The Night and the Dawn

The next prayer goes from when the red is gone — that first one being called the maghrib prayer, or the sunset prayer. The next prayer, then, is when all the red of the sun is gone, and this goes basically until midnight. One should do it, really, in the first third of the night: if one divides the night into three parts — between six a.m. and six p.m.^** — it should be done in that first third of the night, after the redness is gone. That is the best time; and after that one is delaying it, and the prayers are not encouraged to be delayed, and it is prohibited to delay them until they actually go out of the time altogether. So that is the next prayer. And then this whole period of the night is encouraged for people who want to do extra prayers. The night-time in particular is encouraged. Many Muslims do night prayers; many do not; but there are many Muslims who do do night prayers, for some portion of the night. There are teachers whose practice is a minimum of perhaps three hours standing in prayer; and there are those with whom one may live for over a year, in different places, and find that this is their practice. So many Muslims will make it a practice to pray at night. It is a good time; it is a time of meditation; it is a time of tranquillity and stillness. And there is also a nice Hasidic tale of why the night prayer is a special time. In this Hasidic tale — Buber, it seems, relates it — the seeker of God is like a thief trying to steal something precious, and the thief always works at night.

The next prayer is the dawn prayer, and that begins at the first light. Now there is an interesting phenomenon called the false dawn, which is a white light that will show up towards the middle of the eastern horizon and then disappear; and then, after that, the second dawn comes up. The second dawn is the dawn at which the Muslims begin their prayer, and that will go until right before sunrise. All of that is time in which one can pray; the preferred time is at the first time, but any time before sunrise one can pray. So technically, where the dawn comes at half past four, one could pray any time from half past four until — sunrise; until the sun rises. So one could technically pray, in such a place, any time from half past four to about a quarter to six, or half past five, whenever the sun rises, and it would be perfectly acceptable. And if a person overslept, there is no responsibility. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: the sleeper has no responsibility, the madman has no responsibility, and the child has no responsibility until they reach puberty. So the sleeper has no responsibility; but there is an idea that if a person went to sleep not intending to get up for the prayer, then that person is responsible. One should intend to get up for the prayer. If one simply sets the alarm for eight, then that would be considered something wrong — that one has done something wrong. And then the sun comes up.