22 Dec 2024
General Announcement
Unified Prayer Times for London
July 2012
Praise is to Allah and peace and blessings are upon Prophet Mohamed, his household, his companions and his followers until the Day of Judgment.
For years, Muslims in London have aspired to unify the timing of the five daily prayers that would bring them together and avoid the many discrepancies in prayer times between mosques. These discrepancies are especially evident in summer when the signs of Isha'a and Fajr overlap or vanish completely for a number of weeks. This has resulted in significant challenges in determining the times for prayer. Such variations in Fajr and Isha'a times, in turn, result in considerable confusion within the community, especially when the blessed month of Ramadan falls in summer.
There are numerous schemes to determine prayer timing in countries at latitudes above 48 Degrees North, including Britain. Each one of these schemes is supported by sound Fiqh and evidence from the field of astronomy. The work of scientists and researchers, may Allah reward them well, on this subject is readily available in the minutes of Fiqh Councils' meetings, books, magazine and websites specializing in prayer times. It has been customary for mosques to adhere to one scheme or another, and each will be rewarded for their choice, Allah willing.
In the hope of achieving a unified prayer time schedule, a number of Masajid and Islamic Centres in London have met several times over the last eighteen months to address this issue. After a detailed review of the various prayer times schemes, consulting specialists and with the intention of seeking ease for worshippers, which in itself is an honorable objective in Shari'a, an agreement, Alhamdulillah, has finally been reached to approve a unified schedule for prayer times in London.
The agreed timetable is based on a mushada-guided computation model developed and maintained by specialist Khalid Shaukat of moonsighting.com. In addition to using standard sun and earth movement data, the model applies actual mushada (observation) data to determining Fajr and Isha'a times. The data was collected at various northern high latitude locations and at various times of the year, including observations made by Hizbul Ulama in the north of England.
We believe these times to be correct for prayers and fasting, Allah knows best.
The new timetable, referred to as the Unified Prayer Timetable for London (UPTTL) was adopted from 1 Ramadan 1432 (1 August 2011), and has since been accepted by other Mosques, Islamic Centres and Islamic organisations.
This means we can now share the same prayer times across London. It is a voluntary initiative; each Mosque or Centre is free to make its own choice. We hope that for the benefit of the Muslims of London, more will choose to adopt this timetable.
A further benefit of being united is that if in future even better ways of working out the prayer times for Fajr and Isha'a are found, our Mosques and Centres will make any changes together.
We do acknowledge that there are other methods of determining Fajr and Isha'a times which are based on valid Fiqh and astronomical reasoning; hence, we readily respect fellow Muslims who choose to opt to follow prayer times based on these other methods, only Allah knows best.
Allah is the Guide to the right path.
These are some of mosques and centres that took part in this unifying effort and adopted he Unified Prayer Timetable.
- Islamic Cultural Centre & London Central Mosque
- Mayfair Islamic Centre
- East London Mosque
- Muslim Welfare House
- Al Muntada Al Islami Education Trust
- Al Manaar, the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre
- Masjid Al Tawhid & Islamic Sharia Council
- London Muslim Forum
Sha'aban 1433
July 2012
