محمد خدابخشی

This article aims to identify the most spiritually favorable nights of the year for believers and the optimal timing for nightly devotion to God by employing the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. Given the emphasis on nocturnal worship in Surah al-Muzzammil , this study explores the relationship between the length of night and the opportunities it provides for worship. Using DEA, the nights of the year are evaluated based on the duration of night and environmental conditions in order to determine those nights that offer the greatest potential for devotion and supplication. In addition to temporal variables, nocturnal temperature is also considered as an influential factor in this evaluation. DEA serves here as an analytical tool for comparative performance assessment, facilitating the identification of nights with the most favorable conditions for nighttime worship. In the methodological section, two scenarios are implemented. The first scenario constructs a composite index based on the interval between the religious midnight (half of the canonical night) and fajr (dawn), as well as between fajr and sunrise. The second scenario applies the Fair Model (KA) and the AP Model with three indices: the interval from the religious midnight to fajr , from fajr to sunrise, and the temperature index. For more precise evaluation, the AP and KA models are also executed for the first scenario. The findings of this research can assist believers in planning their nocturnal worship during the most spiritually advantageous periods of the night.