How Islamic Prayer Times Are Calculated

The five daily prayers follow the sun, not the clock. Each time is defined by a specific position of the sun in the sky for your exact location — which is why prayer times differ from city to city and change a little every day.

The five prayers and their definitions

• Fajr — begins at true dawn, when the sun is a set angle below the horizon before sunrise.
• Dhuhr — begins just after the sun passes its highest point (solar noon).
• Asr — begins when an object's shadow reaches a certain length (see madhhab below).
• Maghrib — begins at sunset.
• Isha — begins when the sun is a set angle below the horizon after sunset (twilight ends).

Calculation methods (Fajr & Isha angles)

Fajr and Isha depend on how far below the horizon the sun is (the "twilight angle"). Different authorities use slightly different angles, which is why several calculation methods exist:

• Muslim World League — 18° Fajr, 17° Isha (common in Europe & parts of the world).
• Umm al-Qura (Makkah) — 18.5° Fajr, Isha 90 min after Maghrib (Saudi Arabia).
• ISNA — 15° / 15° (North America).
• Egyptian Authority, University of Karachi, Diyanet (Turkey), and others.

Pick the method used by your local mosque for the closest match. Our app supports all of them.

The Asr madhhab (Shafi'i vs Hanafi)

Asr has two valid opinions:

• Shafi'i / Maliki / Hanbali: Asr begins when an object's shadow equals its own length (plus the noon shadow).
• Hanafi: Asr begins when the shadow is twice the object's length — so Asr is later.

High-latitude locations

Near the poles in summer, twilight may never end — the sun never drops 18° below the horizon — so Fajr and Isha can't be defined the normal way. Special rules (like the "middle of the night" or "angle-based" methods) are used to estimate them. Our engine applies these automatically so cities like London or Oslo still get sensible times.

Why times change daily

Because the Earth orbits the sun, sunrise and sunset shift by a minute or two each day, and the whole prayer schedule shifts with them. That's why an accurate app recalculates every day for your precise coordinates.

See today's times for your location on the home page, or search any city.