Awqat - Islamic prayer times for Emacs

Awqat is an Emacs package to calculate the five daily Islamic prayer times. It includes also a mode line mode to show the remaining time for the next prayer.

Installation

This package is currently not located on MELPA. To use it you should include the source file awqat.el in your source path.

Installation for Spacemacs

If you are using Spacemacs you can easily install this package by putting the following in the dotspacemacs-additional-packages:

dotspacemacs-additional-packages '((awqat :location (recipe
                                                         :fetcher github
                                                         :repo "zkry/awqat")))

And in dotspacemacs/user-config adding (require 'awqat).

Installation for Doom Emacs

If you are using Doom Emacs, you can declare a custom package in your packages.el file:

(package! awqat
  :recipe (:host github
           :repo "zkry/awqat"))

And then, add a suitable configuration based on your location.

(use-package! awqat
  :commands (awqat-display-prayer-time-mode
             awqat-times-for-day)
  :config
  (setq calendar-latitude 44.2
        calendar-longitude 1.3
        awqat-mode-line-format " 🕌 ${prayer} (${hours}h${minutes}m) "))
  (awqat-set-preset-muslim-world-league))

Setup

You should have your calendar's latitude and longitude variables set up. Evaluate the variables calendar-latitude and calendar-longitude to see if these are set properly.

The prayer times can be configured in the following ways:

Fajr

• If using an angle-based method, you can set the angle to calculate Fajr with the awqat-fajr-angle variable. (used in conjunction with the awqat-use-angle-based-method function)
• If using a fixed offset-based method, you can set the hours before sunrise via the awqat-fajr-before-offset variable. (used in conjunction with the awqat-use-time-offset-method function)
• For people living in higher latitudes (beyond 48.5N, 48.5S), you can use:
  • The awqat-set-preset-midnight preset which uses the function awqat--prayer-fajr-midnight to calculate a prayer time for Fajr based on the midnight method.
  • The awqat-set-preset-one-seventh-of-night preset which uses the function awqat--prayer-fajr-one-seventh-of-night to calculate a prayer time for Fajr based on the one-seventh of night method.

Sunrise

• The only customizable variable for sunrise is awqat-sunrise-sunset-angle (Defaults to -0.833), which represents the sunrise/sunset zenith angle offset below the horizon. A zero value corresponds to the sun being at zenith=90°, which means that the sun circle is still visible. The apparent radius of the sun at the horizon is 16 arcminutes, and the average refraction is known to be 34 arcminutes, which gives an offset of 50 arcminutes, hence the -0.833° value. You shouldn't change this variable unless you are an astrophysicist!

Dhuhr

Dhuhr time corresponds to noon. It is the base for calculating other times. Dhuhr does not have a specific configuration. However, you can set safety offsets for Dhuhr (see below).

Asr

• You can set the flag awqat-asr-hanafi to t to follow the Hanafi opinion on Asr time determination. Or set it to nil for the consensus (al-Jomhur) opinion (of Hanbali, Shafii, and Maliki). Defaults to nil.

Maghrib

• Like the sunrise, only awqat-sunrise-sunset-angle can be set. However, it is highly discouraged to change it, unless you have a very strong and justified argument to do!

Isha

• Like for Fajr you can set the angle for calculation with the awqat-isha-angle variable (used in conjunction with the awqat-use-angle-based-method function)
• If using the offset-based method, you can set the hours after sunset via the awqat-isha-after-sunset variable (used in conjunction with the awqat-use-time-offset-method function)
• For people living in higher latitudes (beyond 48.5N, 48.5S), you can use:
  • The awqat-set-preset-midnight preset which uses the function awqat--prayer-isha-midnight to calculate a prayer time for Isha based on the midnight method.
  • The awqat-set-preset-one-seventh-of-night preset which uses the function awqat--prayer-isha-one-seventh-of-night to calculate a prayer time for Isha based on the one-seventh of night method.
• For the Moonsighting Committee Worldwide method, an additional parameter can be set for Isha. The awqat-isha-moonsighting-method accepts a symbol which can be 'shafaq-ahmar, 'shafaq-abyad, or 'shafaq (which is a combination of Shafaq Ahmar and Shafaq Abyad for high latitudes).

Safety offsets

You can add a safety offset to all times via the awqat-prayer-safety-offsets variable. For example, to have sunrise be one minute sooner, Dhuhr two minutes later, and Maghrib one minute later you can add (setq awqat-prayer-safety-offsets '(0.0 -1.0 2.0 0.0 1.0 0.0)) to your configuration.

Presets

There are presets with the angles for various organizations. You can call these functions to configure corresponding calculation parameters. The following presets are implemented:

• awqat-set-preset-muslim-pro
• awqat-set-preset-muslim-world-league
• awqat-set-preset-karachi-university-of-islamic-sciences
• awqat-set-preset-umm-al-qura
• awqat-set-preset-jakim
• awqat-set-preset-spiritual-administration-of-musilms-russia
• awqat-set-preset-french-muslims
• awqat-set-preset-grande-mosquee-de-paris
• awqat-set-preset-isna
• awqat-set-preset-egyptian-general-authority-of-survey
• awqat-set-preset-kuwait
• awqat-set-preset-algeria
• awqat-set-preset-morocco
• awqat-set-preset-taiwan
• awqat-set-preset-singapore
• awqat-set-preset-uae
• awqat-set-preset-midnight
• awqat-set-preset-one-seventh-of-night
• awqat-set-preset-moonsighting-committee-worldwide
• awqat-set-preset-institute-of-geophysics-university-of-tehran

Configuration example

The following is an example configuration:

(require 'awqat)
(setq calendar-latitude 52.439
      calendar-longitude 13.436)
(setq awqat-asr-hanafi nil)
(setq awqat-fajr-angle -18.0)
(setq awqat-isha-angle -16.0)

Here is another example that makes use of the Muslim World League preset:

(require 'awqat)
(setq calendar-latitude 52.439
      calendar-longitude 13.436)
(setq awqat-asr-hanafi nil)
(awqat-set-preset-muslim-world-league)

Viewing the times

By calling M-x awqat-times-for-day you can see the six times for the day, alongside the remaining time for the next prayer.

Viewing times with Diary/Org-Agenda

The times can be added to the diary view or org-agenda view using the diary functions. In your diary-file, add the following lines:

%%(awqat-diary-fajr)
%%(awqat-diary-sunrise)
%%(awqat-diary-dhuhr)
%%(awqat-diary-asr)
%%(awqat-diary-maghrib)
%%(awqat-diary-isha)

To use times with Org-mode, set org-agenda-include-diary to t:

(setq org-agenda-include-diary t)

Then in an Org file which is part of org-agenda-files, add the following:

* Prayers
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CATEGORY: prayers
  :END:
%%(awqat-diary-fajr)
%%(awqat-diary-sunrise)
%%(awqat-diary-dhuhr)
%%(awqat-diary-asr)
%%(awqat-diary-maghrib)
%%(awqat-diary-isha)

The above snippets are, of course, examples. Feel free to modify your liking.

awqat-display-prayer-time-mode

By running the command awqat-display-prayer-time-mode you can view the upcoming prayer time in the mode-line which is updated in real-time.

Notes on the calculation methods

Please be warned that this package may contain bugs, the times calculated by Awqat may or may not reflect the times of the particular organization that you follow. We encourage you to check the Awqat times against the times of your organization or your local mosque. Please feel free to open an issue if you observe an anomaly in our calculations.

High latitudes

The calculations for Isha and Fajr for high latitudes are implemented through midnight, three portions of the night, one-seventh of the night, and the twilight angle-based methods¹; however, these methods have not been heavily tested.

If you live in a high latitude place (beyond 48.5°N and 48.5°S), you should check your organization or mosque to confirm the accepted method. Also, these special methods should only be used when the astronomical signs of twilight (Fajr and Isha) are not visible, this occurs only during a specific period of the year. Currently, the method cannot determine whether the signs are visible or not. So please make sure you are using the alternative method only when the signs are not visible.

Note that, the midnight method tries to resolve the problem of estimating the Fajr time by choosing the Fajr time to be at astronomical midnight. The time between sunset and the astronomical midnight is considered to be the Night. The midnight method does not clearly define the Isha time, hence you need to check with your local organization or mosque to see which time is considered Isha's time. Note that some jurisprudence (al-Fiqh الفقه) opinions adopt grouping Maghrib and Isha prayers (al-Jam'a الجمع) when astronomical signs are not visible (as in high latitudes during some period of time per year).

Moonsighting Committee Worldwide method

Awqat implements the Moonsighting Committee Worldwide (MCW) method². This method is location and season aware.

For placed between the equator and 55°, this method defines correction functions based on the latitude and the season to calculate variable offsets from the sunset and sunrise. These offsets are then added or subtracted from the sunset/sunrise to get the estimated prayer time. The time estimated using these functions is then compared to the angle-based time calculated using the 18.0 angle, the most favorable is used (for Fajr, the latter of the two; for Isha, the earlier of the two).

For places between 55° and 60°, the MCW uses the one-seventh of night method.

Footnotes

1. Prayertimes.org ↩

2. Syed Khalid Shaukat, Fajr and Isha, September 2015 ↩