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Prayer Times

Prayer times in root search and the menu bar, kept in Apple Reminders two weeks ahead with start, jamaat and ending notifications.
Overview

Prayer Times

Raycast extension that shows the next prayer in the menu bar and root search, keeps timed prayer reminders in Apple Reminders, and tracks which prayers were prayed on time.

Features

Prayer Menu Bar showing Asr jamaat in 7 minutes, with the day's prayers in the dropdown

  • Menu bar countdown: the masjid mark and only the time left until the next moment: Asr -5 (until the start or jamaat), Asr (-40) (until the preferred end or the end). The icon's color follows the live windows of the phone app: light green around the start, brand green around jamaat, yellow before the preferred time ends, red before the prayer time ends, plain in between. The dropdown lists every prayer plus sunrise, midnight and tahajjud, color-coded as with jamaat, on time, late, made up (qaza), current or missed, with each prayer's preferred time. Click a prayer to mark it; hold ⌥ to mark a late one (or one recorded late) as prayed on time.
  • Next Prayer command: live root-search subtitle. Add it to Favorites to keep it on top.
  • Today's Prayers: mark as prayed (the clock decides on time, late, or made up once its time has ended), or as prayed with jamaat, on time, late (still within its time), or made up (qaza, after its time ended); change or unmark it later, and see the last 7 days with jamaat and made-up counts. With Apple Reminders on, the status is kept in the reminder's notes as a prayer-status: jamaat|ontime|late|missed|madeup line above the prayer-times:// key, so other tools that sync these reminders can read and keep it.
  • Prayer Calendar: the month's days on the left; on the right, without scrolling, the whole month with each day's cell colored by how many prayers were marked (the selected day outlined, today underlined) and the selected day's prayers with their status. Mark prayers from ⌘K, or open a day to step day by day and expand a prayer (⌘D) for its times.
  • Apple Reminders: one timed reminder per prayer, kept 14 days ahead, with heads-up, start, jamaat and ending alarms, so alerts fire even when Raycast isn't running.
  • Jamaat rules per prayer: 13:30, +10, floor5+15, ceil5+10, end-30, plus a Jumu'ah rule. Asr can follow Dhuhr's jamaat (dhuhr+10) and Isha Maghrib's (maghrib+5), as most Shia mosques pray them together; with the Ja'fari school that prayer's time then starts at its jamaat.
  • Schools of fiqh: Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali or Ja'fari (Shia) decides when each prayer starts, when it ends, and when delaying it becomes disliked. See Prayer times by school.
  • Location: pick a country and city, or use your approximate current location, refreshed 30 minutes before each prayer.

Setup

  1. Run Set Prayer Location.
  2. Run Prayer Menu Bar once to show it in the menu bar.
  3. Allow Reminders access when asked (or turn Apple Reminders off in preferences).

Current location

macOS only asks for location on behalf of an app, so the first time you choose Use Current Location the extension builds a small helper app, Prayer Times Location, in its own support folder from the extension's Swift code and asks macOS for permission. Allow it when prompted; you can change this later in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services.

It asks macOS for an approximate location only (a few kilometers, enough for prayer times, which move by seconds over that distance) and keeps coordinates rounded to about 1 km. Nothing is downloaded and no other app is needed.

Prayer times by school

Each prayer has a valid end (after it the prayer is late) and, depending on the school, an earlier preferred end (after it the prayer is less preferred, for some prayers disliked, makruh). A prayer with no earlier preferred end, like Fajr, is preferred until its end. The menu bar turns yellow before the preferred end. Counts as Late After picks which end the ending reminder, the red countdown and on-time history use.

HanafiShafi'iMalikiHanbaliJa'fari (Shia)
Asr starts2 shadow lengths1111
Asr preferred untilsun turns yellow2 shadowssun turns yellow2 shadows–
Dhuhr preferred until1 shadow (Shafi'i Asr)–––Asr
Dhuhr endsAsr (2 shadows)AsrAsrAsrsunset
Maghrib startssunsetsunsetsunsetsunseteastern redness gone
Maghrib preferred untilstars appear (~35 min)–short window (~25 min)–Isha
Maghrib endsIshaIshaIshaIshamidnight
Isha preferred untilmidnightfirst thirdfirst thirdfirst thirdfirst third
Isha endsFajrFajrFajrFajrmidnight

Shadow lengths include the noon shadow. Midnight and the first third are measured from sunset to the next Fajr. The sun is taken to turn yellow 20 minutes before sunset. Every rule can be overridden in preferences, including Maghrib ending at the red twilight (15°, or 12° as a precaution). The Ja'fari (Leva Institute, Qom) method uses Fajr 16°, Maghrib 4° and Isha 14°.

Sources: Sahih Muslim 612 (Asr lasts until the sun turns pale); the hadith of Jibril (Abu Dawud 393, Tirmidhi 149) for one and two shadow lengths; Hanafi fatwas on the red and white twilight; Ja'fari rulings on the eastern redness and the shared times of Dhuhr and Asr, and of Maghrib and Isha.

Credits

  • Prayer time calculation: adhan-js (MIT)
  • City list: GeoNames cities with 5,000+ people (CC BY 4.0)
  • Icon: "Shah Faisal Masjid" by kreatikar on Pixabay (Pixabay Content License)