Muslims pray five times a day, but not at six, twelve and three o’clock. The prayer times follow the sun: dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and night. That is why they move every day, and nowhere more than here, close to the Arctic Circle.
Times set by Allah
The prayer is bound to time.
فَإِذَا قَضَيۡتُمُ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ فَٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمٗا وَقُعُودٗا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِكُمۡۚ فَإِذَا ٱطۡمَأۡنَنتُمۡ فَأَقِيمُواْ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَۚ إِنَّ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ كَانَتۡ عَلَى ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ كِتَٰبٗا مَّوۡقُوتٗا
And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times
The Qur’an names the times by the sun itself: from the moment it declines from its height until the darkness of the night, and then the dawn:
أَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ لِدُلُوكِ ٱلشَّمۡسِ إِلَىٰ غَسَقِ ٱلَّيۡلِ وَقُرۡءَانَ ٱلۡفَجۡرِۖ إِنَّ قُرۡءَانَ ٱلۡفَجۡرِ كَانَ مَشۡهُودٗا
Establish prayer at the decline of the sun [from its meridian] until the darkness of the night and [also] the Qur'an of dawn. Indeed, the recitation of dawn is ever witnessed
The angel shows the times
Two days in a row: first at the start of each time, then at its end.
The Prophet ﷺ related that the angel Jibril led him in prayer at the Kaʿbah on two days. On the first he prayed each prayer at the beginning of its time, on the second at the end:
يَا مُحَمَّدُ هَذَا وَقْتُ الأَنْبِيَاءِ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ، وَالْوَقْتُ فِيمَا بَيْنَ هَذَيْنِ الْوَقْتَيْنِ
“… Then Jibril turned towards me and said: O Muhammad, these are the times of the Prophets before you, and the time is what is between these two times.”
So each prayer has a window, not a single minute. And every boundary is measured in the sky: light on the horizon, the shadow of a stick, the red glow after sunset.
Five signs
You need no clock. Only the sky and a shadow.
- Fajr begins when the first light spreads along the eastern horizon, and lasts until sunrise.
- Dhuhr begins when the sun has passed its highest point and starts to decline, and lasts until Asr.
- Asr begins when an object’s shadow is as long as the object (plus its shadow at noon), and lasts until the sun turns yellow.
- Maghrib begins at sunset and lasts until the red glow has left the sky.
- Isha begins in the darkness after the glow, and lasts until the middle of the night.
These boundaries come straight from a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ lists the time of each prayer:
إِذَا صَلَّيْتُمُ الْفَجْرَ فَإِنَّهُ وَقْتٌ إِلَى أَنْ يَطْلُعَ قَرْنُ الشَّمْسِ الأَوَّلُ ثُمَّ إِذَا صَلَّيْتُمُ الظُّهْرَ فَإِنَّهُ وَقْتٌ إِلَى أَنْ يَحْضُرَ الْعَصْرُ فَإِذَا صَلَّيْتُمُ الْعَصْرَ فَإِنَّهُ وَقْتٌ إِلَى أَنْ تَصْفَرَّ الشَّمْسُ فَإِذَا صَلَّيْتُمُ الْمَغْرِبَ فَإِنَّهُ وَقْتٌ إِلَى أَنْ يَسْقُطَ الشَّفَقُ فَإِذَا صَلَّيْتُمُ الْعِشَاءَ فَإِنَّهُ وَقْتٌ إِلَى نِصْفِ اللَّيْلِ
“When you pray Fajr, its time is until the first part of the sun appears. When you pray Zuhr, its time is until ʿAsr comes. When you pray ʿAsr, its time is until the sun turns yellow. When you pray Maghrib, its time is until the twilight has disappeared. When you pray ʿIsha, its time is until half of the night has passed.”
Same sun, Reykjavík
In December, 21 minutes pass between Dhuhr and Asr. In June, almost five hours.
Near the equator the prayer times barely change through the year. In Reykjavík, the December sun climbs only about two degrees above the horizon at noon. Shadows stay long all day, and the Asr shadow is reached almost at once. In June the sun is high and shadows grow slowly.
| Reykjavík | 21 Dec | 20 Mar | 21 Jun |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fajr | 08:31 | 05:21 | 02:15 |
| Sunrise | 11:22 | 07:29 | 02:55 |
| Dhuhr | 13:26 | 13:35 | 13:30 |
| Asr | 13:47 | 16:33 | 18:22 |
| Maghrib | 15:30 | 19:43 | 00:04 |
| Isha | 17:00 | 21:13 | 01:34 |
| Dhuhr to Asr | 21 min | 2 h 58 min | 4 h 52 min |
| Daylight | 4 h 8 min | 12 h 14 min | 21 h 9 min |
Summer brings its own challenge. Around the summer solstice the sun never goes far below the horizon and it never gets properly dark. The red glow does not fade, and dawn begins again almost at once. The signs that mark Isha and Fajr simply do not appear. Scholars have answered this with estimation. The mosque at Ármúli in Reykjavík sets Isha at 90 minutes after sunset all year, and Fajr at the sun being 14.2° below the horizon; on the lightest nights, Fajr is never earlier than 14.2/60 of the night before sunrise.
The rhythm of the year
The prayer does not follow the clock. It follows the day.
In winter the prayers gather into a few hours of daylight; in summer they spread across almost the whole day and night. For Muslims in Iceland the season becomes part of worship. The dark days of winter and the bright summer nights, which everyone here knows, are also the clock that calls to prayer.