The Prayer After the Sun Turns

Dhuhr is the second of the five obligatory salah, prayed after the sun passes its zenith and begins to decline, and continuing until the light lengthens into the afternoon prayer's time. It is the longest of the fixed prayers in its obligatory portion: four rak'ah, commonly framed by recommended sunnah cycles before and after. Coming at the height of the working day, it interrupts labour and commerce, and much of its significance in Muslim life lies precisely in that interruption, a deliberate turn from occupation to remembrance at the day's busiest point.

Unlike the dawn, sunset and night prayers, Dhuhr is recited silently: the worshipper reads the Fatiha and a further passage of the Qur'an inwardly rather than aloud. The tradition explains the division by the hours, the audible prayers falling in darkness or its edges, the silent ones in full daylight, though it is received as an established practice of the Prophet rather than argued from first principles.