1. TIME OF SALAT

Each prayer(salat) must be offered at or during its proper time. No salat can be offered before its time. There are five obligatory salats in a day.

FAJR PRAYER

The time for the ‘Fajr’ or the Morning Prayer starts at dawn and ends at sunrise.

Zuhr Prayer

The time for ‘Zuhr’ or the early afternoon prayer starts when the sun begins to decline from its zenith and ends when the size of an object’s shadow is equal to the size of the object.

Jabir bin Abdullah(ra) narrated, "The angel Jibreel came to Prophet Muhammad(saw) and said to him, ‘"Stand up and pray Zuhr". So the messenger of Allah(saw) prayed ‘Zuhr’ when the sun had declined from its zenith. Then the Angel Jibreel came again at the time of ‘Asr’ and said, ‘Stand up and Pray Asr’ Then Prophet Muhammad(saw) prayed ‘Asr’ when the shadow of everything was equal to itself. Then Jibreel came the next day to Prophet Muhammad(saw) and said, ‘"Stand up and pray Zuhr". Then Prophet Muhammad(saw) prayed Zuhr when the shadow of everything was equal to itself. Then Jibreel came again at ‘Asr’ time and said, "Stand up and pray Asr". Then he prayed Asr when the shadow of everything was twice its length. Then Jibreel said, (after praying 10 prayers with Prophet Muhammad(saw) in two consecutive days) that "the time of prayer is in between these two times".

Ahmad, Nasai, Tirmizi and Bukhari remarked that this is the most authentic hadith giving the times of prayer.

We find that many books on salat state the ending time of ‘Zuhr’ prayer and the starting time of ‘Asr’ prayer when the shadow of something is twice itself. But this contradicts the above hadith as on the first day Jibreel asked Prophet Muhammad(saw) to pray Asr when the shadow of everything was equal to itself. This means that was the end time of ‘Zuhr’ prayer. And we already know that all the ulamas of the Muslim Ummah agree unanimously that no prayer can be offered before its time.

Asr Prayer

The time for ‘Asr’ or late afternoon prayer starts when the shadow of something is equal to itself and ends just before sunset. It is better to offer ‘Asr’ prayer before the sun becomes yellow because even though it is allowed to offer the prayer at this time the Prophet(saw) disliked Muslims to delay ‘Asr’ prayer. He remarked that the (hypocrites) offered their prayer at this time.

Maghrib Prayer

The time for ‘Maghrib’ or the sunset prayer starts just after sunset and ends when twilight has disappeared.

Isha Prayer

The time for ‘Isha’ or night prayer starts from the disappearance of twilight and ends just before midnight.

It is preferable to offer this prayer before midnight but it can be offered right up to the break of dawn.

Note: – In countries where due to cloudy weather the sun is not always visible it is advisable to follow printed calendars giving the accurate time of each prayer.

FORBIDDEN TIMES OF PRAYER

One of the companions of the prophet had said "There were three times at which Allah’s messenger(saw) used to forbid us to pray or bury our dead.

1. When the sun began to rise until it was fully up.
2. When the sun was at it’s height at midday till it passed the meridian,
3. When the sun drew near to setting till it had set." (MUSLIM)

FORBIDDEN TIMES FOR NAFL PRAYER

(i) Abu Sa’eed al Khudree(ra) reported Allah’s messenger(saw) as saying, "No prayer is to be said after the ‘Fajr’ prayer until the sun rises, or after the ‘Asr’ prayer until the sun sets."(Bukhari & Muslim)

Only ‘nafl’ prayer is forbidden at these times but a missed ‘fard’ prayer can be offered. Most of the ulamas of the Muslim Ummah allowed the offering of missed ‘fard’ prayer after ‘Fajr’ and ‘Asr’ because of the following hadith ; Prophet Muhammad(saw) said, Who has forgotten the prayer he should pray it whenever he remembers it." (Bukhari & Muslim)

(ii) A ‘nafl’ prayer cannot be offered once the Iqamat for ‘fard’ prayer has been said. Abu Hurairah narrated that the messenger of Allah(saw) said, "When the Iqamat has been said, then, there is no prayer valid (Nafl or sunnat) except the ‘Fard’ prayer for which the Iqamat was said." (Ahmad & Muslim)

It is seen in practice that many people continue with the sunnat even though the iqamat has been said for the ‘fard’ prayer especially in the ‘fajr’ prayer. They feel that the 2 rakat sunnat of ‘fajr’ can only be offered before the ‘Fard’. This practice is against congregation Philosophy, discipline of Jama’at, and a clear violation of Hadith. They should offer 2 rakat sunnat- of ‘Fajr’ immediately after the ‘Fard’ or after sunrise.