Prayer Times
Prayer Times in Malaysia — All Cities
Waktu solat for Malaysian cities are calculated to the convention of Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia, better known as JAKIM, which sets Fajr at 20 degrees of solar depression and Isha at 18 degrees. Malaysia keeps one clock at UTC+8 across both the peninsula and Borneo, and sits close enough to the equator that its times change very little across the year.
Waktu solat that barely move from January to December
Malaysia lies between roughly 1 and 6 degrees north of the equator, and that single fact shapes the whole timetable. Near the equator the length of the day hardly changes with the season. The difference between the longest and the shortest day of the year in Kuala Lumpur is a matter of minutes rather than of hours, where in Britain or Turkey it runs to many hours.
So Malaysian prayer times are among the most stable published anywhere on this site. Subuh, Zohor, Asar, Maghrib and Isyak all sit at very nearly the same point on the clock in June as in December, drifting by a few minutes either way rather than swinging across the year. A timetable you memorise in one month remains close to right in the next. That is genuinely unusual, and it is worth stating plainly rather than pretending Malaysian times behave like times in a temperate country.
One clock across sixteen degrees of longitude
Where Malaysian times do differ sharply is from west to east, and the cause is the timezone rather than the sun. The whole federation runs on UTC+8, an offset centred on a meridian at 120 degrees east. George Town and the rest of the peninsula sit near 100 to 104 degrees east, well behind that meridian, while Kota Kinabalu in Sabah lies past 116 degrees and Kuching in Sarawak past 110.
Two things follow. First, in the peninsula the clock runs well ahead of the sun, so solar noon arrives more than an hour after twelve and Zohor falls in the early afternoon rather than just after midday. Visitors often assume this is an error in the calculation; it is not, it is the timezone. Second, the sun reaches Borneo long before it reaches the peninsula, so Kota Kinabalu sees Maghrib around an hour before George Town does on the same evening. Kuching sits between the two. Across the ten cities here the total spread is close to sixteen degrees of longitude, worth well over an hour of solar time carried on a single clock.
The JAKIM convention and a twenty degree Fajr
JAKIM, the federal Islamic development department, maintains the convention used for Malaysian prayer times, and this site applies it to every Malaysian city. It places Fajr at a solar depression of 20 degrees and Isha at 18 degrees.
That 20 degree Fajr is among the earliest conventions in use anywhere. Most national standards sit at 18, 18.5 or 19.5 degrees, so JAKIM asks for the sun to be deeper below the horizon before dawn is reckoned to have begun. At Malaysian latitudes the sun descends almost vertically rather than at a shallow angle, which means it passes through each degree of depression quickly: the extra two degrees over an 18 degree standard translate to roughly eight minutes. Subuh in Malaysia is therefore a little earlier than a Muslim World League calculation would give for the same place, and the gap holds steady rather than opening and closing with the season.
A Shafi'i country and the afternoon shadow
Malaysia is overwhelmingly Shafi'i, and Shafi'i jurisprudence is written into the country's religious administration. For Asar this simplifies matters considerably. The Shafi'i position, shared with the Maliki and Hanbali schools, is that the afternoon window opens when a vertical object throws a shadow equal to its own length, added to the shadow it was already casting at solar noon. That is the measure used for every Malaysian city on this site, and it is the one Malaysian mosques announce.
The alternative Hanafi position waits until the shadow has doubled, which places Asar around forty minutes to an hour later. It is not the Malaysian norm, and you will not generally find a second Asar time circulating here in the way you would in Pakistan or Bangladesh. Malaysia does host communities and workers from Hanafi countries, and anyone following that position should take Asar from a mosque serving their own community, but for the great majority of people praying in Malaysia the figure on this page is the operative one.
Sahur, berbuka and a fast of near constant length
Because the day barely changes length, the fasting day in Malaysia barely changes either. Sahur ends at Subuh and the fast is broken at Maghrib, and the interval between them stays close to the same figure whichever part of the year Ramadan happens to fall in. A Malaysian Ramadan in June and a Malaysian Ramadan in December are practically the same length, which is not true in most of the countries covered here.
What does change is the city. Because Maghrib arrives in Kota Kinabalu around an hour before it arrives in George Town, berbuka is not a single national moment despite the single national clock. If you are travelling between the peninsula and Sabah or Sarawak during the fasting month, take the times for the state you will actually be in at sunset. The monthly calendar on each city page shows Subuh and Maghrib for the full month at once.
The ten Malaysian cities we publish
We publish Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, George Town, Ipoh, Shah Alam, Malacca, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Petaling Jaya and Kota Bharu. Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam sit close enough together that their figures run within a minute of each other. Kota Kinabalu and Kuching are separate cases entirely and should never be read from a peninsular timetable.
Each page gives today's five waktu solat and sunrise, a live countdown to the next prayer, and a full monthly calendar, with the calculation convention named beneath the times table.
Frequently asked questions
Which calculation method is used for waktu solat in Malaysia?
The JAKIM convention, maintained by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia, which sets Fajr at 20 degrees of solar depression and Isha at 18 degrees. It is applied to every Malaysian city on this site. The 20 degree Fajr is among the earliest conventions in use anywhere, since most national standards sit at 18, 18.5 or 19.5 degrees, and it places Subuh a little earlier than an international default would for the same location.
Why does Zohor in Kuala Lumpur fall in the early afternoon?
Because Malaysia keeps UTC+8, an offset centred on a meridian at 120 degrees east, while the peninsula sits near 100 to 104 degrees east. The clock therefore runs well ahead of the sun, and solar noon arrives more than an hour after twelve. Zohor begins just after the sun crosses the meridian, so it falls in the early afternoon rather than at midday. This is a timezone effect, not a calculation error, and it applies to every prayer in the peninsula.
How different are prayer times in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur?
By around an hour, which surprises people given both are on the same clock. Kota Kinabalu lies past 116 degrees east while Kuala Lumpur sits near 101 and a half, and the earth turns through a degree every four minutes. The sun therefore reaches Sabah well before it reaches the peninsula, so Maghrib in Kota Kinabalu arrives roughly an hour before Maghrib in Kuala Lumpur. Kuching sits between the two. Always use the city you are in.
Do Malaysian prayer times change much through the year?
Very little. Malaysia lies between roughly 1 and 6 degrees north of the equator, where the length of the day varies by minutes rather than hours between summer and winter. The five daily times therefore sit at close to the same point on the clock all year, drifting slightly rather than swinging. One practical result is that the fasting day is nearly the same length whichever season Ramadan falls in, which is not the case in most countries.
Which Asar position do these times use?
The Shafi'i position, which Malaysia follows and which is shared by the Maliki and Hanbali schools: Asar begins once an object's shadow equals its own length plus the shadow it cast at solar noon. This matches what Malaysian mosques announce, so there is no second Asar time in general circulation here. Anyone following the Hanafi position, which waits for the shadow to double and falls roughly forty minutes to an hour later, should take Asar from a mosque serving their own community.