ipraytime - An Islamic Prayer Times Calculator
ipraytime [--date yyyymmdd]
[--latitude real_num] [--longitude real_num]
[--utcdiff real_num] [--method int_num]
[--ishaangle real_num] [--fajrangle real_num]
[--dst int_num] [--dst-start yyyymmdd]
[--dst-end yyyymmdd] [--round int_num]
[--extreme int_num] [--sea-level int_num]
[--month [int_num]] [--year [int_num]]
[--file pref_file] [--end] [--brief]
[--help]
The ipraytime program is a generator of Islamic prayer time
schedules for any given location. ipraytime also calculates the
appropriate Qibla direction (heading towards the Kabaa) based on the given
location. ipraytime in its single day format is also capable of
calculating Imsaak times (ie. the times when one is to start fasting).
ipraytime is also capable of generating a schedule for an entire
month or year based on command-line arguments. The program is also able to
print the schedules for the rest of the current month so as to skip days
that have already passed. ipraytime also has a minimalistic option to
simply show a one liner of the prayer times in its single day format.
ipraytime has multiple ways of conveying info and settings
to it. The order of precedence (from highest to lowest) is, the command-line
followed by the environment variable setting (IPT_DATA) to the data being
presented in ipraytime's RC file (~/.iprayrc) in one's home
directory. If none of the above is found, ipraytime defaults to using
Makkah's location with the host machine's current date settings.
ipraytime follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with
long options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of all options is
noted below:
- -h, --help
- Show summary of options
- -d, --date
yyyymmdd
- Specify the Gregorian date to use where `y' stands for year, `m' for month
and `d' for day
- -lat, --latitude
real_num
- Specify the latitude setting to use during calculations. The value could
be any real number
- -lon, --longitude
real_num
- Specify the longitude setting to use during calculations. The value could
be any real number
- -sea, --sea-level
real_num
- Specify height above Sea level (in meters)
- -u, --utcdiff
real_num
- Specify the difference between the specified timezone and that of GMT/UTC.
The value could be any real number
- -a, --anglemethod
[int_num]
- Specify which angle method calculation to use. The angle methods that are
currently supported by ipraytime are,
- 1
- Egyptian General Authority of Survey
Fajr/Isha Angle : 20/18
Used in : Africa, Indonesia, Iraq,
Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia,
Singapore, Syria,
Parts of the USA
- 2
- University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi (Shaf'i)
Fajr/Isha Angle : 18/18
Used in : Iran, Kuwait,
Parts of Europe
- 3
- University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi (Hanafi)
Fajr/Isha Angle : 18/18
Used in : Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
India
- 4
- Islamic Society of North America
Fajr/Isha Angle : 15/15
Used in : Canada, Parts of UK,
Parts of USA
- 5
- Muslim World League (MWL)
Fajr/Isha Angle : 18/17
Used in : Parts of Europe,
Far East, Parts of USA
- 6
- Umm Al-Qurra University
Fajr/Isha Angl e : 19/0
Isha Interval : 90 minutes from Al-Maghrib
prayer but set to 120
during Ramadan.
Used in : Saudi Arabia
- 7
- Fixed Isha Angle Interval (always 90)
Fajr/Isha Angle : 19.5/0
Isha Interval : 90 minutes from Al-Maghrib
prayer
Used in : Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE
- 8
- Egyptian General Authority of Survey (Egypt)
Fajr/Isha Angle : 19.5/17.5
Used in : Egypt
- -fa, --fajrangle
[real_num]
- Specify which angle to use for Fajr. Will override the one set by the
--anglemethod.
- -ia, --ishaangle
[real_num]
- Specify which angle to use for Isha. Will override the one set by the
--anglemethod.
- -s, --dst
[int_num]
- By default, ipraytime uses the host's machine timezone information
to determine whether daylight saving time is in effect or not. If this
information is unavailable or not accurate, this option provides the means
to explicitly set the DST status. Set this to 0 to completely disable
daylight saving time. Set it to 1 to always add one hour to the computed
prayer times.
-ss, --dst-start yyyymmdd
-se, --dst-end yyyymmdd
Specify a range of dates where day light saving time is
in effect for your location. For example:
- -m, --month
[int_num]
- Specify to print either current month's schedule or the passed-in value's
month schedule.
- -y, --year
[int_num]
- Specify to print either current year's schedule or the passed-in value's
year schedule.
- -f, --file
pref_file
- Specify filename to load which contains user's settings and
preferences.
- -e, --end
- Specify to continue with schedule printing until the end of specified
month.
- -b, --brief
- Specify to print a brief one-liner output for single day mode.
- -h12,
--regular-hour
- Display the prayer times in regular time instead of military time.
- -r, --round
[int_num]
- Specify a method for rounding seconds. The supported methods are,
- 0
- No Rounding. Completely ignore the computed seconds value.
- 1
- Regular Rounding. If seconds are equal to 30 or above, add 1 minute.
- 2
- Special Rounding. Similar to regular rounding but we always round down for
Shurooq and Imsaak times. (This is the default method)
- 3
- Aggressive Rounding. Similar to Special Rounding but we add 1 minute if
the seconds value are equal to 1 second or more.
- -x, --extreme
[int_num]
- Specify a method for prayer times calculations at high (49+) or extreme
(66+) latitudes. Prayer times calculations relies heavily on astronomical
events. At these latitudes some of those events do not occur at all, or
are impossible to precisely calculate using conventional means. For
example, at certain locations the sun never moves below the horizon to the
position of the amount of Fajr angle degrees specified, therefore there
will be no real Fajr time at that location. The supported extreme methods
are:
Note: Methods that have the If Invalid keyword are
applied only when ipraytime is unable to calculate these times.
Methods that have the Always keyword are applied always.
- 0
- None. If unable to calculate, leave as 99:99
- 1
- Nearest Latitude (Aqrab Al-Bilaad): All prayers [Always]
- 2
- Nearest Latitude (Aqrab Al-Bilaad): Fajr and Isha [Always]
- 3
- Nearest Latitude (Aqrab Al-Bilaad): All prayers [If Invalid]
- 4
- Nearest Good Day (Aqrab Al-Ayyam): All prayers [Always]
- 5
- Nearest Good Day (Aqrab Al-Ayyam): All prayers [If Invalid] (This is the
default method)
Note: All the extreme methods following below do not have a
proof in traditional Shari'a (Fiqh) resources. These methods were introduced
by modern day Muslim scholars and scientists for practical reasons only.
- 6
- Seventh of Night: Fajr and Isha [Always]
- 7
- Seventh of Night: Fajr and Isha [If Invalid]
- 8
- Seventh of Day: Fajr and Isha [Always]
- 9
- Seventh of Day: Fajr and Isha [If Invalid]
- 10
- Half of the Night: Fajr and Isha [Always]
- 11
- Half of the Night: Fajr and Isha [If Invalid]
Note: To use the next two methods, you will need to specify
FajrInterval and IshaInterval in your configuration file.
- 12
- Minutes from Shorooq/Maghrib: Fajr and Isha [Always]
- 13
- Minutes from Shorooq/Maghrib: Fajr and Isha [If invalid]
ipraytime is capable of loading settings from a
configuration file (~/.iprayrc). The default location of the
configuration file can be changed using the --file option. The content of
the file should be in the following syntax, `variable_string: value'. See
the EXAMPLES section for usage examples. Below is a list of all supported
settings which can be used in the configuration file:
- City
- Specifies an informational city name string to be displayed for
reference
- Latitude
- Specify the latitude setting to use during calculations. The value could
be any real number
- Longitude
- Specify the longitude setting to use during calculations. The value could
be any real number
- UTC
- Specify the difference between the specified timezone and that of GMT/UTC.
The value could be any real number
- SeaLevel
- Specify height above Sea level (in meters)
- Pressure
- Specify the atmospheric pressure in millibars. The default value is
1010.
- Temperature
- Specify the temperature in Celsius degree. The default value is 10.
- AngleMethod
- Specify which angle method calculation to use. The value needs to be a
positive integer of one of the supported methods. See the --anglemethod
option for more information.
- Mathhab
- Specify which mathhab to use in one's calculations. The current supported
value are 1 for Shaf'i and 2 for Hanafi
- OffsetList
- Specify a list of values in minutes to add or subtract any amount of
minutes from the daily computed prayer times. For example, If you want to
add 30 seconds to Maghrib and subtract 2 minutes from Isha, you will set
this option to `0 0 0 0 0.5 -2'.
- FajrAngle
- Specify the fajr angle to use during calculations. Will override the
values of the specified method.
- IshaAngle
- Specify the isha angle to use during calculations. Will override the
values of the specified method.
- ImsaakAngle
- Specify imsaak and fajr angle difference. The default value is 1.5
degrees.
- FajrInterval
- Specify the number of minutes between fajr and shorooq. This should be a
positive integer.
- IshaInterval
- Specify the number of minutes between Isha and Maghrib. This should be a
positive integer.
- ImsaakInterval
- Specify a difference in minutes between imsaak and fajr. The default
Imsaak interval from fajr is 10 minutes if the FajrInterval is set.
- ExtremeMethod
- Specify which method to use for high and extreme latitudes. The value
needs to be an integer of one of the supported extreme methods. See
descriptions of the --extreme option for a list of the supported
methods.
- NearestLatitude
- Specify the latitude Used for the `Nearest Latitude' extreme methods. The
default is at 48.5 degrees.
- RoundMethod
- Specify which method to use for rounding seconds. The value needs to be an
integer of one of the supported rounding methods. See the --round option
for a list of the supported methods.
- DST
- Specify the current DST status. Set this to 0 to completely disable
daylight saving time. Or set it to 1 to always add one hour to the
computed prayer times. See the --dst option for more information.
- DST-Start
- Specify the start date when daylight saving time adjustment is in effect
for your location. This value should be a valid date in yyyymmdd form
- DST-End
- Specify the date when daylight saving time adjustment period ends. This
value should be a valid date in yyyymmdd form
- HourFormat
- Specify a time format for displaying the prayer times. The value should be
12 (regular time) or 24 (military time)
- IPT_DATA
- One means to pass-in the various required settings is via this variable.
The format of the variable needs to be "LocationName Latitude
Longitude UTCdiff AngleMethodNumber". For instance,
setenv IPT_DATA "Dubai 25.25 55.3 4 2"
~/.iprayrc User configuration file.
Report bugs on the web using http://bugs.arabeyes.org
Written by Nadim Shaikli and Thamer Mahmoud. Part of the
Arabeyes.org project.
ipraytime is subject to the GNU General Public License
(GPL).
Copyright © 2005, Arabeyes, Nadim Shaikli.
The ITL library (libitl) from the Islamic Tools and Libraries
project. It is the underlying requirement for ipraytime to function.
The ITL library was created and is hosted at www.arabeyes.org.