The Prayer at Sunset

Maghrib is the fourth of the five obligatory salah, prayed in the brief interval just after the sun has fully set, as the red of the western sky begins to fade. Its window is the narrowest of the day, which gives the prayer a characteristic promptness, it is the one most often prayed the moment its time arrives rather than at leisure. Its obligatory portion is three rak'ah, the only odd-numbered obligatory prayer, of which the first two are recited aloud and the third silently. A pair of recommended sunnah rak'ah commonly follows.

Maghrib marks the close of the day and, in the Islamic reckoning where the day turns at sunset rather than midnight, the threshold of the next. During Ramadan it is the prayer at which the daily fast is broken: the fast ends with the sunset call, and the meal that breaks it and the Maghrib prayer are woven closely together, often with a light breaking of the fast before the prayer and the full meal after.