How prayer times are worked out
Each time is worked out on the site's own server. It takes a city's coordinates and the date, and applies the equations for the sun's position and the criteria of the Umm al-Qura method. Nothing comes from an outside service or a copied ready-made table, and the times appear in Saudi local time, which is Riyadh time.
The steps
The times pass through five stages. We take the city's coordinates, work out where the sun stands for every moment of the day, find the moment at which the criterion of each prayer is met, convert that moment to Riyadh time, and show it to the minute. The tables are renewed at midnight, Riyadh time.
| Time | Moment it begins in the calculation |
|---|---|
| Fajr | Sun 18.5 degrees below the horizon |
| Sunrise | The sun appears at the horizon, which ends Fajr |
| Dhuhr | The sun passes the middle of the sky |
| Asr | Shadow equals the object |
| Asr (Hanafi) | Shadow is twice the object |
| Maghrib | Sunset |
| Isha | 90 minutes after Maghrib, 120 in Ramadan |
The religious basis of each time is on the Umm al-Qura page. The Fajr and Isha figures are calculation parameters of the site and not a religious text. Asr is given twice because two schools count it differently, and neither row is presented as the better one.
Date, qibla and the length of the day
The Hijri date is the calculated Umm al-Qura date. The qibla is an angle measured clockwise from north along the shortest path over the Earth's surface from the city to the Kaaba, and the distance to the Kaaba is measured along the same path. The length of the day is the span from sunrise to sunset. The earliest Fajr and the latest Isha of the year come from going through every day.
Why our figure can differ from your mosque
The calculation is for one point in the middle of a city, and your mosque may lie east or west of it. A mosque may also follow a timetable that departs from ours. Iqamah is worked out by adding the ministry's interval to the adhan, which your mosque may not keep. The start of a Hijri month can differ by a day from the moon-sighting announcement. When our figure and your mosque's adhan disagree, follow the mosque.
Questions about the method
Do you take the times from another website?
No. They are calculated on our own server by equations, and no outside service is used.
How do you check the figures?
We have set the figures beside the published Umm al-Qura calendar, and no prayer time differs from it by more than one minute; because of rounding, some differ by exactly that.
Why are times shown to the minute and not the second?
Timetables and the adhan itself are known to the minute, so seconds would add nothing.
Is the calculation for the city centre or for my district?
For the centre. Someone living east of it hears the adhan slightly before the table says, and someone in the west slightly after.