Sun Positions for the 5 Daily Prayer Times in Islam

0:00All of these prayer times are according to the Sun when it comes to Fajr, the morning prayer. The time for Fajr is from true dawn when light first spreads across the horizon until sun rise, when the actual disc emerges above the horizon. So if you think about this being the horizon, and this being the disc of the Sun, light from the Sun is going to extend above the horizon before the actual disc rises above the horizon. And this is the period of time to pray Fajr. Now the Sun of course is going to continue to rise, and once the disc extends above the horizon, the time for Fajr has finished. Now throughout the morning the Sun it continues to rise, but eventually it's going to reach its uppermost point before it starts to descend. And the time for the herprayer, or the noon prayer, is from when the Sun passes its zenith. It passes its highest point up until an object's shadow equals its length. If there is a light source directly above an object, the shadow is going to be short.

1:04But as that light source moves further and further in front of the object, the shadow is going to extend. It's going to become longer and longer. So as the Sun descends and the shadow of objects become longer, eventually the time for Asr comes in. From when an object's shadow becomes equal to its length, up until the Sun light turns yellow. So something else that happens as the Sun goes down, the light from the Sun becomes more of a yellowish color. And this is the period of time that we should perform Asr. However, if somebody is unable to perform Asr during this time due to some sort of necessity, then they can perform Asr prayer until sunset. So as the Sun continues to go down, eventually it's going to be beneath the horizon, but we'll still be able to see those sun rays. And this is the time for Mugrib, which is from when the Sun sets completely until the red twilight disappears. So the Sun will continue to go down until that sunlight is no longer visible. And this is the time for Asya. From when the red twilight disappears until midnight.

2:09Now what's meant by midnight is halfway between Mugrib and Fajr. So for example, if Mugrib comes in at seven o'clock p.m. And Fajr comes in at seven o'clock a.m. We want to calculate the halfway point in between these two times. So how many hours are in between seven p.m. and seven a.m. 12, 12 hours. What's half of 12? Six. So therefore we would consider midnight to be six hours after seven p.m. And what time would that be? One o'clock a.m. So the time to pray Asya would be from when the red twilight disappears up until one o'clock a.m. in this particular case.