Prayer time calculation

How the times are worked out.

Every prayer time is a position of the sun. The methods differ only in how far below the horizon the sun must be for Fajr and Isha. Midhana shows you which method is in use and lets you change it.

Fajr
Dawn: the sun is a set angle below the eastern horizon, 12° to 20° depending on method.
Dhuhr
Shortly after the sun crosses the meridian, its highest point of the day. The same in every method.
Asr
When an object's shadow equals its height plus its noon shadow (Standard), or twice its height (Hanafi).
Maghrib
Sunset, when the upper edge of the sun passes below the horizon. The same in nearly every method.
Isha
Nightfall: the sun a set angle below the western horizon, or a fixed interval after Maghrib in some methods.

The methods

Midhana suggests one for your country and says which it chose. If your mosque uses another, pick it; if it rounds times, add a per-prayer adjustment in minutes.

MethodFajrIshaCommonly used
Moonsighting Committee Worldwide18°18°, seasonally adjustedUK, North America, high latitudes
Muslim World League18°17°Europe, Far East, parts of the US
ISNA15°15°North America
Egyptian General Authority19.5°17.5°Africa, Syria, Lebanon, Malaysia
Umm al-Qura, Makkah18.5°90 min after Maghrib (120 in Ramadan)Arabian Peninsula
University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi18°18°Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan
Diyanet, Turkey18°17°Turkey
UOIF, France12°12°France
Dubai18.2°18.2°UAE
Kuwait18°17.5°Kuwait
Qatar18°90 min after MaghribQatar
MUIS, Singapore20°18°Singapore
JAKIM, Malaysia20°18°Malaysia
Institute of Geophysics, Tehran17.7°14° · Maghrib at 4.5°Iran

Custom angles are available for mosques and councils that publish their own. Your local mosque timetable always takes precedence over any calculation; Midhana is a convenience, not an authority.

High latitudes

North of about 48°, which includes all of the UK, the sun does not reach 18° below the horizon in midsummer. True Fajr and Isha do not exist on those nights. Rather than print a fiction, Midhana applies one of three rules and tells you so on the Today screen.

Middle of the night
Fajr and Isha are never later or earlier than the midpoint between sunset and sunrise.
One-seventh of the night
The night is divided into seven; Isha begins after the first part and Fajr before the last.
Angle-based
The twilight angle is scaled against the length of the night. The default, and the one most UK mosques are closest to.

Hijri dates

The Islamic calendar follows the moon, and communities differ on whether a month begins by sighting or by calculation. Midhana offers the Umm al-Qura calendar by default, with a one-day adjustment for local sighting announcements. In Ramadan, the start and Eid are never switched without your confirmation.

Accuracy
Sun positions are computed to within a few seconds of arc using standard astronomical formulae, then shown to the minute. Altitude and refraction are accounted for at sea level; mountain locations may differ by a minute or two.