Namaz TimesHow prayer times are calculated
How Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha are worked out from the sun, what the Karachi, MWL, ISNA, Egyptian and Umm al-Qura methods mean, and why times differ.
The five daily prayers are tied to the position of the sun. A prayer-time calculator turns each of those positions into a clock time for your latitude, longitude and date. Nothing is looked up from a table; the sun is worked out afresh for the day.
The five moments
- Dhuhr begins soon after the sun passes its highest point (solar noon). It is the one time with no argument: the calculation gives the moment of solar noon.
- Asr begins when the shadow of an object reaches a set length. Most schools say the length of the object plus the shadow it had at noon (we call this the standard rule); the Hanafi school says twice the length of the object plus the noon shadow.
- Maghrib begins at sunset, when the upper edge of the sun disappears.
- Isha begins when the red and white glow of twilight has gone from the western sky, which is defined as the sun being a stated number of degrees below the horizon, or, in the Umm al-Qura method, a fixed 90 minutes after Maghrib.
- Fajr begins at the first true light of dawn, defined the same way, as the sun being a stated number of degrees below the eastern horizon.
The methods and their angles
| Method | Fajr angle | Isha | Commonly used in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muslim World League | 18° | 17° | Europe, the Far East, parts of America |
| University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi | 18° | 18° | Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan |
| Islamic Society of North America | 15° | 15° | United States and Canada |
| Egyptian General Authority of Survey | 19.5° | 17.5° | Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, parts of Africa |
| Umm al-Qura, Makkah | 18.5° | 90 minutes after Maghrib | Saudi Arabia and the Gulf |
These angles are the published settings of those bodies. A bigger angle means an earlier Fajr and a later Isha. The difference between the smallest and largest Fajr angle on this page is about 20 minutes in India. Local mosques often also add a few minutes of caution to each time, so the printed timetable at your mosque can differ from any calculator.
High latitudes
In summer in northern Europe and Canada the sun never gets 18 degrees below the horizon, so there is no true dark night and the angle rule has no answer. We use the common fallback of the "share of the night": Fajr and Isha are not allowed to be further from sunrise and sunset than the angle divided by 60 of the length of the night. Some communities choose the middle of the night or a fixed time instead. This is a matter for your local scholars.
How accurate is this site?
We compared our results with the free Aladhan prayer-times service for eight cities and five methods on the longest and shortest day: all six times agreed within one minute (our largest difference was 0.6 minute, the rest is rounding). Remember that your mosque's timetable is the one the community follows.
This page explains general practice in plain words. It is not a religious ruling. Schools of thought and local communities differ in details; for your own practice, ask a trusted teacher or your local mosque.
Questions people ask
Which method should I choose?
Use the one your local mosque or community uses. The default on each page follows the usual method of the region.
Why does my phone app show different minutes?
It may use another method, add a few minutes of caution, or round differently.