Two apps and your mosque’s timetable, and three different times for Fajr. That is not a bug. Prayer times follow the position of the sun, and for two of the five prayers there are different rules for how that position is measured. Here is where the differences come from and how to pick the right method.
The easy part: Dhuhr and Maghrib
Dhuhr begins just after the sun passes its highest point (the zenith). Maghrib begins at sunset. Both can be calculated to the minute for any place, so nearly every timetable agrees on them. Small differences only appear when a mosque adds a few minutes as a safety margin.
The interpretive part: Fajr and Isha
Fajr begins with true dawn, when the first light spreads horizontally along the horizon. Isha begins once the evening twilight has gone. When exactly that happens is defined by the angle of the sun below the horizon, and this is where timetables differ:
| Method | Fajr | Isha | Common in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muslim World League | 18° | 17° | Europe, worldwide |
| Europe 2023 | 18° | 16° (with a summer rule) | Germany and much of Europe |
| Diyanet | 18° | 17° | Turkey, Turkish communities |
| ISNA | 15° | 15° | North America |
| Egyptian Authority | 19.5° | 17.5° | Egypt, Africa |
| Umm al-Qura | 18.5° | 90 minutes after Maghrib | Saudi Arabia |
In the UK, one degree can easily mean five minutes or more. That is why Fajr by ISNA can be noticeably later than Fajr by the Muslim World League.
Asr: standard or Hanafi
There are two rules for Asr. By the standard rule (Shafi’i, Maliki, Hanbali), Asr begins when an object’s shadow equals its length plus its noon shadow. By the Hanafi rule, the shadow must be twice the length. Hanafi Asr is therefore later: roughly half an hour in winter and over an hour in summer.
Many Muslims in the UK follow the Hanafi school, especially those with South Asian roots. Every city page on this site shows the Hanafi Asr time below the daily times.
The summer problem
From May to July, the sun in Britain never sinks 18° below the horizon at night. By the angle alone, there would be no start of dawn and no end of dusk. Timetables therefore use a fallback rule, such as one-seventh of the night, the middle of the night or an angle-based share of the night. How much this changes the times is shown in Fajr and Isha in a British summer.
Which method is right?
There is no single correct method. All the timetables above rest on serious scholarship. In practice, one simple rule helps:
Pray by your mosque’s timetable. You will pray at the same time as your community, and your local imam can answer any questions.
If your app is a few minutes off the printed timetable, it is usually rounding or a safety margin. In the Nur app, you choose your mosque’s method under Settings → Calculation, switch Asr to Hanafi and shift each time by the minute until it matches.
Prayer times for your city
Every city page on nurhabits.de uses the same library and settings as the app. For example: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford or all cities in the UK.
