Some Guidance/Thoughts on ‘Ishā’ and Fajr Timings

The purpose of the discussion below is to give some basic guidance on the start times of ‘Ishā’ and Fajr, with particular reference to the UK. Some of the opinions expressed below are controversial, and people who disagree are free to assert their views and their reasons for disagreeing. I will inshā Allāh present documentation for most of the conclusions presented below.

Twilight

After sunset, a redness is visible on the western horizon, which gradually fades out, leaving behind a yellowness/whiteness. The whiteness is initially spread horizontally across the horizon, then fades, and a faint vertical whiteness remains higher up in the horizon. After the vertical whiteness disappears, the light of the sun is cut off, and there is complete darkness. (During certain periods of the year, there may be illumination from other heavenly bodies for some parts of the night.)

The light that appears at the time of dawn mirrors this. First a faint vertical whiteness appears on the eastern horizon, followed by a horizontal whiteness that spreads across the horizon, which then becomes mixed in with redness.

Hence, there are three types of illumination, both after sunset and before sunrise: ḥumrah (redness), bayāḍ mu‘tariḍ (horizontal whiteness) and bayāḍ mustaṭīl (vertical whiteness).

Al-Marjānī (d. 1306 H) said, quoting the astronomers:


“[After sunset], the redness, from the direction of the west, transforms gradually into a yellowness and then to whiteness, corresponding to the rotation of the sun below the horizon, until half the night. Then it returns according to this gradation, backwards, in reverse order, until the sun rises from the direction of the east.” (Nāẓūrat al-Ḥaqq, p. 350)

‘Allāmah Ẓafar Aḥmad al-‘Uthmānī said:


“The redness and whiteness that appear in the horizon after sunset both parallel the whiteness and redness that appear before sunrise, as both result from the illumination of the sun. Hence, the time between sunset and the disappearance of the white shafaq (twilight) is exactly the same as the time between the appearance of the whiteness of dawn until sunrise, as the scholars of mathematics and astronomy have stated explicitly.

“It states in Ḥāshiya Sharḥ al-Chagmīnī: ‘Shafaq and ṣubḥ (dawn) are similar in form and opposite in sequence, since ṣubḥ appears as a faint vertical whiteness and then as a horizontal whiteness and then a redness. Shafaq appears after sunset as a redness, then a horizontal whiteness and then a vertical whiteness…’

“Perhaps you have realised from this statement that the white shafaq, just like dawn, is two: a horizontal whiteness and a faint vertical whiteness. Just as what is considered in ṣubḥ is the horizontal whiteness, so too is the horizontal whiteness considered in shafaq.”

Beginning Times of ‘Ishā’ and Fajr

There are two opinions on when ‘Ishā’ begins:

1. Disappearance of the redness. This is the view of the vast majority, including the two famous students of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. It is also reported that this was Imām Abū Ḥanīfah’s final view.

2. Disappearance of the horizontal whiteness. This is the famous transmission from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah.

There is no consideration of the vertical whiteness, as highlighted in the last sentence of the passage quoted above. This is also mentioned explicitly in Ẓāhir al-Riwāyah. It states in al-Aṣl:


“Shafaq is the horizontal whiteness in the horizon according to the view of Abū Ḥanīfah, while according to the view of Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad, it is the redness.” (al-Asl, Dār Ibn Hazm, 1:123)

Other texts also specify that the “horizontal whiteness” is meant when we quote Imām Abū Ḥanīfah’s famous view, not the vertical whiteness.

[Note: At least three fuqahā’ of the Ḥanafī madhhab qualified for tarjīḥ have stated that fatwā is on the view of Sāḥibayn i.e. shafaq means the redness (ḥumrah): the author al-Fatāwā al-Sirājiyyah, Sirāj al-Dīn al-Ūshī (d. 569 H), the author of al-Wiqāyah, Tāj al-Sharī‘ah al-Maḥbūbī (d. 673 H), and the author of Majma‘ al-Bahrayn, Ibn al-Sā‘ātī (d. 694 H). The view of ḥumrah is also Asad ibn ‘Amr’s transmission (riwāyah) from Imām Abū Hanīfah.]

There is no disagreement on when Fajr begins: appearance of the horizontal whiteness. This is known as “True Dawn” (Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq).There is no consideration of the vertical whiteness, which is referred to as “False Dawn” (Ṣubḥ Kādhib).

It is important to note that the redness that appears at dawn follows very shortly after the horizontal whiteness. The time between the redness and horizontal whiteness is very short. So short, in fact, that one ḥadīth states that True Dawn begins with the “horizontal redness”, rather than the “horizontal whiteness” (as found in most ḥadīths). (Musnad Aḥmad, 26:219) Al-Khaṭṭābī explains: “The meaning of ‘redness’ here is that the horizontal whiteness conceals within it the initial phases of redness. Once the appearance of the whiteness is complete, the initial phases of redness appear.” (Ma‘ālim al-Sunan, 2:105)

Since the twilight after sunset mirrors dawn, it follows that there is a very short period of time between the disappearance of the redness and the disappearance of the horizontal whiteness. In other words, the disagreement of the imāms over the start time of ‘Ishā’ refers to a small window of time.

Degrees of Depression

As mentioned in the quote above from al-Marjānī, these illuminations in the night sky “correspond to the rotation of the sun below the horizon”. [By computing the date and location, one can find the time at different degrees of depression at the following website www.muwaqqit.com/.]

Astronomers agree, based on repeated observation, that the first light of dawn (i.e. False Dawn) appears when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon.

Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Bahā’ al-Din al-'Āmili (953 – 1031 H), a great scholar of astronomy (see: Khulāṣat al-Athar, 3:440 - 455), has a work on astronomy called Tashriḥ al-Aflak, in which he clearly says:


“It is known from repeated observation that the sun's depression below the horizon at the start of False Dawn (Ṣubḥ Kādhib) and the end of Shafaq is 18 degrees.” (manuscript, p. 123)

Al-Marjānī says:

“It is established in its place that the sun’s depression at the start of False Dawn and at the end of the last Shafaq is 18 degrees.” (Nāẓūrat al-Ḥaqq, p. 382)

Qāḍī Zadah Mūsā Chelebī (d. 840 H) writes in his Sharḥ al-Chagmīnī:


“The vertical whiteness above the earth is termed False Dawn, and the horizontal whiteness spread out in the horizon some time after it is called True Dawn, because it is truer in appearance than the first…It is known from repeated observation that the start of Dawn and the end of Shafaq is only when the sun’s depression is 18 degrees. In a land where its latitude [results in] less than a full decline of 18 degrees, Shafaq joins to False Dawn when the sun is in the summer solstice and this is the first land where this happens.” (manuscript, p. 75-6)

The context of this discussion very clearly shows that 18 degrees is the beginning of False Dawn.

‘Abd al-‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Barjandī (d. 932 H), a great Ḥanafī jurist (author of a commentary on Nuqāya) and astronomer (see La’ālī al-Maḥār, p. 643), stated this explicitly in his marginalia to the above work:


“This [18 degrees] is what is well-known…This is about the start of False Dawn. Regarding the start of True Dawn, it is said that the sun’s depression at that time is 15 degrees. And Allāh knows best.”

The above quote is found and referenced in Aḥsan al-Fatāwā (2:164-5) of Muftī Rashīd Aḥmad (1341 – 1422 H). Several other quotes are found in Aḥsan al-Fatāwā confirming that False Dawn begins at 18 degrees depression. For instance, he quotes another text saying the following:


“When the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon, the vertical whiteness is seen in the eastern side. This is called False Dawn... The whiteness that spreads out in the horizon some time after it is called True Dawn due to it being truer in appearance than the first. It is said: it begins when the sun’s depression is 15 degrees.” (Aḥsan al-Fatāwā)

Although the above clear statements are based on sightings and observations, the results of a fairly recent set of observations carried out by some of the great scholars of Pakistan confirm that Ṣubḥ Kādhib appears when the sun’s depression is 18 degrees below the horizon and Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq appears at 15 degrees depression.

In June of 1970 a group of 11 senior Pakistani ‘ulamā’ went to a region close to Tondo Adam. The coordinates of this place was approximately longitude 68.40 degrees and latitude 25.46 degrees. They chose to make observations here as it was free from light pollution and the conditions were good. On June 11, the group reported that they saw the light spreading horizontally at 4.19 am. On June 12, they reported that they came out at 3.30 am when there was no light at all in the sky. At exactly 4 am, they reported a conically shaped light that appeared vertically in the sky, and all present agreed that this was Ṣubḥ Kādhib. 17 minutes later, at 4.17 am, they saw the light spreading horizontally, which they all agreed to be Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq. They also made observations on a third day at a different location. The report was written down by Muftī Muḥammad Shafī‘. (Aḥsan al-Fatāwā, 2:175-6).

The observed timings correspond very close to 18 degrees depression for Ṣubḥ Kādhib and 15 degrees for Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq. (One can compute the information given above for the June 12 observation at muwaqqit.com to see that this is the case). Although several senior members of this group, after initially supporting this conclusion, withdrew, Muftī Rashīd Aḥmad comments: “To withdraw from a verdict based on the evidence is possible. But what does it mean to withdraw from the unanimous visual observations of eleven ‘ulamā’?! It is not valid to regard this agreed-upon issue as a point of disagreement based on their unsubstantiated disagreement, because until today there is no one in the world who says 18 degrees depression is Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq. Denial of such an agreed-upon reality cannot be called disagreement. It will rather be called an unsubstantiated dissension (khilāf).” (Aḥsan al-Fatāwā, 2:190-191)

[Note: Those who hold to 18 degrees depression for Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq, rather than Ṣubḥ Kādhib, must respond to the clear quotations cited above, and the clear results of the observations carried out by the group of Pakistani ‘ulamā’.]

Fajr (Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq) therefore begins at 15 degrees depression. ‘Ishā’, therefore, according to the view that shafaq is the horizontal whiteness, also begins at 15 degrees depression. According to the view that it is the redness, it will begin shortly before 15 degrees depression. Some 25 observations in Beacon Fells near Preston, UK, carried out by a small group of ‘ulamā’ during 2008 – 2009 reveal (based on the few successful observations) that the redness disappears at approximately 14.5 degrees depression.

In sum:

After Maghrib:

The redness disappears at: 14.5 degrees depression
The horizontal whiteness disappears at: 15 degrees depression
The vertical whiteness disappears at: 18 degrees depression

At dawn:

The vertical whiteness (Ṣubḥ Kādhib) appears at: 18 degrees depression
The horizontal whiteness (Ṣubḥ Ṣādiq) appears at: 15 degrees depression

[These times can be found by computing the date, location and degrees of depression for Fajr and ‘Ishā’ at www.muwaqqit.com/]

Hence, Fajr should be observed at 15 degrees depression and ‘Ishā’ at 14.5 or 15 degrees depression. For most of the year in the UK, the sun reaches 14.5/15 degrees depression. ‘Ishā’ and Fajr, therefore, can and indeed must be prayed at their stipulated times. As al-Marjānī says:


“The established view is that wherever the signs are found, they must be observed, and it is not allowed to be lax in determining them.” (Nāẓūrat al-Ḥaqq, p. 332)

Perpetual Twilight

For approximately one month in the UK, however, the sun’s depression does not reach 14.5/15 degrees. What should we do in this situation? Al-Marjānī was quoted above stating:


“[After sunset], the redness, from the direction of the west, transforms gradually into a yellowness and then to whiteness, corresponding to the rotation of the sun below the horizon, until half the night. Then it returns according to this gradation, backwards, in reverse order, until the sun rises from the direction of the east.” (Nāẓūrat al-Ḥaqq, p. 350)

In other words, at half the night (i.e. niṣf al-layl, halfway between sunset and sunrise), the sun begins its upward ascent. When the sun does not decline fully so that the horizontal whiteness disappears (i.e. it does not reach 15 degrees depression), dawn will therefore begin as soon as the sun begins its upward ascent, which will be at niṣf al-layl. This is because the illumination that remains after niṣf al-layl is the light that appears before sunrise, and not the light that appears after sunset. Hence, Fajr on these days will begin at niṣf al-layl, as stated by Muftī Rashīd Aḥmad (Aḥsan al-Fatāwā, 2:114). He also states that ‘Ishā’ time will be determined by taking the period of time between Maghrib and ‘Ishā’ on the last day when ‘Ishā’ time actually entered (i.e. the sun reached 14.5 or 15 degrees depression), and adding that to the Maghrib start-time. (ibid.) Or, in the words of, al-Marjānī:


“[When the redness/horizontal whiteness does not disappear], the time of Maghrib will be fixed as the period in which the twilight disappeared on normal days.”

[Note: According to al-Marjānī, there is no disagreement amongst the early scholars of the Ḥanafī madhhab that ‘Ishā’ must be prayed in this situation. He argues that disagreement was only over the situation that there is a very short gap between Maghrib and the start of Fajr, such that it is not possible to determine a time in which Maghrib ends and ‘Ishā’ begins in the manner described above. This only happens in regions much further north than the UK. Al-Marjānī casts doubt on an account that seems to suggest otherwise (a dialogue between Baqqālī and Ḥalwānī). (See: Nāẓūrat al-Ḥaqq, p. 333, 349-52)]