About and methodology

Who is behind Awqatly

Awqatly is made and looked after by Dr. Muhammad Awais Yousaf, Associate Professor. It started from a simple wish: that any Muslim, anywhere, can open one page, see today's prayer times, the qibla and the nearest mosques, and trust what they see. That is why every page shows openly how its times were worked out.

Spotted a mistake, or have an idea? Every message is read: awais.yousaf@iub.edu.pk. You can also read our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and Disclaimer.

How prayer times are calculated

Curious about the details? How prayer times are calculated walks through it step by step, in plain words first and then with the full maths, including a worked example that updates every day.

Every prayer time follows the Sun. Fajr begins with the first light of dawn, Dhuhr just after the Sun passes its highest point, Asr when shadows have grown to a set length, Maghrib at sunset, and Isha when the last light of dusk has gone. We work these moments out with the open-source adhan library, for each city's exact position and in its own time zone, summer-time changes included.

Scholars hold two views on when Asr begins, so every city page shows both: Standard (Shafi, Maliki, Hanbali), when a shadow is as long as the object itself, and Hanafi, when it is twice as long. You can also switch to any of 18 calculation methods; your choice stays on your own device.

Places far from the equator

In summer, places far north (above about 48°, such as Scotland, Norway or much of Canada) may never get fully dark, so dawn and dusk never reach their usual angles. There we use a widely accepted rule: Fajr is no earlier than the last seventh of the night, and Isha no later than the first seventh. Closer to the equator the half-night rule is the safety net. The Moonsighting Committee method, used in the UK, has its own seasonal adjustment.

Qibla

The qibla follows the shortest path over the globe to the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), the way a plane would fly, measured from true north. On a flat map that path can look surprising: from North America it points north-east. The exact formula is atan2(sin ΔL, cos φ·tan φ_K − sin φ·cos ΔL). A phone compass reads magnetic north, so our compass adds the difference for your location (from the World Magnetic Model), and you can fine-tune it with the Sun.

Hijri dates and Ramadan

Hijri dates follow the Umm al-Qura calendar. Ramadan 1448 AH is expected to begin on 8 February 2027. Please treat that as an expectation: the real start depends on the moon being sighted where you live.

Congregation times

We only show when each prayer time begins. Jamaat and Jummah times are set by each mosque, so we never guess them. If you run a mosque and would like your times shown here, please email us.

Where our data comes from

• Cities, coordinates, time zones and localized names: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0.
• Mosques and imambargahs: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License (ODbL). If one is missing or in the wrong place, you can fix it on OpenStreetMap, or tell us and we will correct it.
• Map tiles: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
• Prayer-time maths: adhan-js (MIT).