Isha and Shafaq: Red or White Twilight, and When Isha Ends

Isha begins when the twilight, shafaq in Arabic, has gone from the western sky. The word is simple; what it refers to has two readings, and that reading, converted into a number of degrees, is the main reason the printed Isha time varies between timetables. This article explains both readings, gives the resulting times for a real day, and sets out the views on when Isha ends.

Two twilights after sunset

After the sun sets the western sky goes through two stages:

1. Red twilight. A red and orange glow sits along the horizon and slowly sinks. At mid-latitudes it is gone roughly 60 to 90 minutes after sunset, when the sun is about 12° to 17° below the horizon.
2. White glow. After the red fades, a pale whiteness lingers higher in the sky for another 20 to 40 minutes, until the sun is about 18° or more below the horizon and the sky is fully dark.

The hadith in Sahih Muslim (612) says Maghrib lasts as long as the twilight has not disappeared. Which twilight?

The majority view: red

The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, along with Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani among the Hanafis, hold that shafaq is the red glow, so Isha begins as soon as the redness has gone. This is the position behind the 17° (Muslim World League), 17.5° (Egypt) and 15° (ISNA) Isha angles and the 90-minute Umm al-Qura interval. Most timetables worldwide print this.

The view of Abu Hanifa: white

Abu Hanifa himself is reported to have held that shafaq is the white glow that follows the red, so Isha begins later, when the sky is fully dark. This corresponds to an angle of about 18° to 19° and is behind the 18° Isha of the Karachi, Kemenag and JAKIM methods, which are used in largely Hanafi countries. Many Hanafi scholars nevertheless give the fatwa on the red twilight, following the two students, and Hanafi masjids in Europe commonly use 17° or 18° without controversy.

Both views come from a careful reading of the same reports, and both have been practised for centuries. Follow your masjid's timetable; if you set up a calculator yourself, choose a method and keep to it.

What it means in minutes

London, Monday 8 February 2027 (expected first day of Ramadan), Maghrib 17:02:

In June at the same latitude the 17° and 18° Isha do not occur at all because the sun never gets that low, which is handled by the rules in high-latitude prayer times. Near the equator the whole spread is about 10 minutes and the question is of little practical consequence.

Ja'fari (Shia) timetables also set Maghrib itself a little later than sunset, when the eastern redness has cleared, typically 4° to 4.5° below the horizon, or 10 to 20 minutes; Isha then follows at 14°. See calculation methods for the full list.

When Isha ends

The same hadith (Muslim 612) gives the end of Isha as the middle of the night, and the hadith of Jibril (Abu Dawud 393; Tirmidhi 149) has him lead Isha on the second day at a third of the night. Scholars draw three positions from these:

• The preferred time ends at the middle of the night (some say at a third). This is agreed across the schools as the time one should aim for.
• Validity until Fajr. The Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, in their well-known positions, hold that Isha remains valid, though disliked without reason, until true dawn. Malikis hold the time after midnight is a time of necessity.
• Ends at midnight. Some scholars, including a minority within the schools, hold the window really closes at the midpoint and praying after it is making up the prayer.

In practice: aim to pray before the middle of the night. If you must pray later, most scholars consider it valid before Fajr. For your own circumstances, ask a scholar or imam you trust.

Computing the middle of the night

The "night" here runs from Maghrib to the following Fajr, not from sunset to sunrise and not by the clock. Halfway along that interval is the middle of the night; two-thirds along is the start of the last third, the best time for tahajjud.

London, 8 February 2027: Maghrib 17:02, next Fajr about 05:33. The night is 12 h 31 min, so the middle is 23:18 and the last third begins at 01:23. Our prayer times tool prints both under the main table, and the sunnah prayer times article explains how to use them.

Delaying Isha, and tarawih

Delaying Isha somewhat was liked by the Prophet, peace be upon him, when it did not burden the people (reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim). That is why a later Isha is not a defect and why masjids feel free to set the iqamah at a convenient clock time. In Ramadan, Isha is followed by tarawih, and witr closes the night prayer (Bukhari 998); on the Umm al-Qura method Isha is shifted to 120 minutes after Maghrib in Ramadan to allow for this.

Praying Isha in a bright northern summer

Where the red twilight never ends, Isha is set by a rule rather than by the sky: middle of the night, one-seventh, a twilight angle, or a fixed community time. That is a community decision made with scholars, and the high-latitude article walks through each option with numbers for London and Stockholm.