Four of the six times are pure astronomy
Prayer times are tied to the sun, and for four of them there is no choice to make. Sunrise and Maghrib (sunset) are when the upper edge of the sun crosses the horizon. Dhuhr is a short while after the sun passes its highest point, solar noon. Asr is when an object’s shadow has grown by its own height. Given a latitude, a longitude and a date, every app computes these to within a few seconds of each other, and the only differences you will see come from rounding and from where exactly the app thinks you are.
Fajr and Isha are different. Fajr begins at true dawn, when the first light appears in the east while the sun is still well below the horizon. Isha begins when the evening twilight has gone. “Well below” has to be a number of degrees, and that number is a judgement that each country’s religious authority has made for itself. That is where most of the minutes come from.
The Fajr and Isha angles each authority uses
| Method | Fajr | Isha | Used by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Umm al-Qura | 18.5° | 90 minutes after Maghrib (120 in Ramadan) | Saudi Arabia |
| Qatar | 18° | 90 minutes after Maghrib | Qatar |
| UAE (General Authority of Islamic Affairs) | 18.2° | 18.2° | United Arab Emirates |
| Kuwait | 18° | 17.5° | Kuwait |
| Egyptian General Authority | 19.5° | 17.5° | Egypt, much of Africa |
| Muslim World League | 18° | 17° | Many communities worldwide |
| University of Karachi | 18° | 18° | Pakistan, India, Bangladesh |
| Diyanet | 18° | 17° | Türkiye |
| Singapore, JAKIM | 20° | 18° | Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia |
| Moonsighting Committee | 18° | 18°, adjusted by season | UK, North America |
| ISNA | 15° | 15° | Some North American mosques |
The angle changes the time more than it looks. Near the equator the sun drops almost vertically, so one degree is about four minutes; in the Gulf in winter it is five to six; in London in summer one degree can be fifteen minutes, which is why British timetables also adjust for the season. Between the Egyptian 19.5° and ISNA’s 15° Fajr, the gap in Doha is around 20 minutes, in Karachi similar, in London far more.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar avoid the Isha angle altogether and fix Isha at 90 minutes after Maghrib. That is why Isha on the Umm al-Qura calendar moves exactly with sunset through the year, and why it jumps to two hours after Maghrib in Ramadan.
Try it: Prayer Times
Pick a city or use your location. The method and the Asr rule follow the country, and the official timetable is shown where the authority publishes one.
The Asr rule: one shadow or two
Asr starts when the shadow of an object has grown by the object’s own height beyond its length at noon. That is the view of the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools and the rule in the Gulf, the Levant, Africa and most of the world. The Hanafi school puts Asr when the shadow has grown by twice the height, which is 40 to 70 minutes later depending on the season and the latitude. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh follow the Hanafi rule, so an app set to “Karachi” uses it, and an app set to “Umm al-Qura” does not.
If Asr is the only time that differs between two apps, this is the reason, and the right choice is the one your community follows.
Rounding, and why official tables differ from the formula
An authority’s printed timetable is not the raw calculation. Each authority rounds in its own way, and some add a minute or two of caution to particular prayers. Qatar’s Calendar House and the Saudi calendar each round particular prayers up or down by their own rule, and the UAE’s tables sit about a minute later at Asr than the bare method, not the three minutes some apps add. An app that applies the bare method shows the same numbers nine days in ten and is a minute off on the tenth.
This is why the prayer-times pages on this site show the authority’s own rows where the authority publishes them: the Qatar Calendar House’s monthly calendars for Doha (which Lusail, Al Wakrah and Al Khor also use), and the Umm al-Qura calendar for Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. For every other place the page calculates with the country’s method, with the rounding fitted to that country’s tables, and marks the calculated days so you know which is which.
Your coordinates and the clock
Two smaller sources of difference:
- Where the app thinks you are. Each degree of longitude is four minutes of solar time. Across a city like Doha or Riyadh the difference is one or two minutes at most, so a city timetable is fine for the whole city. A place 100 km east or west of the city needs its own times. Apps that use a phone’s GPS and apps that use the city centre will differ by that much, and both are right.
- Time zone and daylight saving. The Gulf has no daylight saving; Pakistan, India and Egypt (which reintroduced it) handle it differently, and a phone travelling between zones can show the home zone’s times. Times should always be shown in the place’s own time zone, not the device’s; ours are.
Elevation matters only on a mountain: at 1,000 metres the horizon is lower and sunrise comes three or four minutes earlier. Most apps ignore it, and so do most authorities.
Which to trust
The mosque. Mosques follow the official timetable of the country, and that timetable is what the authority has decided counts. In Qatar it is the Qatar Calendar House; in Saudi Arabia the Umm al-Qura calendar published through the Ministry of Islamic Affairs; in the UAE the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments; in Pakistan and India the local religious boards that use the Karachi method with Hanafi Asr; in the UK the Moonsighting Committee’s tables or the local mosque’s own.
An app whose method you can set to that authority will be within a minute of it; an app with a single global default (often ISNA or the Muslim World League) will not. A difference of a minute or two is rounding. A difference of twenty minutes at Fajr or Isha is the angle. A difference of an hour at Asr is the madhab. None of them is an error in the sky.
Try it: Prayer Times in Doha
The Qatar Calendar House's own times for Doha, Lusail, Al Wakrah and Al Khor, with the Ramadan timetable and the Qibla.
A note on the Qibla
The Qibla is the direction of the shortest path over the Earth’s surface to the Kaaba, which on a flat map looks like a curve. From Doha it is 252.6 degrees, a little south of west, and from New York it is north-east, not south-east as a flat map suggests. The exact figure depends slightly on whether the Earth is treated as a sphere or as its real, slightly flattened shape; the difference is a tenth of a degree, far less than a phone can measure.
What a phone can get wrong is north itself. A compass reads magnetic north, which is a few degrees away from true north and changes with location: about 2.6 degrees east in Doha, about 12.5 degrees west in New York. A Qibla app has to add that correction, and it has to be held flat, away from metal and magnets, and calibrated. Our Qibla page adds the correction from the World Magnetic Model, warns when the phone is tilted or the compass reports poor accuracy, and shows the bearing in numbers, so you can check it against a known landmark or the mosque’s mihrab.
Frequently asked questions
Which prayer times should I follow if my app and the mosque differ?
The mosque, which follows the country’s official timetable. In Qatar that is the Qatar Calendar House, in Saudi Arabia the Umm al-Qura calendar, in the UAE the General Authority of Islamic Affairs. An app that lets you pick that method will match within a minute; our prayer-times pages show the official rows themselves for Doha and the main Saudi cities.
Why is Asr so much later on some apps?
They use the Hanafi rule, under which Asr begins when an object’s shadow is twice its height, rather than once. That is 40 to 70 minutes later depending on the season and latitude. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh follow it; the Gulf states and most of the Arab world use the earlier time.
Why does Isha in Saudi Arabia always come 90 minutes after Maghrib?
The Umm al-Qura calendar fixes Isha at 90 minutes after Maghrib (two hours in Ramadan) instead of waiting for the sun to reach 17 or 18 degrees below the horizon. Qatar uses the same 90-minute rule. In summer at higher latitudes the angle-based Isha can be very late, which is one reason interval rules exist.
Does my exact location matter, or is the city enough?
Each degree of longitude moves every prayer by four minutes, so across a wide city the difference is one or two minutes at most. A timetable for the city centre is fine for the city; a place 100 km away needs its own.
Is the Qibla direction from a compass app exact?
A phone’s compass reads magnetic north, which is a few degrees off true north (about 2.6 degrees east in Doha, about 12.5 degrees west in New York). A Qibla app has to add that correction, and the phone has to be held flat and away from metal. Our Qibla page applies the correction and warns when the phone is tilted.
Written by Saad Naeem
AI engineer in Doha who builds every tool on ToolboxHere. The figures in the guides come from the official sources named in them or from the tools themselves. Found a mistake? Tell us and it is corrected.