Prayer times come from the position of the sun. Dhuhr begins just after midday, Maghrib at sunset – those are the same everywhere. Fajr and Isha depend on twilight, and scholars and organisations have defined twilight with different angles of the sun below the horizon: 15° in the ISNA method used widely in North America, 18° for the Muslim World League, and so on.

Asr also differs: most schools begin it when an object's shadow equals its length plus the shadow at noon; the Hanafi school waits until the shadow is twice the length.

01What to follow

Pray with your local masjid when you can. At home, choose the method your community uses – you can set it in My IlmHub – and stay consistent. “Worship at fixed times hath been enjoined on the believers” (Quran 4:103): the times are fixed, and the small differences between careful methods are a mercy, not a problem.