How Prayer Times Are Calculated: Karachi, MWL and Umm al-Qura

Prayer times are not looked up from a list. They are calculated from the position of the sun for your exact latitude and longitude on that date. Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib and sunrise follow clear rules that every method shares. Fajr and Isha depend on how far below the horizon the sun must be, and that angle is where the methods differ. In Pakistan, most mosques use the Karachi method: Fajr and Isha at 18°.

The five prayers and the sun

• Fajr begins at true dawn, when the first light spreads across the horizon while the sun is still well below it.
• Dhuhr begins just after solar noon, when the sun crosses its highest point. Calculators usually add a minute or two of safety margin.
• Asr begins when a shadow reaches a set length. Hanafi and Shafi’i rules differ here, which is a separate question covered in our guide to Hanafi and Shafi’i Asr time.
• Maghrib begins at sunset, when the top edge of the sun disappears.
• Isha begins when the red or white glow of twilight has gone, again measured as an angle of the sun below the horizon.

What an 18° angle means

After sunset the sky does not go dark at once. Light scattered by the upper atmosphere keeps glowing until the sun sinks about 18° below the horizon. Astronomers call this the end of astronomical twilight. The same thing happens in reverse before sunrise.

So a “Fajr angle of 18°” means Fajr starts at the moment the sun is 18° below the eastern horizon. A smaller angle, like 15°, means the sun is closer to rising, so Fajr comes later. For Isha, a smaller angle means an earlier time. One degree of angle is worth roughly four to six minutes in Pakistan, more in summer and at higher latitudes.

The main calculation methods

Different bodies settled on different angles based on observation and their own scholarly reasoning. These are the methods you will see in most apps:

The times above are for Tuesday, October 6, 2026. Under the Karachi method, which this site uses for every Pakistani city, Lahore’s Fajr is at 4:38 AM and Isha at 7:02 PM. Switch to the ISNA angles and Fajr moves 14 minutes later while Isha moves 14 minutes earlier. That one setting explains most “my app shows a different time” complaints.

Karachi

Set by the University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi, this method uses 18° for both Fajr and Isha. It is the standard in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, and in many South Asian mosques abroad.

Muslim World League

MWL uses 18° for Fajr and 17° for Isha, so Isha comes a few minutes earlier than Karachi. It is common in Europe, parts of the Far East and as the default in many international apps.

Umm al-Qura

Used in Saudi Arabia, it sets Fajr at 18.5° and fixes Isha at 90 minutes after Maghrib, extended to two hours in Ramadan. It is simple and predictable for a desert climate near the tropics, but the fixed gap does not suit higher latitudes.

ISNA

The Islamic Society of North America uses 15° for both. It gives later Fajr and earlier Isha, which helps in northern countries where twilight lasts very long in summer.

Why your app and mosque still differ

Even with the same method, small differences creep in:

• Location: a city has one set of coordinates, but Karachi or Lahore stretch over many kilometres. East to west, a degree of longitude is four minutes of sun time.
• Safety minutes: many timetables add one to three minutes to Dhuhr and Maghrib, or start Fajr a little early for sehri.
• Asr rule: Hanafi Asr is much later than Shafi’i Asr. If an app shows Asr an hour early, check this setting first.
• Jamaat versus start time: a mosque’s notice board shows when the congregation stands, which is often 15 to 45 minutes after the prayer time begins.

To see today’s times calculated the Pakistani way, open our prayer times for all cities or go straight to Lahore prayer times.

Frequently asked questions