Sunnah Prayer Times: Duha, Tahajjud and the Last Third

The five prayers have fixed windows; the voluntary prayers fit around them. Two of them, duha in the morning and tahajjud at night, have their own best times, and both are easy to miss if you only read the clock. This article gives the windows, explains how the night is divided, and shows how our tool computes the moments for your city.

Duha: the forenoon prayer

A hadith in Sahih Muslim (720) says that every joint of a person owes a charity each morning, that tasbih, tahmid, tahlil and takbir count as charity, that enjoining good and forbidding wrong count too, and that two rak'ahs of duha suffice for all of it.

When. From the time the sun has risen a spear's length, which is about 15 to 20 minutes after sunrise, until a little before the sun reaches its peak, roughly 10 minutes before the printed Dhuhr. Praying within the first disliked period after sunrise is to be avoided (Muslim 831; see forbidden prayer times).

Best time. Later in the morning, when the sun is high and the ground has warmed. A hadith in Muslim describes the prayer of the penitent as the moment the young camels' feet burn from the sand. For a working person that often means a short prayer at a mid-morning break; for someone at home, late morning.

How many. Two rak'ahs is the minimum. Four, six and eight are reported, prayed in pairs.

London, Monday 8 February 2027: sunrise 07:28, Dhuhr 12:16. Duha window about 07:48 to 12:05. Best around 10:00 to 11:30.

Night prayer and the last third

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that our Lord descends to the lowest heaven in the last third of every night, asking who is calling on Him, who is asking of Him, who is seeking His forgiveness (Bukhari 1145; Muslim 758). That makes the last third of the night the most hopeful time of the day for prayer and dua, in Ramadan and out of it.

Night prayer (tahajjud, qiyam al-layl) is valid any time after Isha until Fajr. Praying after sleeping and waking is the sense of tahajjud; praying before sleep is still night prayer and better than nothing. Witr closes it (Bukhari 998). In Ramadan, tarawih in the masjid is itself night prayer, and many people add more in the last ten nights.

How the night is divided

The "night" for these purposes runs from Maghrib to the following Fajr, not from sunset to sunrise and not from clock midnight. Divide that interval into halves and thirds:

• Middle of the night: halfway from Maghrib to Fajr. The preferred end of Isha (see Isha and shafaq).
• Last third begins: two-thirds of the way from Maghrib to Fajr.

Worked example, London, 8 February 2027: Maghrib 17:02, next day's Fajr 05:33.

• Length of night: 12 h 31 min.
• Half: 6 h 15 min. Middle of the night = 17:02 + 6:15 = 23:17.
• Two-thirds: 8 h 21 min. Last third begins = 17:02 + 8:21 = 01:23, and runs until Fajr at 05:33.

The same city on 21 June, with the middle-of-the-night rule for Fajr, has Maghrib 21:22 and Fajr 01:02, a night of only 3 h 40 min: the middle is 23:12 and the last third begins at 23:49. In Makkah on 8 February the middle is 23:56 and the last third begins at 01:50.

A good rule of thumb for mid-latitudes in winter: the last third begins roughly four hours before Fajr. In summer it is much closer to Fajr.

Where our tool shows them

The prayer times tool prints two extra lines under each day's times: Middle of the night and Last third. They are computed exactly as above from that day's Maghrib and the next day's Fajr, using your chosen method, so they shift with the season and with the high-latitude rule in summer. The Ramadan timetable shows them too, which is handy for planning suhoor and the last ten nights.

A realistic plan

• If you work early: pray Isha, then two or four rak'ahs and witr before bed. On a free night, set the alarm for the last third and pray what you can before suhoor or Fajr.
• In Ramadan: suhoor already puts you up in the last third. Twenty minutes before eating is enough for a few rak'ahs and dua, and the last ten nights are the time to extend it.
• For duha: tie it to a fixed daily event, such as after the morning school run or at the first break, rather than to a clock time that drifts with the seasons.
• Keep it steady. Small regular prayers were loved by the Prophet, peace be upon him, more than large irregular ones. The consistency in five prayers article has practical habits.

The regular sunnahs

Alongside duha and night prayer there are the sunnah rak'ahs attached to the five prayers: two before Fajr, four before and two after Dhuhr, two after Maghrib, two after Isha, and witr after Isha. The before-prayer sunnahs are prayed after the adhan and before the iqamah; the after-prayer ones any time before the window closes, except that nothing voluntary is prayed after the Fajr and Asr prayers. The rak'ah table and witr prayer articles give the numbers and the differences between schools.

As always, the windows here are the general ones; for how they apply to your work, health or travel, ask a scholar or imam you trust.