The time for midday and afternoon prayers is legal noon until sunset, the beginning of which appertains to midday prayer whose length is as long as it is enough for offering a four-Rak'at prayer, and the end of which appertains to afternoon prayer with the same length.

Issue 372: If a stick or the like is made to stand on a level ground (which acts as an indicator of the legal noon and is referred to as “Shakhis”), its shadow will fall westwards when the sun rises in the morning, and the higher the sun climbs in the sky, the smaller will be the size of the shadow, and at noon time it is either the shortest in length or totally disappears in some cities like Mecca. Then, the shadow falls eastwards, and the more the sun moves westwards, the longer gets the shadow. When the shadow is the shortest or totally disappears and then again it appears and/or beings to get longer, it is the legal midday.

Issue 373: Midday and afternoon prayers each have a special time, and they also share a common time. The special time for midday prayer starts from the legal midday long enough to offer the midday prayer, and the special time for afternoon prayer starts at the beginning of the time before the sunset which is long enough to offer such prayer, and if one does not offer their midday prayer until it is the special time for afternoon prayer, their midday prayer will be Quadha, and they must offer their afternoon prayer first, so that the afternoon prayer will not be Quadha. The common time for midday and afternoon prayers starts right after the special time for midday prayer and ends right before the special time for afternoon prayer. If a person offers midday prayer in the special time for afternoon prayer or vice versa, their prayer will be void.

Issue 374: If a person unintentionally starts offering their afternoon prayer before the midday prayer and during the prayer they realize that they have committed a mistake, they must change intention to midday prayer, i.e., they must make the following intention:

“Whatever I have offered so far, what I am offering right now and from now onwards, will be my midday prayer”.

After finishing midday prayer, they must offer their afternoon prayers.