ʿIlm al-Mīqāt
The science of sacred time.
ʿIlm al-mīqāt is the science of sacred time: the reckoning of the prayers by the course of the sun, the determination of the Qibla from any place, and the watch for the new crescent. From the thirteenth century, many great mosques kept a muwaqqit, a timekeeper charged with this craft, and its practice is tauqeet, the determination of the times.
Among the scholars of the Indian subcontinent, Imam Ahmad Raza Khan, raḥimahullāh, brought to this discipline an uncommon breadth of learning. In his writings on tauqeet and the Qibla he drew together astronomy, geometry and trigonometry, the geography of latitude and longitude, and the rulings of fiqh, so that the times of prayer and the direction of the Kaʿbah could be determined with precision for any place on the globe.
His principles and methodology were taught by Tājush Sharīʿah Mufti Akhtar Raza Khan to Qāʾid-e-Millat Mufti Asjad Raza Khan.
Hijri date