The Fiqh Council of North America – General Body Meeting in Dallas, Texas on October 27-29, 2017
Question: On the prayer apps we use, there are many different calculation methods available to determine the times of Fajr and Isha. Which one should we select?
Short answer: The Fiqh Council of North America suggests using 15° for both Fajr and Isha in the USA and using 13° for both Fajr and Isha in Canada, throughout the year. This corresponds to “Islamic Society of North America” in most prayer apps.
The Suggested Calculation Method for Fajr & Isha Times
For a long time, Muslims have used calculations to determine the timings of Fajr and Isha prayer. The fixed degrees indicate the Sun’s angle of depression below the horizon. The concept of using fixed degrees has been around for centuries, which ranges anywhere from 12-20° in different regions.
Today, it is common for most Muslims to access these prayer times from a website or their mobile phone app. In the settings section of the app, there are usually options for choosing a calculation method as follows:
Calculation Methods
| Organization | Angle of the sun under the horizon (Fajr) | Angle of the sun under the horizon (Isha) | Region |
| Muslim World League | 18 degrees | 17 degrees | Europe, The Far East, Parts of the USA |
| Egyptian General Authority of Survey | 19.5 degrees | 17.5 degrees | Africa, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Malaysia, Parts of the USA |
| University Of Islamic Sciences, Karachi | 18 degrees | 18 degrees | Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Parts of Europe |
| Umm Al-Qura | 18.5 Degrees (19 degrees before 1430 hijri) | 90 minutes after the Sunset Prayer. 120 minutes (in Ramadan only) | The Arabian Peninsula |
| Islamic Society of North America | 15 degrees | 15 degrees | Parts of the USA, Canada, Parts of the UK |
| Union des Organisations Islamiques de France | 12 degrees | 12 degrees | France region |
| Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura | 20 degrees | 18 degrees | Singapore region |
Decades of research conducted by organizations such as moonsighting.com, as well as several other individuals, have revealed that the timings for Fajr and Isha are not scientifically deterministic and vary with season, latitude, elevation, and other factors. Due to repeated inquiries sent to the Fiqh Council of North America and the Islamic Society of North America, two sessions were held to discuss the topic in 2016 and 2017.
The conclusion from these meetings was that since none of the calculation methods are entirely accurate for all locations across North America, an approximation must be made to ease the burden on Muslims from having to visually observe twilight and dusk on a regular basis. After much discussion, and analyzing the observational data from different regions in North America, as well as discussing the legal [fiqhi] aspects of how the timings should be determined, a conclusion was reached.
The Fiqh Council of North America suggests using 15° for both Fajr and Isha in the USA and using 13° for both Fajr and Isha in Canada, throughout the year. Understanding that these timings are not always exact, FCNA also reminds Muslims who are able to determine the timings more precisely in their city and season through actual observations to consider exercising caution by either a) delaying the start of Fajr/Isha prayer by a few minutes to ensure that the time has really entered and b) hasten the start of fasting by a few minutes to ensure that the time to stop eating has not entered. This is not a requirement, only a recommendation.
Why Didn’t Other Councils Adopt a 15 Degree Calculation?
It is not well-documented how other scholar councils and independent scholars arrived at 18 degrees or higher. There are three probable reasons:
- They observed these calculations in their own region during a season where the degrees were higher. Their study was probably not done in different locations in the world and not done at different elevations or seasons.
- They adopted the scientific calculation of astronomical twilight at 18 degrees and ignored nautical twilight at 12 degrees and civil twilight at 6 degrees. However, astronomical twilight is not the same as the Islamic-legal definition of the start of fajr or isha. Therefore, there was a false conflation between the two values.
- They found the calculations of premodern astronomers at those degrees, but they were probably different than those used by contemporary astronomers as opined by Yusuf: “Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, they may not have been directly measuring solar depression at all, but rather stellar elevation and (at most) inferring solar depression from it…this is not how twilight angles are determined in modern times. A classical astronomical text citing 18 degrees for true dawn is likely referring to the angle of elevation of a particular star above the opposite horizon from the Sun. A modern discussion is referring to actual solar depression as determined by a different set of calculations. It may be that these are exact parallels, but this needs to be clearly determined, especially given the fact that the relationship between the Sun and the other celestial bodies is not fixed.” See Asim Yusuf, Shedding Light on the Dawn (Nur al-Habib Productions, 2017), p. 199.
And Allāh ﷻ knows best.
Note: A more detailed article on this matter can be found here: Fifteen or Eighteen Degrees: Calculating Prayer & Fasting Times in Islam