Reading the Sun for the Prayer Times

A practical question that arises is how one finds out the prayer times where one lives — out in a canyon in Riverside County, say — given that the list of the five prayer times at the mosque changes every day, according to the length of that day. How this is done was described at the beginning of the chapter on Islam; but to restate it here.

They are based on the sun and the movement of the sun. They are easy to determine, unless one lives in an area in which the sun is clouded over so that one cannot see it; and in that case the scholars have generally permitted the use of astronomical means of determining them, worked out ahead of time, as is done at the mosque. But a person may well not follow that: the schedule is put there for cloudy days and things like that, while one can look outside at the natural phenomena to determine the prayer times. Many Muslims depend on the prayer schedule; traditionally that is alien, because there is an importance in being aware of cosmic phenomena. The Muslim tradition really does try to connect one to the movement of the planets, the stars and the sun.