light pose an addi­tion­al prob­lem to the accu­rate cal­cu­la­tion of Salāh tim­ings par­tic­u­lar­ly those of Fajr and ʿIshāʾ.

We have delib­er­at­ed over the issues and tried our best to ensure that the prayer times are accu­rate. You can down­load our App, avail­able on Google Play store and IPhone App Store for mobile access to the prayer times for any­where around the world.

The Prayer­times giv­en in the App are more accu­rate, please use the times in the App in case of con­flict with the month­ly timeta­bles provided.

1. Down­load App for Android/Google devices
2. Down­load App for iPhone/Apple devices

The App pro­vides accu­rate Salah times for the whole world. Man­u­al timeta­bles will only be cre­at­ed for spe­cial cas­es.

When a timetable is made avail­able, the name of the city will appear in Green.

Please send us an email on [email protected] to have the timetable list­ed for your city.

1. Cal­cu­la­tions for oblig­a­tory prayers are done as follows:
   1. Fajr: 18 degrees is used to deter­mine Subh-Sadiq (True Dawn). Dur­ing times of per­pet­u­al twi­light (when 18 degrees is not avail­able) the prin­ci­ple meth­ods employed are Aqrab­ul-Ayyam and Nis­ful-Layl. With Aqrab­ul-Ayyam, the last day when 18 degrees time was avail­able, is used until 18 degrees becomes avail­able again. With Nis­ful-Layl, the time between sun­set and the next sun­rise is split into two parts, and the last por­tion is con­sid­ered to be Subh Sādiq (i.e. the begin­ning of Fajr). Dur­ing per­pet­u­al twi­light, you should only use one of the two meth­ods — not both; and, you should not switch between the two meth­ods. In the App, we use a dif­fer­ent method for cal­cu­lat­ing Aqrab­ul-Ayyam and not the absolute last day. Our method is explained in the ques­tions, below.
      
   2. Ẓuhr: 4 min­utes have been added to Isti­wāʾ time to deter­mine the start.
   3. Aṣr (Shaf’ae): This is cal­cu­lat­ed when the shad­ow reach­es a fac­tor of 1 plus the orig­i­nal length of the shad­ow at Isti­wāʾ.
   4. Aṣr (Hanafi): This is cal­cu­lat­ed when the shad­ow reach­es a fac­tor of 2 plus the orig­i­nal length of the shad­ow at Isti­wāʾ.
      
   5. Maghrib (Iftaar): 5 min­utes have been added to Astro­nom­i­cal sun­set time to deter­mine the start, account­ing for refrac­tion of light.
      
   6. ʿIshā: 15 degrees is used to deter­mine the start for all loca­tions which are at 48 degrees lat­i­tude or high­er. This option in the App is called ʿIshāʾ (al-Shafaq al-Aḥmar). How­ev­er, due to per­pet­u­al twi­light and due to the Salah being late it is adjust­ed due to Haraj. The Haraj cal­cu­la­tions are explained in detail in our arti­cle enti­tled Ishāʾ at High Lat­i­tudes?. At all loca­tions which are at 48 degrees lat­i­tude or low­er 18 degrees is used to detr­mine the start time and it is called ʿIshāʾ (al-Shafaq al-Abyadh), these loca­tions will not dis­play the Haraj cal­cu­la­tions as there is no need.
2. Non-Oblig­a­tory Prayer and oth­er Astro­nom­i­cal Cal­cu­la­tions are done as follows:
   1. Salat al-Ishrāq: Salat al-Ishrāq or al-Ḍaḥwa al‑Ṣughrā starts when the sun is above the hori­zon approx­i­mate­ly to the length of a spear. In answer­ing a ques­tion about Toron­to (Cana­da), Mufti Rashid Ahmad Lud­hi­an­vi (RA) in Ahsan­ul Fatawa (vol­ume 2) rec­om­mends a solar angle of angle 1.4° to com­mence Salat al-Ishrāq. We con­sult­ed Jamia Tur Rasheed (Karachi) on the 19th of May, 2021, and were told that Hazrat (RA)’s method was to observe solar move­ments in tem­per­ate regions; and, in this case, he observed that it took 9 to 11 min­utes for the sun to rise suf­fi­cient­ly (in Karachi) and rec­om­mend­ed this appli­ca­tion to oth­er parts of the world, too. Jamia Tur Rasheed (Karachi) sug­gest­ed we cal­cu­late at a high­er val­ue for the Unit­ed King­dom. Thus, we sug­gest cal­cu­lat­ing the start time for Salat al-Ishrāq to be at 3.0° after sun­rise and end time to be at the start of Salat ad-Duha.
   2. Salat ad-Duha: Mufti Ebrahim Desai (HA) rec­om­mends the start of Salat ad-Duha to be from mid-morn­ing and the end to be at Isti­wāʾ. Thus, we sug­gest cal­cu­lat­ing the start time for Salat ad-Duha by sub­tract­ing Isti­wāʾ from sun­rise, divid­ing the num­ber by 2, and adding the result­ing time dif­fer­ence to sun­rise to get the start time. The end time for Salat ad-Duha will be at Isti­wāʾ.
   3. Nisf al‑Nahār al‑Sharʿī: This is the time (also known as al-Ḍaḥwa al‑Kubrā) by which one may form the inten­tion for fast accord­ing to the Ḥanafī Mad­hab. Thus, we sug­gest cal­cu­lat­ing Nisf al‑Nahār al‑Sharʿī as mid­day point between Fajr and sun­set. Dur­ing the days of per­pet­u­al twi­light in the UK, Fajr will be esti­mat­ed using the Nis­ful Layl method.
   4. Makrooh time after Aṣr: In answer­ing the same ques­tion about Toron­to (Cana­da), Mufti Rashid Ahmad Lud­hi­an­vi (RA) in Ahsan­ul Fatawa (vol­ume 2) rec­om­mends a solar angle of angle 2.3° (see ear­li­er dis­cus­sion). Thus, we sug­gest cal­cu­lat­ing the start time for Makrooh time to be at 4.0° before sunset.
   5. 1/3rd, Mid and 2/3rd of Sharʿī night: These have some impli­ca­tions for fol­low­ers of oth­er Mad­habs and also for the start of Taha­jjud prayers. Thus, we sug­gest split­ting the time between sun­set and sun­rise into 1/3rd, half way and then 2/3rd using math­e­mat­i­cal formulas.
   6. Astro­nom­i­cal sun­rise and sun­set times: These are the astro­nom­i­cal sun­rise and sun­set times for the loca­tion cho­sen by the user on a giv­en date.
   7. Astro­nom­i­cal moon­rise and moon­set times: These are the astro­nom­i­cal moon­rise and moon­set times for the loca­tion cho­sen by the user on a giv­en date.
   8. Astro­nom­i­cal new Moon con­junc­tion: This is the date and time of the next new Moon con­junc­tion. It should be not­ed that Islam­ic months begin and end with the sight­ing of the Moon and not the birth or pres­ence of the Moon in the sky which can be math­e­mat­i­cal­ly calculated.
   9. Moon Phase: This is the phase of the Moon at a giv­en date, the notice about Moon­sight­ing also applies to this calculation.
   10. Moon Illu­mi­na­tion: This is the per­cent­age illu­mi­na­tion of the Moon at a giv­en date, the notice about Moon­sight­ing also applies to this calculation.
   11. Moon Alti­tude: This is the alti­tude of the Moon at a giv­en date, the notice about Moon­sight­ing also applies to this calculation.
   12. Moon Azimuth: This is the azimuth of the Moon at a giv­en date which togeth­er with the alti­tude can be used to assist in Moon­sight­ing, the notice about Moon­sight­ing also applies to this calculation.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Wifaqul Ulama App

Only Allah Ta’ala has the knowl­edge of the unseen, we have no idea!

InshaAl­lah and with plea­sure. We have explained our prayer times are derived and the lat­i­tude and lon­gi­tude of the loca­tion is on each page of the timetable. You need to ask your Mosque about the loca­tion (i.e. lat­i­tude and lon­gi­tude) they have used and their meth­ods. You then need to ask how they have cal­cu­lat­ed these times. You will either dis­cov­er the rea­sons or be able to send us a more com­plete question.

There is a dif­fer­ence of opin­ion amongst Schol­ars of dif­fer­ent Mad­hahib on Aṣr times and in order to pro­vide a ser­vice to Mus­lims of dif­fer­ing schools of thought both times have been pro­vid­ed. You should con­sult your local Schol­ars and adopt the rec­om­mend­ed time, if you are unable to con­sult a local schol­ar or check with your local Imam, use Aṣr (Hanafi) time.

The Java libraries used to cal­cu­late prayers times are dif­fer­ent and give slight­ly dif­fer­ent results. We have giv­en the rea­sons to the Schol­ars and demon­strat­ed the slight dif­fer­ences and Insha’Al­lah they will not impact your acts of worship.

We would like to begin by extend­ing our grat­i­tude to you for ask­ing this ques­tion. May Allah (SWT) give you the best of rewards (Ameen).

We would like to also extend our grat­i­tude to Dr Shahid Mer­ali and his team for their hard work in gen­er­at­ing Inter­est amongst British Mus­lims. We par­tic­u­lar­ly like the fact that the back­ground of the research and data is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble for scrutiny.

The fun­da­men­tal flaw is that Birm­ing­ham is locat­ed in one of the most light pol­lut­ed areas of Unit­ed King­dom. The start of Subh-Sadiq (True Dawn) is based upon dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing the first rays of light. Open­Fa­jr is not using any spe­cialised equip­ment which can account for the light pol­lu­tion. It is not pos­si­ble to deter­mine (emerg­ing) rays of light when light already exists!

We have nev­er come across a study which tries to deter­mine Subh-Sadiq (True Dawn) in a city. The first rule is to move away from light pol­lu­tion and then study the phenomenon.

Our con­cerns have been com­mu­ni­cat­ed to Dr Shahid Mer­ali, see map of Birm­ing­ham (light pol­lu­tion) and UK below:

Ques­tion: Why does your Fajar start dif­fer from the research of Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf, who goes by the pen-name of Tal­ib al-Habib?

The research by Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf is even bet­ter! We have rarely come across such detailed, lucid and beau­ti­ful­ly elab­o­rat­ed work in any lan­guage and may Allah Ta’ala reward him abun­dant­ly for his effort and hard work.

How­ev­er, we have two major con­cerns with his research which we have com­mu­ni­cat­ed to him:

1. He research is based upon the hypoth­e­sis that astro­nom­i­cal twi­light varies accord­ing to lat­i­tude, i.e. astro­nom­i­cal twi­light degree will dif­fer between Karachi and Lon­don. He does quote evi­dence for his posi­tion, how­ev­er this is dis­put­ed with and dis­agreed by sci­en­tists the world over. Con­se­quent­ly, the evi­dence cit­ed by him has weakness.
2. His opin­ion is based on Tabayyun (for the deter­mi­na­tion of Fajar) which he admits to be a weak­er opin­ion in the Hanafi Mad­hab. We deem Tabayyun (for the deter­mi­na­tion of Fajar) to be not weak but wrong.

Ques­tion: What is your rec­om­men­da­tion to cor­rect­ly deter­mine the start of Subh-Sadiq (True Dawn)?

We agree with the crux of the research of Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf that more obser­va­tion­al data (Musha­hadah) is need­ed for Unit­ed King­dom. The loca­tion to observe must be care­ful­ly cho­sen so the obser­va­tion is not ruined by light pol­lu­tion. Until then we rec­om­mend 18 degrees as per the near unan­i­mous con­sen­sus of Islam­ic Schol­ars (the world over).

The App uses your absolute pre­cise loca­tion (lon­gi­tude, lat­i­tude and alti­tude) with pin­point accu­ra­cy while these timeta­bles are gen­er­at­ed using post­codes or address. The App (when using GPS) will always be pre­cise and accu­rate while using post­codes is a blunt method (and does not include alti­tude). There­fore, we always rec­om­mend for you to use the Mobile App.

HMNAO uses absolute last day (Aqrab­ul-Ayyam) and this caus­es severe prob­lems dur­ing leap years. Thus we pre­sent­ed this issue to the Ula­ma in detail and showed the prob­lem. We were able to demon­strate that at the same loca­tion there could be a dif­fer­ence of (10–15 min­utes) when com­pared to a leap year. In order to counter this math­e­mat­i­cal issue, we ana­lyzed prayer times of near­ly 3,000 post­codes in Britain and arrived at a con­clu­sion that it is bet­ter to adopt a 3 day aver­age (near Aqrab­ul-Ayyam) rather then use the absolute last day like HMNAO. The Ula­ma have agreed that this will not inval­i­date the fast in any­way but it is an extreme­ly com­plex math­e­mat­i­cal prob­lem to explain in a short answer. We have demon­strat­ed the prob­lem and the solu­tion to the Ula­ma and they are sat­is­fied. You can use the Mobile App or utilise Nis­ful-Layl dur­ing the times of per­pet­u­al twi­light, if you dis­agree with the solu­tion. Our Mobile App and pdf dis­plays both times for this rea­son and gives you flexibility.

We under­stand that some peo­ple like to print the timetable and hang it on their refrig­er­a­tor and wish to use Aqrab­ul-Ayyam instead of Nis­ful-Layl, in that case explain the mat­ter to your fam­i­ly or all con­cerned. Nis­ful-Layl can be cal­cu­lat­ed with a high degree of accu­ra­cy dai­ly while Aqrab­ul-Ayyam is a time which is locked through­out the dura­tion of per­pet­u­al twilight.