khait abiaz wa aswad and the time of true dawn in the holy quran

there has been, and still is, a huge difference of opinions on the exact time of true dawn (al-fajr al-sadegh) which is the starting point for the morning prayer as well as fasting. the root of this disagreement among muslim jurists should be sought in their reading of the 187th verse of the second chapter of the holy quran. using classical arabic literature and available commentaries of the quran as well as ahadith and the author’s actual observations, this paper tries to suggest a better interpretation of the verse in question. it is concluded that the time of true dawn can be calculated as the time that sun is 16 degrees under the horizon.