The SALAH Sundial

The idea behind the SALAH Sundial

The idea for the SALAH sundial originated from a request by Mohammed Faris to develop a portable sundial that could be used worldwide and would enable Muslims to determine prayer times based on the position of the sun.

Mohammed Faris is the founder of “The Productive Muslim Company,” an author, and an international speaker. His new book, 'The Five Daily Resets', explores the significance of the five daily prayers and their role in everyday life.

In the foreword to the SALAH Sundial manual (see below for the download), Mohammed Faris writes:

' The day was not measured or organized by abstract numbers on a wall, but by looking at the signs of Allah‘s creation.

That is the world this SALAH Sundial aims to return to you.

A sundial makes you connected to the sun. As the earth turns, a shadow lengthens and shifts, tracing the same rhythm that has ordered a Muslim‘s day for fourteen centuries: dawn, zenith, the lengthening of shadows, sunset, and the fall of darkness.'

The SALAH Sundial – the portable Islamic prayer sundial

The SALAH sundial is used to determine the most important prayer times in Islam based on the sun’s path.

Salah (also known as Salāt) is the ritual prayer of Islam. It must be performed a total of five times a day, facing the Kaaba in Mecca – the Qibla – at fixed times. The times for the five prayers are determined directly by the local movement of the sun. For this reason, scholars originally used sundials to determine the prayer times. To this day, the Azān (also known as the Adhān), the call to prayer, is used by the muezzin to summon the congregation to communal prayer (Salah or Salāt).

Dhuhr and ’Asr – the prayers during daylight hours

In particular, the prayer times for the two prayers that take place during daylight hours, Dhuhr and ’Asr, can ideally be determined using a sundial. The SALAH sundial is very well suited to this purpose. In keeping with historical tradition, this sundial allows the start of prayer times to be determined simply by measuring the length of the shadow – without relying on a clock. It is only by determining the prayer times oneself from the sun’s path that the prayer ritual is complete.

The SALAH sundial is suitable for portable use anywhere in the world. The gnomon, which is retracted for transport, is folded out; the sundial is aligned using the built-in compass and levelled with three knurled screws. It is independent of latitude and the seasons. This is ensured by four interchangeable gnomons of different lengths (5, 10, 20 and 30 mm), so that the SALAH sundial can be used at any position of the sun – regardless of whether the sun is high or low in the sky.

The richly illustrated manual explains in detail how to set up the sundial and determine prayer times.

Other prayers

Next come the prayers whose start and end are determined not by the sundial but by direct observation of the Sun on the horizon. The time for the Maghrib prayer (evening prayer) begins shortly after sunset (when the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon) and ends with the onset of the ‘Ishã’ time, the disappearance of the evening glow. This, in turn, ends with the onset of true dawn, the beginning of the Subh prayer time (morning prayer time), which lasts until sunrise. 

Determining the noon line and the Qibla

Thanks to the circular scale, which allows the length of the shadow to be measured in any direction, prayer times can be determined even if the prayer sundial is not pointing exactly north. However, to determine the exact direction of prayer towards the Kaaba in Mecca – known as the Qibla – the sundial’s noon line can be aligned precisely in a north-south direction. To do this, attach the supplied pointer and, in the morning and afternoon, measure the angle at which the shadow reaches a specific length. The angle bisector is then the exact north-south direction (noon line). This procedure is a further development of the ‘Indian circle’ method, a graphical solution using a compass, ruler and pencil.

The Qibla is the direction of prayer prescribed by the Qur’an for Muslims towards the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, wherever the believer may be on Earth. If the angle from north (azimuth) for one’s own location is known, one sets the pointer on the degree scale and directs one’s prayer towards the direction indicated by the pointer.

If the SALAH sundial is always used at the same location, the precise alignment of the noon line is also helpful for determining true noon. This occurs whenever the shadow reaches the noon line. Once the shadow has passed the noon line, the sun begins to descend again (Zawal) and the midday prayer (Dhuhr) begins.