The Fajr

The Fajr is at 18 Degrees

When to perform the Fajr prayer

Al-Fajr al-Sadiq, the true Fajr, is the first light that spreads across the horizon. Today, this phenomenon can only be observed in a few regions of the Earth. When humanity harnessed the Earth through electricity, and the stars disappeared due to artificial light, the first light of Fajr was also obscured by our lighting. In most regions, it simply no longer gets dark enough to detect this subtle light on the horizon. This has led many who no longer know the true night to go astray. And so, everyone reports a different angle for calculating the Fajr. However, the angle for the Fajr has been known for over 1,000 years. It is at 18 degrees. And some have been able to detect it at 19 degrees. And the astronomers said: Whoever claims the angle is lower than 18 is stating something abnormal.

The scholars and astronomers on the first light of Fajr

The astronomer Al-Battānī said in the year (317 AH) in the twelfth chapter of Kitāb az-Zīj on the construction of the astrolabe (a tool for astronomical measurement): "If you wish to determine the arcs (muqantarāt) for the appearance of the dawn (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and the disappearance of the dusk (maghīb al-shafaq), place the Capricorn (ra's al-jady) at eighteen in the arcs and mark the circle of Cancer (madār ra's al-sarṭān) in the counterpart as a sign. Then place the Aries (ra's al-ḥamal) on that arc and mark it in the counterpart. Afterwards, place the Cancer (ra's al-sarṭān) on it and mark it on the counterpart. Then find a centre point that brings the three signs together for you, and draw a line across it. Then do on the other side what you did with their counterparts, so that the arc in the east is the arc of the rising of the dawn (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and the one in the west is the arc of the setting of the dusk."

The astronomer al-Bīrūnī (440 AH) wrote in his book al-Qanoon al-Masoudi: "... and this is the dawn (Fajr), which has three types: The first is pointed, elongated, upright, known as the false dawn (Al-Fajr Al-Kadhib) and is also referred to as the 'tail of the wolf' (Dhanab al-Sarhan), and nothing of the religious laws (Shari'a) or official customs is associated with it. The second type is flat, spreads across the horizon, round like a semicircle, with which the world is illuminated, under which animals and humans gather for their habits and the conditions for acts of worship are fulfilled. The third type is a redness that follows the sun and precedes it, and it is like the first in relation to the religious law ... and depending on the need for dawn (Fajr) and dusk, the scholars of this science have made their observations and derived the rules for the time from them, that when the sun sinks below the horizon and this amounts to eighteen parts, this is the time of the beginning of the dawn (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) in the east and the time of the disappearance of the dusk in the west, and because it is not separated from each other but rather mixed (Comment: Which means that Al-Fajr Al-Kadhib and Al-Fajr As-Sadiq mix and some could not recognise the beginning and the end), there were differences of opinion in this rule, so that some saw it as seventeen parts."

The astronomer Ibn al-Zarqālah (493 AH) said in the forty-ninth chapter on the knowledge of the dusk (al-shafaq) and the beginning of the Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) in one of his letters: "You look at the sun, and if it has a northern declination, then set the end of the alidade (rotatable measuring device for angle display) to the altitude of Aries (al-ḥamal) in your country in the quarter of the altitude, then remove the crossbar from the centre of the plate to the side of the eighteen mark... What then remains is the time the firmament (al-falak) rotates from sunset to the end of dusk and likewise from the beginning of Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) to sunrise."

The great astronomer Nasir ud-Din at-Tusi (672 AH) said, after distinguishing between the false Fajr (al-fajr al-kadhib) and the true Fajr (al-fajr as-sadiq): "It has been established through observation (al-rasd) that the beginning of Fajr (awwal al-fajr) and the end of dusk (akhir al-shafaq) are the time when the sun has sunk eighteen degrees below the horizon in relation to its circle of altitude (da'irat irtifā'ihā)."

The astronomer Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ja'far ibn Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Baas al-Aslami (693 AH) said: "The ninth chapter on the knowledge of the altitude of a star for the beginning of the Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and the disappearance of the dusk (al-yafaq) is based on a circle of 18 from the east for the dusk (al-shafaq) and from the west for the Fajr, etc." (Comment: Since the sun is not visible, it is measured by the altitude of a visible star)

The astronomer al-Qadi Zada (840 AH) said in his commentary on al-Jaghmini's summary of astronomy: "It has been established through experience that the beginning of the morning (awwal as-sabah) and the end of the dusk (akhir al-shafaq) only occur when the sun is eighteen parts (degrees) below the horizon."

Abu Zaid Abd ur-Rahman ibn Omar as-Susi al-Bu'aqili, known as Ibn al-Mufti (1003 AH), said in the section on the times of the disappearance of dusk (al-shafaq) and the beginning of Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and their respective stages: "It is important to know that the disappearance of dusk (al-shafaq) corresponds to the beginning of Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr), and that is when the sun is eighteen degrees below the horizon."