Alif › Prayer times
PRAYER TIMES
How prayer times are calculated
Five of the six daily times follow the sun’s position for your exact location. Methods differ mainly in two places: how dark it must be for Fajr and Isha, and how long the shadow must be for Asr.
The six times
| Fajr | Begins at true dawn, when the sun is a set angle below the horizon before sunrise (for example 18°). |
|---|---|
| Sunrise | The upper edge of the sun appears; Fajr ends. Shown, but not a prayer. |
| Dhuhr | Just after the sun passes its highest point of the day. |
| Asr | When an object’s shadow equals its length plus its noon shadow (first shadow), or twice its length plus the noon shadow (second shadow, used in the Hanafi school). |
| Maghrib | Right after sunset. |
| Isha | When the evening twilight has gone: the sun is a set angle below the horizon after sunset, or a fixed time after Maghrib. |
The methods side by side
| Method | Fajr | Isha | Used by default in Alif for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diyanet (Türkiye) | Sun 18° below the horizon (imsak) | Sun 17° below the horizon | Türkiye and Northern Cyprus |
| Umm al-Qura (Makkah) | Sun 18.5° below the horizon (19° before 1430 AH) | A fixed 90 minutes after Maghrib; 120 minutes in Ramadan | Saudi Arabia and Yemen |
| Muslim World League (MWL) | Sun 18° below the horizon | Sun 17° below the horizon | Europe (except the UK), and every country without its own preset in Alif |
| ISNA (North America) | Sun 15° below the horizon | Sun 15° below the horizon | United States and Canada |
| JAKIM (Malaysia) | Sun 18° below the horizon (as Alif computes it; see below) | Sun 18° below the horizon | Malaysia |
Asr: first or second shadow
Both are long-standing positions. Alif uses the first shadow by default and the second in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, following the timetables published there. You choose in Settings.
How Alif picks a method
Alif reads your country and uses the method its published timetables follow. You can choose another method, the Asr setting and the high-latitude rule at any time.
Also in Alif
- Egyptian General Authority of Survey (19.5° / 17.5°)
- University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi (18° / 18°)
- Moonsighting Committee Worldwide
- UAE / Dubai (18.2° / 18.2°)
- Kuwait (18° / 17.5°)
- Qatar (18° / 90 minutes)
- MUIS Singapore (20° / 18°)
- Kemenag Indonesia (20° / 18°)
- Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran
Check it yourself
For each method we compared Alif’s calculation with a published timetable on one date. The results are on each method page.
Diyanet (Türkiye)
Sun 18° below the horizon (imsak) · Sun 17° below the horizon
Umm al-Qura (Makkah)
Sun 18.5° below the horizon (19° before 1430 AH) · A fixed 90 minutes after Maghrib; 120 minutes in Ramadan
Muslim World League (MWL)
Sun 18° below the horizon · Sun 17° below the horizon
ISNA (North America)
Sun 15° below the horizon · Sun 15° below the horizon
JAKIM (Malaysia)
Sun 18° below the horizon (as Alif computes it; see below) · Sun 18° below the horizon
Sources
- Fiqh Council of North America: How should the times of Fajr and Isha be calculated? (updated 13 August 2026)
- PrayTimes.org: Prayer Times Calculation
- Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, Vakit Hesaplama: İbadet vakitlerinde temkin
- Alif's reference test: the app's calculation compared with each published table on the date shown
Retrieved 20 October 2026.