Friday Sermon by: Alban Fejza, Online Congregation Director

Summary:

In this Friday sermon, Alban Fejza explains when the evening and dawn twilights begin and end, why different groups disagree about the evening and dawn prayer times, and why worship at any time of the day is never wasted.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. As some of you know, we as submitters do the evening prayer whenever evening comes, and after the twilight disappears, after evening ends, we do the night prayer, and then when the dawn twilight comes, we do the dawn prayer. And for one reason or another there are many smaller groups who actually disagree with the mainstream narrative about when twilight happens. When does the evening prayer time start and end, and when does the dawn prayer start and end. The mainstream general consensus about the evening, when the Evening starts and ends is that it starts when the sun sets and it ends when the sun is 18 degrees below horizon. This is also the definition of the astronomers, which they call the end of astronomical twilight, and this is also what the majority of Muslims around the world use, and this is also what Rashad Khalifa used, and it’s also what I accept. However, there are groups of people, or individuals who think that the evening twilight ends not when the sun is 18 degrees below horizon, but when it is 17.5, and some say 15, and some say 14, and some say 12 degrees below horizon, and they all have their own justifications, which actually for that part make sense. However, the dispute is still there. So, about ten years ago, I set on a journey to solve this dispute by showing the people with photographic evidence what the issue is all about. Now, there are a lot of amateur people who try to do this, and reach all kinds of conclusions, and they are then convinced that they are right and the whole world might be wrong. First, they forget to take into account that the experiment can be done only in a moonless night, which is pretty much only once a month for about a couple of days before the new moon, because otherwise the moonlight scatters across the sky and interferes with the experiment, they forget that the experiment doesn’t work if there are city or village lights anywhere for tenths and hundreds of miles, because city lights are reflected by the top layers of the atmosphere and come back as twilight, which interferes with the sensitivity of the eye and the camera, and then they are not sensitive enough to detect the true twilight which might be less bright than that. This is called light pollution. In today’s world, pretty much anywhere in the world the night sky is polluted with artificial light, except in rare places and in faraway oceans. Anyway, there are several other factors which need to be controlled, like the flatness of the horizon, the adjusting of the eyes, which means that you have to have some kind of automatic time keeping, or audio time keeping, because if you look at the clock at those times, which you need for the experiment, you might not see what time it is, but if you look at it with a light, you ruin the experiment by readjusting your eyes to a different level of brightness, and then it takes time until your eyes adjust back to the proper darkness to be sensitive enough to see the twilight, and the sky has to be completely clear from clouds, and also not near any industrial place, and a few other factors like that. And all the people who actually do the observation as amateurs, they do not even take these factors into consideration. So, again, about ten years ago, I decided to do this properly, I found a day and a place when all these conditions are fulfilled, but it meant that I had to go to a very remote location far from civilization, towards a western coast by the sea, to find a flat horizon, which was not reachable by car. So, I had to also hike for a couple of days on foot with my backpack, food, water, the tripod on one shoulder and a professional camera on the other. And here is the photographic evidence which I collected: So, I took pictures of the sky at specific intervals, and then synchronized them with astronomical almanacs which show at which degree under horizon was the sun at that moment. And here is the result: This is how the sky looked like when the sun was 3 degrees below horizon. I did not need to start from 0 because no one actually thinks that the sky gets immediately dark when the sun sets. So, the question which I am trying to answer with these pictures is: “How far should the sun be below horizon for the sky to turn completely dark? So, this is how dark it was when the sun was 3 degrees below horizon. Now here is 4 degrees below horizon, slightly darker. 5 degrees below horizon – even darker. 6 degrees. Now this the point where Civil Twilight stops and Nautical Twilight starts. Actually these Civil Twilight and Nautical Twilight are just made up terms for legal purposes, like for knowing when to oblige the cars to turn their headlines on, or when a ship can see another ship, and in case they have an accident, they would use these definitions to decide if it was negligence, or intentional, or things like that, but in reality as you can see, twilight is just a continuous thing, gradually decreasing. The sky simply keeps getting gradually darker. There is no cut off point. It just keeps getting darker and darker gradually. Now here is at 7 degrees. Here is at 8 degrees. Here is at 9 degrees. Here is at 10 degrees. Here is at 11 degrees, even darker. And here is at 12 degrees. Now this is the point where Nautical Twilight ends, and Astronomical Twilight starts. Again, these are just made up terms.

But, from this point on, people start to disagree whether full darkness has come, whether the full night has come, whether Isha time has come. To, me it’s quite clear that I can still see the light in the sky. However, it’s definitely not a full day either, so we can not say that those people are completely wrong. It’s just that they can be slightly more right. Now let’s continue with 13 degrees. Even darker, but there is still light in the sky. The purpose is to see when the twilight completely disappears. We can still see the twilight. Now here is at 14 degrees. Much darker, but there is still twilight in the sky. Now here is 15 degrees. Much darker, but I can still see twilight in the sky. It’s not completely dark yet. Now here is at 16 degrees. If you pay careful attention, there is still some twilight in the sky. Now here is at 17 degrees. Very faint light in the sky. And you will actually be able to see a very very faint light only if you look at this video in a dark room. And at this point it will depend a lot on the circumstances whether you would see sunlight in the sky or not, depending on the moisture level in the air, am quite sure that under better atmospheric conditions, maybe with less moisture in the air, or your elevation level, and things like that. So, at this point whether the night has fully come is questionable. And now here is at 18 degrees. This is where the Astronomical Twilight ends, which means that at this point there is no twilight in the sky anymore. This is what they call the end of Astronomical Twilight, because the astronomers can go after this time and observe the stars, and they are equally visible throughout the whole night, from then on, until the emergence of dawn. From this point forward, the sky stays equally dark until emergence of dawn. And here is at 19 degrees, which is equally dark again. Now, let me show you those same pictures, but all in one, a cross-section of them, side by side. So, we have here a representation of how the sky looks when the sun is at each degree below horizon. Now, depending on who you ask. If you asked people, at which degree would you say that the night has fully come, or the twilight has disappeared, most people would say either 14, or 15, or 16, or 17, or 18, and they would all be almost completely correct. Because at all these levels, even earlier, there is probably about 1000 times less light than during the day. Compared to the day, it’s definitely night. We are not aware of that because our eyes automatically adjust to the different light levels, but there is a huge difference in the amount of light compared to the day. So, technically, all of them are night. This experiment is just trying to show which part of the night has less twilight, and at which point does twilight reach the minimum levels. So, all of these degrees are night, layl in Arabic, but we are trying to find out what would be the best time to do the Isha prayer. The prayer which comes after evening, after the twilight disappears. The more the evening is over, the better the Isha prayer becomes in value. Someone might say, why did God have to leave this issue so vague, and not give us a definite cut off point, so that we could know from the Quran when the Isha prayer comes? Well, here is why? It’s because it doesn’t matter. And here is how: Let’s say that you lived completely alone in an island and you tried to apply the Quran. Let’s say that you understood from the Quran that you should do the Night Prayer, the Isha Prayer, when the sun is 15 degrees below horizon. Let’s say that that is your understanding, from what you saw in the sky. Here is what would happen. Your night prayer would be slightly less valuable, but you would compensate for it by being slightly more diligent with the evening prayer, because now the evening prayer for you would be within a narrower length of time. And because, the evening prayer is better immediately after sunset, because it’s called the prayer after sunset, then that prayer would actually have more value when you did it. So, what you would lose in value in the night prayer, because you did it before the sun reached 18 degrees below horizon, you would gain in value in the evening prayer. So, regardless of how you understood the time when the Isha Prayer should be, you would always end up with a total value of worship which is equal. All you had to do is have honest intentions, and the way you understood the precise time of the prayer would not increase or decrease the value of worship at all, when you take everything into account. And this is why the smallest time scale which is mentioned in the Quran is the hour, not the minute. So, whether you do the Isha Prayer five minutes later or earlier, or 20 minutes later or earlier, it’s still not significantly different from the minimum time scale mentioned in the Quran, which is the hour. Let me take another example, to show you why the exact minute or the exact degree does not matter. Let’s imagine that you lived in an island somewhere near Sweden, or UK, or Norway, completely alone, and you are convinced that the prayer time for the Isha night prayer comes when the sun is 12 degrees below horizon. Let’s say that another submitter in a neighboring island is convinced that the Isha (night) prayer time comes when the sun is 18 degrees below horizon.

If you do the prayers like that consistently, then you will end up with slightly larger number of prayers than the other guy, because it will happen slightly more often to him that he will not have to do the night prayer at all, because there would be more days in those regions when the sun does not go below 18 degrees below horizon at all, and if you use your definition, there would be less days where the sun does not go below 12 degrees below horizon. So, you end up doing a slightly larger number of prayers. However, his prayers have more value, because he is doing them later in the night, and the night prayer has more value when it is done later, and in addition to that he also fasts slightly longer during Ramadan, because according to his definition he should start the fast earlier, when the sun is 18 degrees below horizon at dawn, and not 12 degrees. So you get slightly more prayers, while he gets better prayers, and longer fasting times, and in the end you end up with exactly the same value of worshiping God, which is why it does not matter at all whether you understand it as 18 degrees or 12 degrees, which is exactly why God does not go into these details. Because it does not really matter. Nevertheless, it does not matter if you and the other submitter live in separate islands.

But, if eventually you get together and have a community, now when the time for prayer comes, what should you do? He thinks it is 18 degrees below horizon, you think it is 12 degrees below horizon, and the Quran does not allow you to do it separately. Verse 18:28 says, “you shall force yourself to be with those who worship their Lord day and night.” And in other verses we see that we should bow down with those who bow down, and prostrate with those who prostrate. So, if you do the prayer at one time, while the other submitter does it at another time, while you are together, that is simply wrong. The question is, whose idea should prevail in this case. Yours at 12 degrees, or the other submitters at 18 degrees. And the answer is, “Whoever merits more respect.” So, now it’s about respect and the community. And there is no good community without respecting the knowledgeable, verse 4:83, there is no community of believers without respecting the hierarchy of believers, verse 4:59. So, all this issue comes down to: “Do you have any respect for the knowledgeable?” “Do you have any respect for the hierarchy of believers?” I am not talking about the hierarchy of disbelievers. I am talking about the hierarchy of believers. So, do you have any respect for the hierarchy of believers?

Do you have any respect for the community of believers? You should, according to verse 21:92. Do you have any respect for the peace within the community of believers? You should according to verse 49:10, and verse 8:46. And if you do, then you let the previous decisions of the community prevail over your wishes, because this issue between 12 degrees and 18 degrees is not about right and wrong, it’s about whose wish should prevail. And even I chose the 18 degrees out of respect for Rashad Khalifa, and he chose it out of respect for the knowledgeable among the Muslims, and they chose it out of respect for the astronomers, and this happens to be basic knowledge among the astronomy, and they got it right. And if you think otherwise about this issue, you can only be right, if you live alone in an island. Otherwise, if you are part of the community of submitters, out of respect, you should do it at 18 degrees. Obviously, this logic of deciding based on respect for the community should not be applied if you have to decide between belief and disbelief, but I showed to you in this video that all those different understandings of twilight, they all lead to an equal amount of worshiping God, so all of them are within the same belief. So, it’s not about belief and disbelief anymore, in this issue.

It’s about respecting the peace within the community of submitters. And obviously, if you disrespect a community of believers often enough, it eventually turns into a disbelief for you. So, what I am saying is that doing the prayer behind the prayer leader in a community of submitters is more important than having the time of the prayer precise enough. After all, the prayer leader in the right community is less likely than you to have the time of prayer wrong. By the way, when I am alone, I do not even bother to use prayer time calendars or smartphone application for prayer times. They annoy me, even though, years ago, Fannol and I already did such an application, with the correct times, without the secret non-Quranic time adjustments which other applications usually use. So, in our application, I provided the astronomical equations and Fannol did the computer programming, but I still don’t use it, until God willing, we have a mosque. I find it useful only for congregation purposes, so we can organize better the prayer together, but they have no value for me for individual prayers. Personally, I just watch outside of the window, and approximate what time of the day it is. I might get it wrong once in a hundred times, but God will forgive me. And, when I am together within the community, and someone among us the believers tell me that it’s time for the night prayer, for example, I don’t double check to make sure that he is right. I just do it. How wrong could I be to prostrate to God at the wrong time? O my Lord, I prostrated to God at the wrong time. How is that possible? How can you prostrate to God at the wrong time? There is no wrong time of the day to prostrate to God. Verse 2:143 says, “God never puts your worship to waste.”