Assalamo Alaykom. Everything is in the title, why is Dhuhr prayer time fixed in Algeria? I'm using a software that indicates prayer times, all other prayers are correct except Dhuhr. I tried all calculating methods but none of them indicated 13:20 for Dhuhr. If you have clarifications I'd be thankful. Salam.
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I'd assume that the software you are using is buggy, but I may be wrong.– DynamicJun 9, 2013 at 13:51
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Try this. This is well-known and used by many.– user2350Jun 9, 2013 at 15:26
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Thanks for your comments. Still Dhuhr time is at 12:47, while the Athan in my country is always set at 13:20 all the year. @Dynamic it's not the software's fault, it shows the same prayer times as the website proposed by mezhang.– zagokuJun 9, 2013 at 15:51
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Did you take a look at this one?– MasroorJun 10, 2013 at 7:52
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@MMA nope always the same.– zagokuJun 10, 2013 at 10:11
3 Answers
I believe that your government or the responsible state takes Dhuhr prayer time in maximum value in all year prayer times. in my country, Indonesia, I found that some people do it too. In example, there are Dhuhr prayer time in 13.00 when the other held it in 12.00 or around that.
I figured out why.
As season changes, the length of days increase in summer and decrease in winter. However, the midday is always 12:00. So the shrinking/growing of day time is always symmetric around 12:00.
Now the zuhr time is set when sun is at a certain angle, but very close to midday. When season changes, the two ends of the daylight changes drastically (fajr and isha), but the zuhr prayer is very insensitive to change, because its change of time is only a small fraction of the change of time in fajr. The exact fraction is roughly estimated 1/9. (10 degree /90 degree).
So during a week, the time of fajr usually don't change more than 30 minutes, that means the time of zuhr changes no more than 2-3 minutes. So you might not observe the change.
This is my hypothesis, or maybe it is set to be constant, because it is easier. 12:00 is always midday, and 13:20 is when sun is about 10-15 degree after midday, which is fine. Both are possible.
In conclusion, it doesn't matter too much because of the scaling factor.
It is because in every season Zawal is before 1pm, and it makes no or very minnimum effect on Duhr timing also Duhr has the maximum reasonable, acceptable time to offer prayer among all,so in most of the regions Duhr timing is constant or vary from 5 to 10 mins.
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1Thanks for the answer. I haven't understood everything, but you say that Dhuhr only varies from 5->10 minutes from country to other. But in Algeria we pray Dhuhr @13:20 which is a very huge difference.– zagokuJun 14, 2013 at 20:42
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1Ummm actually no this is not what I said, I didnot say in comparison of countries... I meant within a country it might happen that Duhr timing got changed in summer as compared to winter with 5-10 minutes difference but it is no0t requires/necessary.I mean in Pakistan too Duhr timing is 13:20 in most of the parts but some mosques also offer prayers at 13:15, 13:25, 13:30.. but not after 13:30, between 13:00 to 13:30 it is appropriate time to offer prayer so most of the mosques fixed timing to 13:20. So that everyone knows and come at this time to offer prayer in Jamaat. Jun 17, 2013 at 4:43