PRAYER TIMES FROM MOONSIGHTING.COM
 For accurate prayer times avoid using PERPETUAL PRAYER TIMES. Every year the prayer times shift slightly by plus minus 1 or 2 minutes, because of February 29 in leap years. Request prayer times for a specific year for accurate times.
To request Prayer Times, send with the name of the city in the subject line:
and mention in the message, your school of thought (Choose one) Shafi'i, Hanafi, Both, Maaliki, Hanbali, or Shi'aa?
You can read here, how we calculate Prayer Times.

Avoid Islamicfinder.org Prayer Times: Let us explain why!

  1. Moonsighting.com has sent several emails to Islamicfinder.org in the last two years, about errors in their calculations, but they have not done anything. After several exchange of emails with them, Moonsighting.com feels obliged to Muslims that we should put this notice here.

  2. Islamicfinder.org has serious errors. Sometimes, sunrise and sunset time jump by several hours in one day. to see one example from IslamicFinder.org where the times jump by 3 to 4 hours in one day. Look on January 8 & 9 Sunrise time. On Jan 8, it is 7:28. On Jan 9, it is 11:14. Look on July 20 & 21 Sunset time. On July 20, it is 8:31. On July 21, it is 12:22. You can get to the same page, if you go to Islamicfinder.org, click on Norway, Click on "N" in search of a city, "Narvik". Click on "Na" in search of the same city, "Narvik". Scroll down and click on "To see more Click Next". Scroll down and click on "Narvik". Scroll down and look in the right column for Gregorian Annual Schedule. Click on "Annual Schedule".

  3. Here is one e-mail, received by moonsighting.com about Islamicfinder.org:
    "Hi. I was using islamicfinder software for my prayer times, but as you indicated, I saw many errors in it. For example, I was seeing the sun at the sky above the horizon and the software was saying: it is Maghrib! I am living at Victoria, BC, Canada (Latitude:49° 13' North, and Longitude:123° 06' West) and needed exact times for holy Ramadhan. Sincerely,
    Roy Hasan"

  4. Here is another e-mail, received by moonsighting.com about Islamicfinder.org:
    "Jazak Allah Khairan. Your website is very wonderful. May I please have the prayer times for Moncton NB Canada (Shafi'i). I have found islamicfinder to be inaccurate for my location.
    Abdullah"

  5. And another e-mail, received by Moonsighting.com on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 3:21 PM:
    "JazakAllah Khair, Soundvision and Islamicfinder sites are wrong, specially Fajr and Isha, please inform them through your official status. May Allah reward you,
    Mohammad.Akhtar"

  6. And another e-mail, received by Moonsighting.com on Wednesday, 5 Mar 2008 10:43 AM:
    "I had been using islamicfinder for my prayer times in Coleraine, and now have found it to be incorrect. Could you please forward me prayer times for Coleraine Co. Londonderry Northern Ireland Lt 55.08N Lg6.40W. Thank you so much.
    Paramel Nazeer"

  7. And another e-mail, received by Moonsighting.com on Friday, 25 April 2008 8:43 AM:
    I have noticed big contradictions in Islamicfinder's Azan software. Once I was travelling home at Maghrib time and noticed the sun was half set. According to Azan software, it was already maghrib time.
    Bilal Brown"

  8. And another e-mail, received by Moonsighting.com on Friday, 11 May 2008 2:01 PM:
    Can you please give me the accurate praying times (according the Maaliki school) for cities of Oulu (Latitude: 65.046724 / Longitude: 25.433231) and Kokkola (Latitude: 63.843652 / Longitude: 23.185612) in Finland for the year 2008? I don't find the prayertimes from Islamicfinder.org reliable.
    Sakina"

  9. Islamicfinder.org has used ISNA's name without verifying from ISNA. Islamicfinder.org is wrong and at fault to use ISNA's name saying that ISNA uses 15 degrees for Fajr and Isha. I have checked with ISNA (Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi and Dr. Sayyid Syeed); ISNA never had any official position for prayer times. Use of 15 or 18 degrees for Fajr and Isha is not correct. Moonsighting.com provides correct schedule upon request through e-mail, and that does not use any fixed degrees. It uses a complex formula as a function of Latitudes and Seasons derived from actual observation of Subh-Sadiq and disappearance of Shafaq as observed by teams of Muslims/Ulamaa in different parts of the world at different latitudes. Sufficient observations were made to cover the entire year capturing the difference in all seasons and at different latitudes.

Avoid On-line Prayer Times Calculation Programs: Let us explain why!

  1. Latitudes and longitudes are usually not available to the user. Even if they were available, it is not sufficient to calculate prayer times. Time difference from GMT is also needed.
  2. Time Zone is an input required by the user, who may not know the Time Zone applicable to a given location.
  3. The Daylight Saving Times (DST), also called summer time, are practiced differently in different countries. This information is not available from any single authentic source. To calculate Prayer Times correctly these data are critically important.
  4. Daylight Saving Time practices in USA and Canada are different in various states. Some states in USA (Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, N. Dakota, Oregon, S. Dakota, Tennessee, Texas) and Canada (British Columbia, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan) have two time zones. A user may not realize it and may not find the information easily. Moreover, Congress in USA and Government of Canada have adopted a new DST schedule starting 2007.
  5. Most web based programs calculate Fajr & Isha based on 18° or 15° or fixed minutes before sunrise or after sunset. This does not give the correct timings for Fajr and Isha. Even if a fixed degree is used the following problem persists:
    At latitudes higher than 48.5°, the sun does not go 18° below horizon    , and computer will not calculate Fajr & Isha times. The user gets blanks for those times. Similarly, at latitudes higher than 51.5°, the sun does not go 15° below horizon, so even if 15 degree criterion is used, the computer will not calculate Fajr & Isha times.
  6. At latitudes higher than 66.5°, sunrise and sunset may not occur on few days or more. Computer will not calculate Maghrib time. Special considerations, that cannot be programmed, in my opinion, are required to calculate all 5 prayer times at those high latitudes. This cannot be done by computer alone. Manual calculations are needed.
  7. Qibla direction can only be calculated from True North by computer programs. This info in not useful to the user, as the common means available to the user for direction is "COMPASS" which points to Magnetic North, while the True North may be up to 100° away from Magnetic North in different locations on earth. Magnetic North is dynamically changing every day (although small, but amounts to a noticeable variation over a period of decades). U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) updates this information for the whole globe periodically, and the user does not know nor has access to this variation. Moonsighting.com keeps up-to-date information about it.

    More reasons for objecting the use of on-line programs for prayer schedule are:

  8. Generally, people have no information about Latitudes & Longitudes, and even if they know it, they may enter it incorrectly in the computer program mixing North, South, East and West; Degrees and minutes vs decimal degrees (This has been real experience even by professional astronomers who occasionally enter such information as users and make mistakes because of different conventions in different software).
  9. A user has to pick from various options which he/she does not understand. Default selections for Fajr, Isha, and Asr may not be appropriate for many users.
  10. Ordinary user does not know what Shafi'i, Maaliki, Hanbali, Hanafi, or Shi'aa prayer times mean.
PRAYER SCHEDULE, THAT YOU HAVE, MAY NOT BE CORRECT

Most Prayer Schedules available on-line lack some important fiqh considerations and result in wrong timings. Moonsighting.com took the initiative to educate the masses about the corrections needed, and provide the "Correct Prayer Schedule" for each prayer as explained below:

Fajr & Isha are calculated by others using different criteria, all over the world. Some use 17°,19°, 20°, or even 21°. Others use 90 minutes, 75 minutes or 60 minutes criteria. These criteria are not valid for all latitudes, as shown by observations for Subh-Sadiq or Disappearance of Shafaq at different latitudes. Research by moonsighting.com shows that any fixed degree is not correct for Subh-Sadiq or disappearance of Shafaq for Isha. This can only be seen if a whole year observation is conducted. Many places in the world [Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Tando Adam (Pakistan), South Africa, New Zealand, Buffalo (New York), Toronto (Canada)] have done limited observations that are misleading to apply for the entire year. A more comprehensive observation for the entire year was done in Blackburn, Lancashire, England by a group of Ulamaa'. ( to download a book published by Hizbul Ulama, 74 Upton Lane London E7 9LW UK). All collected observations show that for areas at or near equator Shafaq disappearance and Subh-Sadiq occurs in 75 minutes or at 18 degrees in all seasons. As you move to other latitudes, subh-Sadiq and disappearance of Shafaq occurs at different degrees in different seasons. Shafaq disappears at 66 to 100 minutes (9 to 13.6 egrees) at higher latitudes (like England) in different seasons. Subh-Sadiq at higher latitudes is observed at 94 to 122 minutes (14.5 to 10.6 degrees) in different seasons. A decade long research by Moonsighting.com found that the Subh-Sadiq and also the disappearance of Shafaq is a function of latitude and seasons. When this function is checked against all collected observations, it came very close to the observations at all latitudes. Moonsighting.com uses this function of latitude and seasons for calculating Fajr and Isha times.
A booklet of about 46 pages (8-1/2 x 11), "When to Pray Fajr & Isha" has been written by Muslim scholars/scientists giving arguments from Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, practices of Taba'een, scientific basis, observations for Subh-Sadiq and other details. Moonsighting.com algorithm for function of latitudes and seasons is not yet included in the booklet. This booklet is not yet published, but a hard (xeroxed) copy of the manuscript can be sent by postage mail (NOT by e-mail) upon request. Send your request by clicking on E-mail us at the top of this page.

At latitudes close to or higher than arctic circle, the sun does not set in summer, or does not rise in winter for a number of days. For such situations, a suggestion by Fuqaha', to calculate for nearby lower latitudes where the sun sets and rises, is used.

Caution for Fajr & Isha:

Observations of Subh-Sadiq and disappearance of Shafaq at various locations on earth have confirmed that it is not right to calculate Fajr & Isha, assuming any fixed degree (whether 18° or 15°) or any fixed minutes (like 90 minutes or 75 minutes). Research and observations by Moonsighting.com members have also held this opinion for quite some time. This has also been confirmed by Hizbul Ulama UK, 74 Upton Lane, London E7 9LW, Telephone 0786-646-4040, email: info@hizbululama.org.uk. Read a detailed book, "Fajr and Isha" written by Molvi Yaqub Ahmed Miftahi from UK. This was further confirmed independently by scientists in Pakistan in 2007. Please see an "Urdu letter" . Therefore, Moonsighting.com uses a function of latitude and seasons of the year for calculating Fajr and Isha times.

Download Prayer Times for Large Cities in UK - pdf

Zuhr in most Prayer Schedules is shown at Noon (which is before Zawaal). Noon time, when the sun is at its highest point, is Mamnoo' (Prohibited) time for any Prayer. Theoretically, the sun does not go into Zawaal phase until its edges are out of the zenith line (line between the observer to the center of the sun when it is at Noon-phase). It takes about 1.5 minutes for the sun's disk come out of zenith. Additional 1 minute must be added for a 30 miles radius consideration mentioned for Maghrib time. Thus, a minimum of 2.5 minutes must be considered as the minimum limit past Noon time for the beginning of Zuhr. Considering, that this precise theoretical definition is not given by any scholar, a little factor of safety (additional 2.5 minutes) is considered as a minimum for the beginning of Zuhr. Thus, 5 minutes should be added in Noon time for Zuhr.

Asr time calculations require different interpretations by different jurists such as Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maaliki, Hambali, or Ja'friyah (Shi'aa).

Maghrib should be calculated at least as 3 minutes after sunset for the following considerations:
1. The effects of actual humidity, temperature, and pressure in the atmosphere may cause a different refraction of sun light than assumed in calculations.
2. In some areas there could be a downward sloping ground towards western horizon that causes a delayed sunset for an observer compared to a perfectly level ground as assumed in calculations.
3. For major metropolitan cities, the sunset in a 30 mile radius from the point taken in calculation varies. Since the people using this schedule may live all around the city, this may delay sunset for some areas. These are the considerations for the 4 major Sunni school of thought. For Shi'aa school of thought, 17 minutes after sunset is considered as Maghrib time.

Qibla direction: Every day, there comes a time when any vertical object's shadow from the sun is in the Qibla direction. If that does not happen then there is a time when facing the sun gives you Qibla direction. Either of this time is provided for everyday in Qibla column after Isha. This method for Qibla is more accurate than the compass, which involves errors due to the presence of magnetic fields or metallic objects, and magnetic declination which causes compass needle to magnetic North which could be up to 100° off from True North; how many degrees off depends upon the location.

PRAYER TIMES FROM MOONSIGHTING.COM
 For accurate prayer times avoid using PERPETUAL PRAYER TIMES. Every year the prayer times shift slightly by plus minus 1 or 2 minutes, because of February 29 in leap years. Request prayer times for a specific year for accurate times.
To request Prayer Times, send with the name of the city in the subject line:
and mention in the message, your school of thought (Choose one) Shafi'i, Hanafi, Both, Maaliki, Hanbali, or Shi'aa?
You can read here, how we calculate Prayer Times.
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