the beginning of the time is the cause of its obligation. The darkness of night occurs at its midpoint, because the night is at its darkest halfway through, when the sun is midway across the horizon on the other side of the earth. Thus, Allah has made the period from midday, when the sun declines, until midnight a single span of time, because the times of the obligatory prayers within it are successive: the noon prayer, followed by the afternoon prayer, followed by the sunset prayer, followed by the night prayer. Thus, what comes after the endpoint lies outside it. This is why He separated it out, saying:

“And the Quran of dawn.”

He thus made the dawn prayer distinct and independent. This indicates that, of the five prayers, four are consecutive and one is separate.

The correct view, then, is that the time for the night prayer lasts until midnight.

But what is meant by midnight? Does the night extend from sunset until sunrise, or from sunset until the appearance of dawn?

In the Arabic language, both periods are called night. It says in al-Qamus: “Night is from the setting of the sun until the appearance of true dawn or the sun.” (1)

As for the Sacred Law, the apparent meaning is that night ends with the appearance of dawn. Accordingly, we say: the night which is divided in half in order to determine the time of the night prayer extends from sunset until the appearance of dawn. Halfway between these two is the end of its time. What comes after midnight is not a time for the obligatory prayer; rather, it is a time for voluntary prayer and night vigil.

Delaying it until the first third of the night is preferable, if that is easy.

His statement, “Delaying it until the first third of the night is preferable, if that is easy”: if it causes hardship