Manchester Fajr, Isha and Asr: start from the visible settings
You can choose any date from to . Unless a shared link sets something different, the calculator starts on today's date at the Manchester city-centre point on the Europe/London clock, with these settings:
- Profile: Muslim World League. Its target angles are 18° below the horizon for Fajr, before dawn, and 17° for Isha, after sunset.
- Twilight rule: Angle-based. When a night is too short for the Sun to reach a target angle, this rule limits Fajr and Isha instead.
- Asr: Standard.
- Manual adjustments: zero in all six fields.
Each time is rounded to the nearest minute. These are starting points for an independent calculation, not the policy of Manchester Central Mosque, Didsbury Mosque or any other institution. The calculation methods guide compares the other profiles.
Built-in minutes and manual minutes
Open Calculation details under the result to see the offsets behind each time. The Muslim World League profile adds one minute to Dhuhr by design. That minute still applies when the manual Dhuhr field shows zero, so zero manual minutes does not mean zero adjustment everywhere. Any manual minutes you enter are added on top of the profile's own offsets.
Standard or Hanafi Asr
The Asr control changes one result only. With Standard Asr, Asr begins when an object's shadow equals its own length plus its shadow at midday. With Hanafi Asr, the shadow must reach twice the object's length plus its midday shadow, so Asr comes later. On , with every other setting unchanged, Asr is 14:02 with Standard and 14:32 with Hanafi. Fajr stays at 06:10 and Isha stays at 18:20.
Dated examples you can reproduce
The table below gives three fixed Manchester calculations: a winter day, midsummer, and the same winter day with Hanafi Asr. Each row lists all six events for its date. Special result labels appear where they apply: the midsummer row marks Fajr and Isha Twilight rule limit, while the two January rows show no label beside Fajr and Isha because the target angles set those times. Select Load this example to put that date and its settings into the calculator. These rows show their own dates, not today. Use Today at this location to return to the current date for the selected point. After the table, a shadow illustration uses an object one metre tall as a teaching example, not a shadow measured in Manchester.
| Example settings | Calculation date | Fajr | Sunrise | Dhuhr | Asr | Maghrib | Isha | Load this example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 January 2026 – winter, Standard Asr | 15 Jan 2026 | Load this example | ||||||
| 21 June 2026 – midsummer, Standard Asr | 21 Jun 2026 | Twilight rule limit | Twilight rule limit | Load this example | ||||
| 15 January 2026 – winter, Hanafi Asr | 15 Jan 2026 | Load this example |
Scroll sideways to see all columns.
These examples use fixed dates, not today. Each one uses the approximate Manchester city-centre point (53.4808° N, 2.2426° W) and the Europe/London clock, which is GMT on 15 January 2026 and BST on 21 June 2026. All three use the Muslim World League profile (target angles of 18° for Fajr and 17° for Isha) and the Angle-based Twilight rule. All use Standard Asr except the Hanafi example. All six manual adjustments are zero, the profile's built-in one-minute Dhuhr offset still applies, and times are rounded to the nearest minute. On 15 January 2026, the 18° and 17° angles are reached and set Fajr and Isha, so those times carry no special label. On 21 June 2026, Fajr and Isha are marked Twilight rule limit because the angles are not reached.
Standard and Hanafi Asr shadows
- Standard: noon shadow + 1 height
- 1.25 m
- Hanafi: noon shadow + 2 heights
- 2.25 m
Summer Fajr and Isha in Manchester: read the label before comparing
If you are in Manchester in June, a mosque timetable and this calculator can give Fajr times more than an hour apart, and Isha can differ by a similar amount. One possible reason is a different summer convention. A different date, reference point or clock setting can also change the result. Before comparing, check whether the calculator's Fajr and Isha carry a label.
On , with the starting settings and the BST clock, the calculator gives Fajr at 02:34 and Isha at 23:40. Both are marked Twilight rule limit. The Sun still rises at 04:40 and sets at 21:42, so this is not a polar day. The issue is a short night with persistent twilight: around midsummer at this latitude, the Sun never sinks far enough below the horizon to reach the 18° and 17° angles. The selected Twilight rule (Angle-based here) therefore limits Fajr and Isha within the night from sunset to the following sunrise. On , with the same settings, the Sun does reach both angles, so the 18° and 17° angles set Fajr and Isha directly and neither time carries a label.
A Twilight rule limit label therefore tells you that a limit, not an angle, set that time. Fajr and Isha without a special label come from the profile's target angles. The label does not name the rule on its own. The selected Twilight rule and Calculation details show which setting produced the result. The sunset-to-sunrise limit is a calculation convention. It does not set a religious deadline such as midnight, the last third of the night or the time before Fajr. Other profiles and Twilight rule choices can give quite different summer times, and the high-latitude guide compares them. This page does not choose a convention for you.
Some settings can place Isha after midnight. That Isha still belongs to the evening of the date you selected, and a next-day badge shows the calendar date on which it actually falls. None of the three fixed Manchester examples crosses midnight.
Planning Fajr and Maghrib for Ramadan
Under the daily result, select Ramadan timetable to list Fajr and Maghrib for a range of dates:
- Under First fasting day, enter the date of the first daytime fast announced by the mosque or community you follow. Use the date of the fast itself, not the evening before.
- Set Length of Ramadan to 29 or 30 days. Update it when your community confirms the end of the month.
- Select Show timetable. You get one Fajr and Maghrib pair per date, using your current point, timezone and prayer settings. Rows affected by a limited or unavailable result are marked, even if Fajr and Maghrib look normal.
The dates come from your community, not from the planner. If you try any sample dates in the panel, replace them with your community's announced dates. Fajr is listed as calculated, with no imsak margin added.
Copy timetable link copies a web address, not the table. That address keeps the date range and settings. A link made from a listed city uses its city-centre point. A link made from your device location or typed coordinates contains those coordinates and the timezone, and anyone you send it to can read them. The link does not follow you as you move. Print timetable opens your browser's print dialog, and the printout keeps the point, dates, timezone, settings and row markers. Your browser may offer Save as PDF there.
The diagram after this section shows generic winter, summer and polar cases. The polar case is not Manchester's summer.
Twilight through the seasons
Illustration · not a city measurement
Manchester mosque timetables: compare start times, not jamaat
The three Manchester mosques below publish their own timetables. The column names tell you what each time means:
- Manchester Central Mosque, 20 Upper Park Road, Victoria Park, lists prayer Start times separately from Jamaat times. Its timetable page links to each month.
- Didsbury Mosque / Manchester Islamic Centre, 271 Burton Road, publishes monthly Begin and Prayer columns on its prayer times page.
- Anwaar ul Haramain Jamé Masjid lists Time Begins and Jama'ah on its website, with separate Jumuah slots.
Compare this calculator with the Start, Begin and Time Begins columns. Jamaat, Prayer and Jama'ah show when that mosque's congregation prays, which is set by the mosque and comes after the start.
Isha in Manchester on two dates: this calculator compared with Manchester Central Mosque's published timetable
| Date | This calculator (starting settings) | Manchester Central Isha start | Manchester Central Isha jamaat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:20 (set by the 17° angle) | 18:27 | 19:00 | January 2026 timetable (PDF) | |
| 23:40 (Twilight rule limit) | 22:15 | 22:30 | June 2026 month on the timetable page |
The calculator figures use the Manchester city-centre point and the starting settings: Muslim World League 18°/17°, Standard Asr, the Angle-based Twilight rule, zero manual minutes and nearest-minute rounding. Both sources use the Europe/London clock.
In January the two Isha starts are 7 minutes apart, and both sources give Fajr at 06:10. In June the Isha starts are 85 minutes apart. Fajr also differs: Manchester Central gives a start of 01:12 and a jamaat of 04:00, while the calculator gives 02:34. Adding 7 minutes to every Isha because of the winter comparison would therefore not reproduce the summer timetable. The dated timetables we reviewed do not state Manchester Central's reference point or its full year-round method. A matching winter Fajr does not show that the mosque uses these settings, and a large summer gap does not mean either timetable is wrong.
Sunset and Maghrib need the same care. On , Manchester Central's November 2026 timetable (PDF) lists Sunset at 16:31 and Maghrib Jamaat at 16:34. With the starting settings, the calculator's Maghrib for that date is 16:31. The Zawal column on the same timetable is a separate field and is not the calculator's Dhuhr.
A quick way to compare
- Pick the same date in the calculator and in the mosque's monthly timetable.
- Compare the calculator with the mosque's start column, not its congregation column.
- Check a winter date and a summer date before deciding how two sources relate.
- For jamaat and Jumu'ah, use the current timetable of the mosque you attend.
The diagram below uses made-up start and congregation times (13:00 and 13:20) to illustrate the difference. Why prayer times differ covers other reasons for differences. If you think the calculator has produced a wrong result for a given input, please report it.
Start time and congregation time
Hypothetical example
Choose your Manchester point and keep Qibla on the same spot
The starting point, 53.4808° N, 2.2426° W, is an approximate Manchester city centre. It does not come from your device, it was not checked against any mosque's location, and it does not represent every address in Greater Manchester. To calculate for where you are actually staying:
- Select Use my location, or select Enter coordinates instead and type a latitude and longitude copied from a map app. Your position is requested only when you select Use my location. Your browser may ask for permission, or it may use a permission you granted earlier.
- A new location clears the timezone. Choose Europe/London again under Timezone for this location.
- Select Calculate times.
There is no postcode or street-address search. The privacy page explains what happens to a device position.
Use Manchester centre again moves the point back to the city centre and keeps your chosen date and settings. Reset goes further. It restores the city-centre point and starting settings, returns to today's date and clears the Ramadan planner.
The calculator follows whichever point you choose, including a point set by another city or a shared link. The written guidance and the three dated examples on this page refer to the Manchester city-centre point.
For direction, the Manchester Qibla page is the paired reference for the same city-centre point. From there, the bearing is about 118.5° from true north and the distance to the Kaaba is about 5,025 km. That page's reference figures describe the city centre, but its own finder lets you choose another point. The Find Qibla action in this calculator carries over the point you have selected here, so the times and the direction describe the same place.
Visiting Manchester: keep the right date and clock on a printed month
Europe/London is the UK clock. It runs on GMT (UTC+0) in winter and BST (UTC+1) in summer, and the calculator applies the correct offset for the date you pick. This works even if your phone or laptop is still set to another country's time. Do not add or subtract an hour yourself.
According to GOV.UK, the clocks go forward one hour at 1am on and back one hour at 2am on . On a March or October 2027 timetable, times will jump by about an hour on the change date, on top of the usual small change from day to day. That jump is expected and needs no manual correction.
Printing times for a visit
- Set your point and prayer settings, or keep the defaults. If you changed the point, check that Europe/London is selected under Timezone for this location.
- Open Monthly timetable and choose the month of your stay. If your visit crosses into the next month, print both months.
- Select Print. The printed sheet keeps the point, timezone, dates and settings. Your browser's print dialog may offer Save as PDF.
The printout shows calculated start times for that point and those settings. For congregation times, take the mosque's own timetable.
When you load an example or choose a past or future date, the next-prayer countdown pauses. Select Today at this location to return to today's live result for the point currently selected.