Why prayer times differ between apps
Updated: 22 October 2026 · By the SalatNow editorial team
When two apps show different Fajr or Isha times for the same city, both may be “right”. Five things create the gap: the sun angle chosen for dawn and nightfall, the shadow length used for Asr, minutes added for caution, rounding, and the rule used for short summer nights in the north.
1. Fajr and Isha: how far below the horizon the sun is
| Method | Fajr | Isha | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muslim World League | 18° | 17° | Europe, Far East, default |
| Diyanet (Türkiye) | 18° | 17° | Turkey, DITIB mosques; with temkin minutes |
| Egyptian General Authority | 19.5° | 17.5° | Egypt, much of Africa |
| Umm al-Qura | 18.5° | Maghrib + 90 min (120 in Ramadan) | Saudi Arabia |
| Karachi | 18° | 18° | Pakistan, India, Bangladesh |
| ISNA | 15° | 15° | USA, Canada |
| JAKIM | 18° | 18° | Malaysia |
| Kemenag | 20° | 18° | Indonesia (+2 min ihtiyat) |
| Moonsighting Committee | 18°* | 18°* | UK; seasonal correction in summer |
2. Asr: one shadow length or two?
Asr begins when an object’s shadow equals its own length plus its noon shadow (the standard view of the Shafi‘i, Maliki and Hanbali schools) or twice its length (the Hanafi view). Hanafi Asr is 30–60 minutes later. In Pakistan, India and Bangladesh most mosques use the Hanafi time; we show the other one in small print on every city page.
3. Caution minutes and rounding
Many authorities add minutes on purpose. Turkey’s Diyanet adds −7 to sunrise, +5 to Dhuhr, +4 to Asr and +7 to Maghrib. Indonesia’s Kemenag adds 2 minutes of ihtiyat to every prayer, and Malaysia’s JAKIM rounds up. An app that ignores this shows Maghrib a few minutes early, which matters at iftar.
We apply each country’s official rules and test our results against official tables. For Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Egypt we match within one minute.
4. Short summer nights in the north
Above about 48.5° north (London, Hamburg, Amsterdam) the sun never sinks 18° below the horizon on summer nights, so a “true” Fajr and Isha do not occur. Mosques then use a rule: one seventh of the night, the middle of the night, or the nearest normal day. We mark these times with “≈” and use the rule most local mosques follow; scholars advise picking one accepted method and sticking with it all summer.
5. Start time is not congregation time
The times on this site are when each prayer begins. Mosques hold the congregation (iqamah) a few minutes to half an hour later. To line this site up with your mosque, open Settings on your city page and use “Match my mosque”.