17.78 – Observe the prayer at the setting of the sun until the darkness of the night
Sunni Muslim practice prescribes five daily times of ritual prayer (ṣalāh). In the Quran, the times of prayer seem to be no more than three (also 11.114). This passage mentions prayer when the sun goes down, again later in the evening, and in the morning at dawn. Instructions about five times of ritual prayer come rather from the hadith, the sayings attributed to Muhammad, first recorded in the third century of Islam (ninth century AD).