How the prayer times are calculated
Each time comes from the position of the sun at your latitude and longitude on that date. The page works out the sun's declination and the equation of time, finds solar noon for Dhuhr, and then finds the moments when the sun is a given angle below the horizon. Sunrise and Maghrib use 0.833° below the horizon, which allows for the sun's radius and the bending of light by the air. Fajr and Isha use the twilight angles of the chosen method, or for some methods a fixed number of minutes after Maghrib. Asr is the moment when a shadow equals the object's own length (or twice it) plus its shadow at noon. Times are converted to the city's clock with the time zone rules in your browser, so daylight saving changes are applied on the right day.
Calculation methods and their angles
Each method below is a published convention. The page lists the parameters as plain facts; it does not rank them. When you pick a city, the default is the method used in that country, and you can change it at any time.
- Muslim World League: Fajr 18°, Isha 17°.
- Islamic Society of North America (ISNA): Fajr 15°, Isha 15°.
- Egyptian General Authority of Survey: Fajr 19.5°, Isha 17.5°.
- Umm al-Qura Calendar, Makkah: Fajr 18.5°, Isha 90 minutes after Maghrib, 120 minutes in Ramadan.
- University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi: Fajr 18°, Isha 18°.
- United Arab Emirates: Fajr 18.2°, Isha 18.2°, with sunrise 3 minutes earlier and Dhuhr, Asr and Maghrib 3, 1 and 3 minutes later.
- Kuwait: Fajr 18°, Isha 17.5°.
- Qatar: Fajr 18°, Isha 90 minutes after Maghrib.
- Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS): Fajr 20°, Isha 18°, Dhuhr 1 minute later, rounded up to the minute.
- Türkiye (Diyanet, approximation): Fajr 18°, Isha 17°, with sunrise 7 minutes earlier and Dhuhr, Asr and Maghrib 5, 4 and 7 minutes later.
- Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran: Fajr 17.7°, Maghrib 4.5°, Isha 14°.
How close the results are to official timetables
We compared the results with timetables published by the authorities themselves. For Makkah and Riyadh the Umm al-Qura times for the whole year 1448 AH were within 2 minutes. For Abu Dhabi and Dubai the UAE parameters were within 1 minute of the Awqaf timetable for October 2026. For Istanbul the Diyanet times and for Singapore the MUIS times for a full year were within 2 minutes. Official tables can still differ by a minute or two because of rounding, the exact reference point of a city, height above sea level and safety margins that some authorities add. The Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Karachi, ISNA, Muslim World League and Tehran settings follow their published angles but were not compared with an official timetable from here.
Asr: standard and Hanafi
The standard Asr time, followed in the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools, begins when a shadow equals the object's length plus its noon shadow. The Hanafi school uses twice the object's length, so Hanafi Asr is later, often by 45 minutes to an hour and a quarter depending on the season and place. The setting changes only Asr. Choose the one your mosque uses.
Ramadan timetable: Suhoor and Iftar
Ramadan mode lists every day of the coming or current Ramadan with Suhoor ending at Fajr and Iftar at Maghrib, plus Isha and the night times. The Ramadan dates come from the Umm al-Qura calendar in your browser and are expected dates only: each country confirms the start and end of Ramadan by its own announcement. Many timetables print an imsak time a few minutes before Fajr as a precaution; if you want one, add a negative adjustment to Fajr. With the Umm al-Qura method, Isha moves to 120 minutes after Maghrib during Ramadan, as that calendar publishes it.
Middle of the night and the last third
The extra row splits the night from Maghrib to the next day's Fajr. The middle of the night is the halfway point, and the last third starts two thirds of the way through. These are the times many people use to plan night prayer (qiyam or tahajjud). They move with the seasons: in a short summer night the last third can start well after midnight on the clock, and in winter much earlier.
High latitudes and short summer nights
North of about 48° (London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo) the sun does not go deep enough below the horizon in summer for Fajr and Isha twilight angles to happen at all. The page then applies a high-latitude rule: middle of the night, one seventh of the night, or a share of the night set by the twilight angle. By default it uses one seventh above 48° and the middle-of-the-night rule elsewhere, and it tells you when a rule was used. In places where the sun does not set or does not rise at all, such as northern Norway around the solstices, the page shows no Fajr or Isha rather than inventing them; please follow your local Islamic centre.
Your location stays on your device
The location button uses your browser's location only after you allow it. The coordinates are used on your device to calculate the times and are not sent to NeedMyTools or stored. You can also search a city or type coordinates from any map app instead.
Sources we checked
These are the pages we opened on 16 October 2026 for the method parameters and the timetable comparisons.
- PrayTimes.org: calculation methods and angles
- PrayTimes.org: how prayer times are calculated
- Umm al-Qura Calendar (KACST): prayer times
- UAE General Authority of Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Zakat: prayer times
- Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı: prayer times
- MUIS: Muslim Prayer Timetable 2025 (data.gov.sg)
- Adhan open-source library: calculation parameters