Questions about the prohibited times

The times when salah may not be prayed are fixed in the sources but move with the sun, so they land at a different clock time every day. What each window forbids, and what it still allows, is what the questions below answer directly.

• Can I pray after Fajr? After Fajr enters, the obligatory prayer, missed prayers, funeral prayer, and the two rakahs of the Fajr sunnah are prayed; other voluntary prayer waits until the sun has fully risen.
• Can I pray janazah at sunset? In the Hanafi school the funeral prayer in the strict times is disliked if the funeral was ready earlier, permitted if it became ready then. In the Shafii school it is valid throughout.
• Can I pray qada after Asr? Missed obligatory prayers may be made up after Asr in all schools. The exception is the sunset window: in the Hanafi school qada becomes invalid once the sun yellows, until Maghrib.
• Can I pray sunnah after Asr? In the Hanafi school no voluntary prayer is begun after Asr until Maghrib. In the Shafii school sunnah prayers with a cause remain valid; pure voluntary prayer does not.
• Can I pray tahajjud now? Tahajjud can be prayed at any point of the night until Fajr enters. After Fajr enters, voluntary prayer is withheld until the sun has fully risen.
• Makruh times for prayer The makruh times for prayer in the Hanafi school: the three strict times where prayer is invalid, and the after-Fajr and after-Asr windows where voluntary prayer is makruh tahrimi.
• Prohibited prayer times The prohibited and disliked times for prayer, computed astronomically for your location: sunrise, zenith, sunset, and the extended after-Fajr and after-Asr windows.
• What is isfirar? Isfirar is the yellowing of the sun in its final descent before sunset. In the Hanafi school it opens the last strict prohibited window of the day, ending at Maghrib.
• What is zawal time? Zawal is the moment the sun passes the meridian. The brief window before it, while the sun stands at its zenith (istiwa), is a strict prohibited time; Dhuhr enters once zawal has passed.
• When is it forbidden to pray? Three strict times - sunrise, the sun's zenith, and sunset - plus two extended windows after Fajr and after Asr. What each one restricts differs by madhhab and by the type of prayer.