Guide

How prayer times are calculated

The five daily prayers are tied to the position of the sun, so their times shift every day and depend on where you are on Earth. Here is how those times are worked out — and why two apps can show slightly different times for the same city.

Prayer times follow the sun

Each of the five prayers has a time window defined by a solar event at your location:

• Fajr — begins at dawn, when the first light appears before sunrise.
• Dhuhr — begins just after midday, once the sun passes its highest point.
• Asr — begins in the afternoon, based on the length of an object's shadow.
• Maghrib — begins at sunset.
• Isha — begins at nightfall, once the twilight has faded.

Because sunrise, midday, and sunset all move through the year and shift with latitude and longitude, prayer times are recalculated for each day and each place. That is why a fixed printed timetable only works for one location.

The role of latitude and the seasons

The further you are from the equator, the more the daylight length swings between summer and winter — so prayer times spread apart in summer and bunch together in winter. At very high latitudes the sun may not dip far enough below the horizon for a true dawn or nightfall, which is why calculation methods include special rules for those regions.

Why calculation methods differ

Sunrise and sunset are unambiguous, but “dawn” (Fajr) and “nightfall” (Isha) are defined by how far the sun is below the horizon — the twilight angle. Different Islamic authorities have adopted slightly different angles based on regional observation, and that is the main reason two apps can differ by a few minutes. Widely used methods include:

• Muslim World League (MWL) — a common global default.
• ISNA — the Islamic Society of North America, widely used in the US and Canada.
• Umm al-Qura — used in Saudi Arabia.
• Egyptian General Authority, University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi, Diyanet (Türkiye), and others used across their regions.

There is also the Asr calculation, which differs by school of thought (madhab): in one, Asr begins when an object's shadow equals its own length; in the other, twice its length. This is a legitimate, well-established difference — not an error.

Choosing the right method

The best method is usually the one your local community or mosque follows, so your app matches the times you pray by. A good app picks a sensible default for your country and still lets you change both the calculation method and the Asr madhab yourself.

My Amaal is a personal worship companion, not a source of religious rulings. For questions about prayer timing in specific circumstances, consult qualified scholars you trust.