Prayer time for your location

What marks each of the five prayer times?

Sahih Muslim 612 gives the limits of each prayer in the Prophet's own words, peace be upon him. Taken in turn, Dhuhr begins when the sun passes the meridian and lasts until the time of Asr comes; Asr lasts as long as the sun has not turned pale; Maghrib lasts as long as the twilight has not ended; Isha lasts up to the middle of the night; and Fajr runs from the appearance of dawn until the sun rises. 1

1AuthenticSahih Muslim 612d

The report names markers in the sky, not clock times. The tool turns each marker into a time using the sun's position, which it works out with the method of Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms as NOAA publishes it, counting sunrise and sunset when the top edge of the sun meets the horizon (0.833° below it, allowing for refraction). 4

Which calculation method should I choose?

The methods differ in how far below the horizon the sun must be for Fajr and for Isha. A larger angle gives an earlier Fajr and a later Isha. These are the settings documented in the open-source Adhan library, each named for the body it follows. 2

This page does not say which is right for you. Mosques in the UK and elsewhere use a range of them, so use the one your own mosque or teacher follows. If a mosque's timetable differs by a few minutes, set the method closest to it and use the minute adjustments for the rest. The tool starts on the Muslim World League setting only because one has to be chosen.

The Dhuhr margin is a minute after the sun's highest point, so the prayer is not started early; the Adhan library builds it into four of the five methods. You can change any time by hand under "Adjust by minutes".

When does Asr begin: standard or Hanafi?

Scholars differ on when Asr begins. In the Hanafi school the official position follows Imam Abu Hanifa: Asr begins at the second shadow, when an object's shadow is twice its length. His students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad held that it may be prayed when the shadow equals the object's length, and the fatwa's footnote names al-Shafi'i with them. In both counts the shadow the object has at midday is left out. 3 The tool labels the earlier time Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali, as those schools' works give it in our guide to Asr, and the later time Hanafi, for the school's official position. The Adhan library calls the earlier time Standard, which is the word used below. 2 Because of Abu Yusuf and Muhammad's view, some who follow the Hanafi school may pray at the earlier time, so choose the one your own school or mosque follows.

The choice moves Asr by an hour or more: in Birmingham on 21 June Hanafi Asr falls 1 hours 15 minutes after standard Asr. This page does not choose between them.

Why do Fajr and Isha look odd in a British summer?

In high-latitude places the sun does not sink far enough below the horizon in summer for the sky to become fully dark. In London, with the 18° setting there is no true Fajr or Isha from 23 May to 20 July; with 17° (the Isha angle of the Muslim World League) from 28 May to 14 July. These are the dates in 2026; they move by about a day between years.

For those weeks the tool uses a high-latitude rule, which fixes Fajr no earlier, and Isha no later, than a fraction of the night: one-seventh, the middle, or a portion set by the angle. Automatic picks one-seventh of the night above 48° of latitude, as the Adhan library recommends, and the middle of the night below it. 2 That is software guidance, not a ruling; your mosque will have its own approach for these weeks, so check it and change the setting above if it differs. The rule can also hold Fajr or Isha to its limit outside summer, when the angle would put them earlier or later than the limit allows. Whenever it does, the tool says so under the times and marks the cell in the month table.

How do prayer times change through the year in London?

On the 1st of each month, with the default settings (Muslim World League, standard Asr, automatic high-latitude rule), London's times in local time are below. They are the same in other years to within a minute or two. The gap between sunrise and sunset is 7 hours 49 minutes on 21 December and 16 hours 39 minutes on 21 June.

Clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October, so the times jump by an hour on those days.

Why might my mosque's times be different?

• Start time or congregation time. A timetable may list when each prayer begins, or when the congregation prays, which is usually later. This tool gives when each time begins.
• The method. A different Fajr or Isha angle moves them by many minutes. Choose the method your mosque follows.
• The Asr rule. Standard and Hanafi Asr are an hour or more apart.
• Margins and rounding. Mosques often add a minute or two for care, and round to a whole minute. Use "Adjust by minutes".
• High-latitude weeks. See above: the rule in use changes Fajr and Isha a great deal in summer.