Calculating Prayer times for your local Masjid

Calculating Prayer times for your local Masjid

[4:103]Surely, Salah is an obligation on the believers that is tied up with time.

Introduction:
Creating a prayer timetable for many is a venture into the unknown with conflicting information available from multiple websites, experts and a myriad of apps available for phones, tablets and laptops with seemingly contradicting calculations and methods.

We will attempt to streamline the process of calculating prayer times for your local Mosque or community while shielding a layman from as much technical information as possible. However, where necessary the technical details will be explained for it to make sense. If you don’t know what you are doing and importantly, cannot explain the prayer times which you have calculated, don’t inflict it on your community and leave it to Islamic Scholars and experts to ensure that the prayers and fasting of believers is not placed in jeopardy.
There are multiple sites on the Internet such as http://moonsighting.com/ and http://www.islamicfinder.org/ which offer different kinds of challenges to the laymen. Moonsighting.com/ imposes its own sets of angles for Fajar and Esha which are universally rejected by (global body) of Islamic Scholars while Islamicfinder gives as many options for calculating prayer times as ordering toppings on your pizza i.e. seemingly limitless!

Options are good as long as the person knows which ones to pick.
Prayer start times vs Optimal prayer times:
There is a difference between the start time of a prayer and the optimal time to actually pray. Some Scholars recommend that a person should pray as soon as the prayer has entered while others give the opinion to allow for some flexibility (based on the Sunnah). Many mosques also choose prayer congregation times based on maximum flexibility and benefit to the local (Muslim) community.
Before proceeding further, read Sunnah Method & Description of Salah Times. How you choose to organise your congregational times is upto you or your local Mosque committee and management.
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