Prayer Times Guide: The Five Daily Prayers Explained

Every Muslim prays five times a day, and every one of those prayers has a window: a start, an end, and a stretch in between where it is valid. The Qur'an says the meaning of "prayer has been prescribed for the believers at fixed times" (4:103), and the Prophet, peace be upon him, taught the limits in detail. This guide explains each window in plain words, shows how to read a line of a timetable, and links to the rest of our prayer-times articles.

The prayer times tool computes all of these for any city; this guide explains what the numbers mean.

The five windows at a glance

The clearest single description is the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr in Sahih Muslim (612). The Prophet, peace be upon him, said in meaning: the time of Dhuhr is when the sun passes its highest point and lasts until a person's shadow equals his height, as long as Asr has not come; Asr lasts as long as the sun has not yellowed; Maghrib lasts as long as the red twilight has not gone; Isha lasts until the middle of the night; and Fajr lasts from the break of dawn as long as the sun has not risen.

A second key report is Jibril leading the Prophet in prayer on two consecutive days, once at the very start of each window and once at the very end (Abu Dawud 393; Tirmidhi 149). Together these give the table below.

The times are tied to the sun, not to the clock. A timetable is simply someone's calculation of when those sky events happen at your coordinates, which is why the numbers shift every day and differ from city to city. If you want the astronomy, read how prayer times are calculated.

Fajr: from true dawn to sunrise

Fajr begins at subh sadiq, the true dawn, when a thin band of light spreads sideways along the horizon. Before it there is a false dawn, a vertical shaft of light that fades again. The fast also begins at this moment, which is why imsak on a Ramadan timetable is usually a few minutes before Fajr as a precaution.

The window ends at sunrise. Because true dawn cannot be photographed on a clock, calculators use the sun's angle below the horizon, usually between 15° and 20°, and this is the main reason two apps can disagree about Fajr by twenty minutes or more. See calculation methods and Fajr and true dawn.

Dhuhr: after the sun passes its peak

Dhuhr begins once the sun has crossed the meridian and started to descend. Timetables add a minute or two after solar noon to be safe. Solar noon is rarely 12:00 on the clock; it depends on your longitude within your time zone, daylight saving time and the time of year. On 8 February 2027 in London it is about 12:14 GMT, so Dhuhr appears as 12:16.

Praying exactly at the sun's peak is disliked (Muslim 831), so the safe start is the time the timetable prints. On Friday, Jumu'ah replaces Dhuhr for those who attend; see Jumu'ah prayer.

Asr: the shadow rule

Asr begins when the shadow of an object equals its own length, measured on top of whatever shadow it already had at noon. That is the view of the majority (Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali and many Hanafi timetables). The classical Hanafi position is twice the length. The gap between the two is 30 to 80 minutes depending on season and latitude, and both are long-established views. The article on Asr time, Hanafi and standard has worked numbers.

Asr ends at sunset, but the Prophet, peace be upon him, described the period after the sun yellows as a time of necessity, so the better practice is to finish well before that.

Maghrib: from sunset to the end of the red glow

Maghrib starts the moment the sun's disc has completely set. Its window is short, roughly one to one and a half hours in most places, until the red twilight has gone. Ja'fari (Shia) practice places Maghrib a little later, when the redness in the east has cleared, which is why those timetables add a few degrees or around 10 to 20 minutes.

Ramadan iftar is at Maghrib; the fast ends at the same instant the prayer time begins. Our suhoor and iftar times article covers the Ramadan side.

Isha: when the red twilight is gone

Isha begins when the red glow in the west has disappeared. The majority use the red twilight; the view attributed to Abu Hanifa uses the later white glow. Calculators express this as 14° to 18° below the horizon, or in some Gulf methods as a fixed 90 minutes after Maghrib. More in Isha and shafaq.

The preferred end of Isha is the middle of the night, counted from sunset to dawn, not from midnight on the clock. Many scholars hold it remains valid until Fajr for someone with a need; others treat midnight as the real end. If you tend to pray Isha late, aim for before the middle of the night and ask a scholar you trust about your situation.

How to read a timetable row

Here is one row for London, Monday 8 February 2027 (the expected first day of Ramadan 1448), using the Muslim World League method and the standard Asr:

Read it like this:

• Each number is the start of that window. The end of a window is the next number in the row (Fajr ends at 07:28, Dhuhr at 14:36 and so on). Isha's end is not printed; it is the middle of the night, about 23:18 here.
• Sunrise is not a prayer. It closes Fajr and opens a short disliked period of roughly 15 to 20 minutes.
• If the timetable has an Imsak column, it is a precaution before Fajr, not the time the fast begins.
• Some timetables have a Jama'ah or Iqamah column next to each prayer. That is the congregation time at that mosque, which is explained next.

Elsewhere on the same day the clock times look similar but the windows differ in length, which is why prayer times when travelling needs its own article.

Adhan and iqamah are two different times

The adhan announces that the window has opened. The iqamah is the call made just before the congregation stands, and the mosque chooses it: often 10 to 30 minutes after the adhan, sometimes a fixed clock time that only changes once a month. Praying with the jama'ah is rewarded 27 times more than praying alone (Bukhari 645; Muslim 650), so if you can go, note the iqamah column. If you pray at home, the adhan time is what matters.

Why does the mosque's adhan time not match your app? Different method, different Asr rule, a few precaution minutes, or rounding. The piece on mosque times versus apps walks through each cause and what to do about it.

Times when prayer is disliked

Three short periods are set aside: while the sun is rising, when it is at its peak, and while it is setting (Muslim 831). The windows above already respect them, but voluntary prayers near those moments need care, and the schools differ on the exceptions. Read forbidden prayer times before scheduling your duha or sunnah prayers.

Sunnah prayers and high latitudes

Duha sits between about 15 minutes after sunrise and a little before Dhuhr; tahajjud is best in the last third of the night, counted from Maghrib to Fajr. The sunnah prayer times article shows how our tool works these out. Above roughly 48° latitude the summer sun never gets 18° below the horizon and Fajr and Isha must be estimated by rules such as the middle of the night; see high-latitude prayer times.

The rest of this cluster

• How prayer times are calculated: the sun's position and a worked example.
• Calculation methods: which country uses which angles.
• Asr: Hanafi and standard.
• High-latitude prayer times.
• Mosque times vs apps.
• Qibla direction, qibla without a compass and the qibla tool.
• Fajr and true dawn; Isha and shafaq.
• Forbidden prayer times; sunnah prayer times.
• Prayer times when travelling; praying on a plane or train.
• Printing a masjid timetable; sharing prayer times with family.

For how to perform the prayer itself, start with how to pray and the rak'ah table. And for anything that touches your own circumstances, ask a scholar or imam you trust.