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. As humans 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 recognize this faint 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 the calculation of Fajr. Yet the angle for Fajr has been known for more than 1000 years. It is at 18 degrees. And some were able to recognize it at 19 degrees. And astronomers have said: Whoever claims the angle is lower than 18 is saying 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 regarding the construction of the astrolabe (a tool for astronomical measurement): "If you want to determine the arcs (muqantarāt) for the appearance of the morning twilight (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and the disappearance of the evening twilight (maghīb al-shafaq), set Capricorn (ra's al-jady) to eighteen in the arcs and mark the circle of Cancer (madār ra's al-sarṭān) on the counterpart as a sign. Then set Aries (ra's al-ḥamal) on that arc and mark it on the counterpart. After that, place Cancer (ra's al-sarṭān) on it and mark it on the counterpart. Then look for a center 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 morning twilight (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and the one in the west is the arc of the setting of the evening twilight."

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 depends on it. The second type is flat, spreading horizontally 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 terms of the religious law ... and depending on the need for dawn (Fajr) and evening twilight, the scholars of this science have made their observations and derived the laws 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 dawn (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) in the east and the time of the disappearance of evening twilight in the west, and because it is not separated from one another, but rather mixed (Commentary: Which means that Al-Fajr Al-Kadhib and Al-Fajr As-Sadiq mix and some could not recognize the beginning and the end), there were differences of opinion in this law, 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 twilight (al-shafaq) and the beginning of 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 (a rotating measuring device for displaying angles) to the altitude of Aries (al-ḥamal) in your country in the quarter of the altitude, then remove the crossbar from the center of the plate to the side of the mark eighteen... What then remains is the time that the firmament (al-falak) rotates from sunset to the end of twilight and likewise from the beginning of Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) to sunrise."

The great astronomer Nasir ud-Din at-Tusi (672 AH) said, after he had distinguished 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 twilight (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 Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and the disappearance of twilight (al-yafaq) is based on a circle of 18 from the east for twilight (al-shafaq) and from the west for Fajr, etc." (Commentary: Since the sun is not visible, it is measured based on the altitude of a visible star)

The astronomer al-Qadi Zada (840 AH) said in his commentary on al-Jaghmini's summary on astronomy: "It was established by experience that the beginning of the morning (awwal as-sabah) and the end of the evening twilight (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 twilight (al-shafaq) and the beginning of Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr) and their respective degrees: "It is important to know that the disappearance of twilight (al-shafaq) corresponds to the beginning of Fajr (ṭuluʿ al-fajr), and that is when the sun stands eighteen degrees below the horizon."