Prayer Times API

Compute Islamic prayer times and Jewish Zmanim for any location.

Background

Islamic prayer times (Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha) are defined by solar position — the Sun's elevation angle at specific points in the day. They are independent of civil timezone and must be calculated from astronomical first principles.

TimeNow uses the NREL Solar Position Algorithm (same as major prayer apps) with IERS EOP corrections for maximum accuracy.

GET /solar/prayer

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Type	Description
`lat`	✅	`float`	Latitude
`lng`	✅	`float`	Longitude
`date`	No	`string`	ISO 8601 date (default: today)
`convention`	No	`string`	Calculation convention (see table below)
`madhab`	No	`string`	`shafi` or `hanafi` (affects Asr)

Calculation Conventions

`convention` value	Organization	Fajr angle	Isha angle	Used in
`mwl`	Muslim World League	−18°	−17°	Europe, Far East
`isna`	Islamic Society of North America	−15°	−15°	North America
`egypt`	Egyptian General Authority	−19.5°	−17.5°	Africa, Syria
`makkah`	Umm al-Qura University	−18.5°	90 min after Maghrib	Arabian Peninsula
`karachi`	University of Islamic Sciences, Karachi	−18°	−18°	Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh

Default: mwl

Example

# London, Muslim World League convention
curl "http://localhost:8090/solar/prayer?lat=51.5074&lng=-0.1278&convention=mwl"

# Kashgar — note the extreme civil time offset
curl "http://localhost:8090/solar/prayer?lat=39.47&lng=75.99&convention=mwl"

Response

{
  "date": "2026-04-14",
  "latitude": 51.5074,
  "longitude": -0.1278,
  "timezone": "Europe/London",
  "convention": "mwl",
  "prayers": {
    "fajr":   {"civil": "04:32", "solar": "04:21", "utc": "03:32"},
    "sunrise":{"civil": "06:42", "solar": "06:31", "utc": "05:42"},
    "dhuhr":  {"civil": "13:11", "solar": "13:00", "utc": "12:11"},
    "asr":    {"civil": "16:48", "solar": "16:37", "utc": "15:48"},
    "maghrib":{"civil": "20:39", "solar": "20:28", "utc": "19:39"},
    "isha":   {"civil": "22:36", "solar": "22:25", "utc": "21:36"}
  },
  "civil_solar_offset_min": -10.6
}

Each prayer time is provided in three forms: - civil — local civil clock time - solar — true solar time - utc — UTC

Jewish Zmanim

The same endpoint supports Jewish halachic times when convention=zmanim is specified.

Zmanim are derived from sha'ah zmanit (proportional hour = (sunset − sunrise) / 12).

curl "http://localhost:8090/solar/prayer?lat=31.78&lng=35.22&convention=zmanim"

Zmanim Response

{
  "zmanim": {
    "alot_hashachar": "05:01",
    "misheyakir": "05:27",
    "sunrise": "06:15",
    "sof_zman_shma_gra": "09:25",
    "sof_zman_tfila_gra": "10:30",
    "chatzot": "12:40",
    "mincha_gedola": "13:10",
    "mincha_ketana": "16:25",
    "plag_hamincha": "17:45",
    "sunset": "19:05",
    "tzeit_hakochavim": "19:30",
    "shaah_zmanit_min": 50.0
  }
}