with the sun already risen, and that remains the preferred time; whoever lets it slip has forfeited the time of choice.

So long as the sun is still bright and white, that interval is likewise—according to our school—the chosen time for ʿaṣr. Jurists differ concerning a resident who, without excuse, manages to perform only one rakʿah (unit of prayer) of ʿaṣr before sunset: some hold that he is sinful for delaying the prayer until that point, whereas others maintain that he is not sinful but has merely lost the preferred time.

Maghrib, by contrast, has only a single window: the moment the sun disappears and night sets in. This is the well-known position of Mālik, his companions, and the majority of the Medinan scholars for those living in towns.

Mālik does report a second view—that whoever prays it before the twilight fades has prayed within its time, whether resident or travelling—but the first opinion is the more famous and the one on which practice is based.

When a man’s supper is served, or he feels the urge to urinate or defecate, and the prayer time has arrived or the iqāmah (second call) has been pronounced, he should begin with his meal and relieve himself before praying. The meritorious course, however, is to hasten Maghrib and to observe Fajr while it is still dark, and hastening Maghrib is the more emphatic of the two.

The time for ʿishāʾ begins with the disappearance of twilight—that reddish glow lingering in the western sky after sunset—and its preferred period extends until one-third of the night; some say until midnight, but the first view is that of Mālik. Whoever performs it before dawn has, according to Mālik, prayed within its time, though he considers that dislikeable. It is likewise disliked to sleep before it or to engage in conversation afterward, except for the study of sacred knowledge or some other good deed.

The initial time for the dawn prayer starts when the transverse dawn appears on the eastern horizon—the first whitening of the sky—and its period then continues