How to determine the time of ‘Asr by the sun

Question

Here in Rajasthan there is currently a difference of twelve minutes between the times of sunrise and sunset [in the calendar] and the local times. In the “Husayni Dawami Jantri” (“The Husayni Perpetual Calendar”) the local sunrise time is given as 6:33, midday as 12:30 and sunset as 6:39, whereas here these times occur 12 minutes later, i.e. sunrise at 6:45, midday at 12:42 and sunset at 6:51. Given this, if our ‘Asr prayer is held at half past four, will it be valid or not?

Answer

The Shari‘a rule for this is as follows: at the moment when the sun is directly overhead, some straight object, for example a stick, should be planted in the ground and one should see how long its shadow is. This is called the original shadow (fay’ al-zawal). Then, when the shadow of the stick becomes twice its length (two shadow-lengths)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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