Sahih Muslim 612d horns of the devil during sunrise
Abdullah b. 'Amr reported:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: The time of the noon prayer is when the sun passes the meridian and a man's shadow is
the same (length) as his height, (and it lasts) as long as the time for the afternoon prayer has not come; the time for
the afternoon prayer is as long as the sun has not become pale; the time of the evening prayer is as long as the
twilight has not ended; the time of the night prayer is up to the middle of the average night and the time of the morning prayer
is from the appearance of dawn, as long as the sun has not risen; but when the sun rises, refrain from prayer for it rises between
the horns of the devil.
The Hadith is not literally saying that the sun rises between Satan’s horns. The explanation of this Hadith is that in
7th century Arabia there were pagans that used to worship the sun and they use to perform their worship at certain times.
During these prayer times Satan would rise up and face the sun; this way when the pagan sun worshippers prostrated
towards the direction of the sun they would prostrate towards Satan as well.
The point of the Hadith is not to pray at the times that the sun worshippers would pray. As Muslims we’re not suppose to
imitate the disbelievers and we try to be as different from them as possible