Friday Auspicious Hours: Which Hours Are Blessed?

On a Friday morning one relative reminds you, "Don't forget to pray today, there is an hour when prayers are answered," and another adds, "Friday is Venus's day, time your plans for a Venus hour." Both remarks are about the same day and both speak of a "blessed time." Yet one is a point of worship grounded in authentic hadith, and the other is the time reckoning of the star chart (yıldızname) tradition. This article does exactly one job: it sets Friday's two blessed times side by side, explains each from its own source and keeps them from blurring into one.

One Day, Two Separate Clocks

The simplest way to tell the two apart is to ask where each one starts the day.

• In the Islamic calendar the day begins at sunset. In Turkish usage, "Friday night" (Cuma gecesi) means the night that runs from Thursday evening into Friday morning. Friday's acts of worship are timed by the prayer times, that is, by the position of the sun.
• In planetary hours the day begins at sunrise. Friday's first planetary hour opens at sunrise on Friday, and the night hours that belong to Friday run from Friday evening until Saturday's sunrise.

So while looking at the same page of the calendar, two different clocks are being kept. Carrying the rule of one into the other is where most of the confusion comes from.

Friday in Islam: Briefly and With Sources

Friday is a day named in the Qur'an. Verse 9 of Surah al-Jumu'ah commands believers, when the call to prayer is made on Friday, to hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade. The Friday prayer is obligatory for men who meet its conditions and is performed in congregation at midday, together with the sermon (khutbah).

A hadith in Sahih Muslim states that the best day on which the sun has risen is Friday, and that Adam was created on it. The Friday teaching people ask about most, however, is the hour of answered prayer: according to the hadith narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim, there is an hour on Friday in which no Muslim servant stands in prayer and asks Allah for something good without Allah granting it. The same narration reports that the Prophet indicated with his hand how short that hour is.

Scholars have put forward different views on when this hour falls. Of the two best known, one is the time from when the imam sits on the pulpit for the sermon until the prayer ends (based on a narration in Muslim); the other is the last part of the day after the afternoon prayer, before sunset. Many scholars understand the fact that its exact time was not disclosed as an encouragement to spend the whole day in prayer and remembrance.

Venus's Day: Friday's 24 Planetary Hours

To calculate auspicious hours, the time from sunrise to sunset is divided into 12, and each part is one day hour; the time from sunset to the next sunrise is also divided into 12 to give the night hours. The first hour of the day belongs to the day's planet, and the rest follow the Chaldean order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, and back to the start. Since Friday is the day of Venus (Zühre), the table runs as follows:

Three things stand out. First, Venus takes four of Friday's twenty-four hours: the 1st and 8th hours of the day and the 3rd and 10th of the night. Mercury and the Moon share the same count of four each, and the other four planets get three hours apiece. Second, the last hour of the night belongs to the Moon, and Saturn comes next in the sequence; the first hour of Saturday does indeed belong to Saturn. Third, Jupiter, the greater fortune (sa'd-ı ekber) in tradition, appears three times on Friday: the 5th and 12th hours of the day and the 7th of the night.

How Long Is an Hour? A Hypothetical Example

A planetary hour is not 60 minutes. To show the calculation, let us use made-up figures that belong to no real city: say that on a Friday the sun rises at 06:40 and sets at 17:52, and rises again at 06:40 the next morning.

• Day: 06:40 to 17:52 is 672 minutes; 672 ÷ 12 = 56 minutes. The first Venus hour runs 06:40–07:36, and the 8th hour (Venus again) runs 13:12–14:08.
• Night: 17:52 to 06:40 is 768 minutes; 768 ÷ 12 = 64 minutes. The 3rd night hour (Venus) runs 20:00–21:04, and the 10th (Venus) 03:28–04:32.

In a real calculation, these figures are replaced by the published sunrise and sunset times for that date and that city. Day hours grow and shrink noticeably between summer and winter, which is why a fixed rule such as "ten o'clock on Friday is lucky" cannot hold.

What Is a Venus Hour Chosen For in Tradition?

In the star chart tradition Venus is the lesser fortune (sa'd-ı asgar). Its domain is love, harmony and beauty, so tradition favours Venus hours for matters such as these:

• uniting beginnings such as a nikah, a promise of marriage or an engagement,
• meetings to make peace with someone you have fallen out with and to smooth over hurt feelings,
• matters of beauty, adornment, clothing and the order of the home,
• pursuits that lighten the heart, such as art, music and hosting guests.

These are the recommendations of tradition, not guarantees of any outcome. Tradition also holds that the general table is only the first layer. Every name has a ruling planet read from its letters, and the same Venus hour can be an open door for someone whose ruling star is in tune with Venus and an ordinary hour for someone else. Which planet rules your name, and which of Friday's hours agree with it, is the subject of a personal calculation.

Myth or Fact? Five Friday Mix-Ups

"The hour of answered prayer is Friday's Venus hour."

Fact: The hadith says nothing about planets. The Arabic word for "hour" in the hadith (sa'a) means a span of time or a moment; it is not the same measure as a planetary hour, one twelfth of the daylight. The scholars' views point to the time between the sermon and the prayer, or to the time after the afternoon prayer. There is no religious basis for equating the hour of answered prayer with a planetary hour.

"Friday night is Venus's night."

Fact: What people call "Friday night", the night that begins on Thursday evening, is in planetary reckoning made up of the night hours of Thursday, Jupiter's day. Its first hour belongs to the Moon, and Venus only arrives in the 6th hour. Venus's day begins at sunrise.

"The Friday prayer is held in a Venus hour anyway."

Fact: Prayer times are set by the rules of Islamic law according to the position of the sun, not by planetary hours. The midday prayer time begins once the sun passes its highest point; that moment is the exact middle of the day, where the 6th planetary hour ends. Friday's 7th hour belongs to the Sun. Prayer is never brought forward or delayed for any planetary calculation.

"Every hour of Friday is lucky, so there is no need to choose."

Fact: Two separate things are at play here. Religiously, the virtue of Friday covers the whole day, and no hour is considered "unlucky". In tradition, however, the planetary sequence keeps turning on Friday too: Saturn and Mars hours are part of this day, and tradition prefers not to place an important beginning in them.

"If the table is the same for everyone, the result is the same too."

Fact: The table is the same for everyone; the fit is not. The same hour does not say the same thing to two people, and the difference comes from each person's ruling planet.

A Short List for Keeping the Two Apart

1. Do not tie worship to planetary hours: the Friday prayer and supplication are performed at their own times and with their own intention.
2. Calculate planetary hours from that day's actual sunrise and sunset, not from a rough guess.
3. Remember that "Friday night" and "Friday's night hours" are two different nights.
4. For an important beginning, treat the general table as the first step and weigh personal compatibility separately.

The planetary hour information in this article is based on the Abjad and star chart tradition; it is not a definitive ruling or a guarantee. For religious matters, please refer to reliable sources and qualified scholars.