When you have lived in Morocco for a few years, you get used to public holidays having ‘roughly’ fixed dates. All religious holidays are determined by sighting the crescent moon, as is the start of Ramadan, an observation that validates the astronomical calculation.
Calculated dates, validated by observation
In practical terms, this means that even if we give you future dates, such as the start of Ramadan 2026 (Wednesday 18 February 2026), the actual date will only be known with certainty the day before.
This is also why the dates of religious holidays, such as the start and end of Ramadan, may vary from one country to another, by as little as one day. If you start Ramadan in France and end it in Morocco, there is a good chance you will fast for an extra day.
This year, for example, the date of Mawlid was Friday 5 or Saturday 6 September. Some primary schools therefore postponed the start of the school year until the following Monday, so as not to ‘risk’ having a very short week. Others opened their classrooms on 2 or 3 September. The official start of the school year was 8 September for all levels.
It is a paradox that Muslims, who have accumulated so much astronomical knowledge, built sophisticated astrolabes, constructed observatories, etc., do not rely entirely on astronomical calculations.
Calculated timetables
However, when it comes to the times of the five prayers, the calculation is universally accepted, but observation remains the norm. The five prayers of Islam take place at specific times of the day:
- Maghrib ( المغرب ): The sunset prayer, performed just after sunset. Maghrib is also the name of the region of North Africa, to the west of the Muslim world and therefore to the west. During Ramadan, it marks the breaking of the fast, but one must first eat and drink before performing the prayer.
- Isha (العشاء): The night prayer, performed at dusk or at night.
- Fajr (ٱلْفَجْرِ): The morning prayer, performed at dawn, before sunrise. Al Fajr is also the name of the 89th surah of the Quran.
- Dhuhr ( لظُّهْر ): The midday prayer, performed when the sun reaches its zenith. On Fridays, this is the mosque prayer. It can be performed until the call to the Asr prayer.
- Asr ( العصر ): The afternoon prayer, which takes place in the middle of the afternoon.
Prayer times are important: while there is some leeway to perform the prayer ‘after’ the official time (roughly until the call to the next prayer), if one begins before the appointed time, the prayer is not valid.
And for the dawn prayer and the sunset prayer, which are also based on visual observation of a ray of light appearing or disappearing from the horizon, the astronomical calculation is complex, as it must take into account the location where one is.
Applications and websites
This is where modern technology comes into play. Many websites provide prayer times by location, anywhere in the world.
Smartphone apps offer the ‘complete package’: prayer times with reminders (in case you are in a non-Muslim country without a muezzin), the direction of the qibla (القبلة) (orientation towards Mecca).
They also often include suras from the Quran. We have all heard at least once the urgent ringing of a smartphone, calling an entire train carriage or bus to prayer! Without the owner of the smartphone in question changing their attitude or getting off to pray immediately (and how could they, since they have to perform their ablutions first?).
But no one says anything.
On the other hand, I have also seen people sitting in their seats praying discreetly.
As every year, a time change for Ramadan
For Ramadan, Morocco reverts to solar time every year. Although the time change is now accepted, there are still technical glitches, with times not updating on phones or even muezzins calling for prayer earlier because the time on their phones has changed!
The religious structuring of time in Islam is based first and foremost on observation, and secondarily on astronomical calculations, which complement it. This is reflected today in many applications.
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