How Islamic Prayer Times Are Calculated (and Why Methods Differ)
Prayer times shift every day and differ from city to city, and the apps that track them are often heavy with ads and permission requests. Travelling makes it harder: a new city, a different calculation convention, Ramadan timings to plan around. Prayer times works out today's times for your location, counts down to the next prayer and builds a month's timetable you can print.
Steps
- Type your city, or press Use my location.
- Check the calculation method and the Asr method, and change them to match your mosque.
- Read today's times, or open the month timetable and print it.
How the times are calculated
The times come from the Sun's position, computed with a precise astronomy library:
- Dhuhr is when the Sun crosses the meridian (solar noon).
- Maghrib is at sunset.
- Fajr and Isha are when the Sun is a set angle below the horizon, and that angle depends on the method. The Muslim World League uses 18° for Fajr and 17° for Isha; ISNA uses 15°; Umm al-Qura uses 18.5° for Fajr and Isha 90 minutes after Maghrib.
- Asr is when an object's shadow equals its length plus its noon shadow (standard), or twice its length (Hanafi).
Choosing a method
Use the one your local mosque or community uses. The page picks a common default for your region: ISNA in North America, Umm al-Qura in Saudi Arabia, Karachi in India and Pakistan. You can change it any time.
Hanafi vs standard Asr makes the biggest visible difference: Hanafi Asr starts later in the afternoon, sometimes by an hour or more depending on the season and latitude. Most communities in South Asia follow Hanafi.
When your mosque is a few minutes different
That's normal. Mosques may use a different method, or add a few safety minutes to Fajr, Maghrib or Isha. Set their method here and allow for their adjustments. If your mosque publishes a timetable, compare a week against this one to see the offset.
The month timetable
Open Month timetable, press Show this month, then Print. Useful for Ramadan, when Fajr (suhoor) and Maghrib (iftar) times matter to the minute, for sticking on the fridge, or for an elderly family member who prefers paper.
Travelling
Search your destination city before you go and print its timetable. At high latitudes in summer (northern UK, Scandinavia, Canada), Fajr and Isha can be extreme or undefined because the Sun barely sets; communities there follow local rulings, so check with a local mosque.
Practical tips
- Bookmark it with your city on your phone's home screen for one-tap access.
- Double-check after moving cities; the method default may change with region.
- For the Qibla direction, the site also has a Qibla direction tool.
Why calculations differ between apps
Two apps showing different Fajr times for the same city usually aren't wrong; they're using different angles. The gap between 15° and 18° below the horizon can mean 15 to 25 minutes depending on the season and how far you are from the equator. Knowing which method a timetable uses explains most disagreements, and lets you match the one your community follows.
Privacy
According to the page, everything runs on your device; your location is used only in the page to calculate the times and is kept out of the link. City search uses a list bundled with the page. Google ads appear on the page, as on the rest of the site.
FAQ
Which method should I use? Your local mosque's. The page picks a regional default.
Hanafi vs standard Asr? Hanafi starts when a shadow is twice an object's length, later than standard.
Why do times differ from my mosque? Different method or added safety minutes.
Can I print a month? Yes, from Month timetable.
Keep today's times one tap away with Prayer times.
— Alok Kumar Singh