Calculation Methods guidelines

[khawarizmus]

Assalam alykoum.

It would be nice to provide some guidelines on when and where to use each calculation method in the documentation.

Also it would be nice to provide a function that can set the calculation method automatically maybe based on time zone or longitude and latitude or both.

Keep up the good work!

[z3bi]

That is definitely something we would like to do, but in order to a comprehensive list of recommendations that we are confident in, we need more information about what method local masjids are using or for a Muslim country, what the Ministry of Religion is using. We have some of these, and are what we use for testing the library, but not enough to include it as a feature just yet.

[khawarizmus]

@z3bi then can you please include the information that is available for you at the moment so that other developers can also test this library or their products that are built upon it?

[z3bi]

The times used for verification are located here https://github.com/batoulapps/Adhan/tree/master/Times

[khawarizmus]

So basically if i understand it well we only have the configuration for five cities right?

Does it apply for the whole country ?

[z3bi]

Yes, you can apply these settings to the entire country. Only five locations have official tests as these are the only ones we have verifiable sources for so far. We would welcome official sources for more locations and hope that the open source community can assist us in that regard.

[khalid-hussain]

Malaysia (JAKIM): http://www.e-solat.gov.my/web/

[mr-islam]

This is especially important when neighboring countries share a single method.

An important example is the Karachi method – it is widely (and almost universally) used in India and Bangladesh as well, not just Pakistan. I know this because I have lived in all three of those places, but a developer from some other land wouldn't know this. (In fact, it's probably used in Nepal and even more surrounding nations!)

And at the same time, my input above is anecdotal – not an official government or national fact. Actually, in the subcontinent Muslims don't really have a universal body governing prayer time calculations. Most mosques give the adhan within 2-3 minutes of each other usually, but in some there are significant outliers (up to even 15 minutes!). So in many places, since there is no standardized body in charge of this, no library can automatically give the user the same time they will hear from their own mosque.

This above is like the worst case, but in other places like Morocco and like @khalid-hussain shared, Malaysia, the government has official times it publishes. We can and should do our best to document all that!

For muslims living in various countries, it would be an immense help if you went to your ministry of religious affairs, and asked them about their official times and calculations. I'm sure they would be happy to help, especially for a noble goal like this.

[z3bi]

@mr-islam I think I agree that we've reached the point that this library needs to add a method that can suggest a calculation method for a location.

I will look to create a PR soon and hope for community feedback on which method is most prominent in different countries.

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