Prayer Times
Prayer Times in Qatar — All Cities
Qatar applies its own national calculation convention, setting Fajr at 18 degrees of solar depression and fixing Isha at ninety minutes after Maghrib. All eight Qatari locations on this site are computed to it. The country is compact enough that the times barely move from one place to another, and it keeps UTC+3 with no seasonal clock change.
Where Qatar sits between two calculation traditions
Prayer time conventions divide broadly into two families. One defines both Fajr and Isha by twilight angles, meaning the depth the sun must sink below the horizon before each begins. The other keeps an angle for Fajr but replaces the Isha angle with a fixed interval measured from sunset. Qatar maintains its own national convention, and it belongs to the second family: Fajr at 18 degrees of solar depression, Isha at ninety minutes after Maghrib.
That pairing is close to, but not identical with, what its neighbours use. Saudi Arabia also works to a ninety-minute Isha but sets Fajr deeper, at 18.5 degrees, so Saudi Fajr arrives two or three minutes before Qatari Fajr on the same morning. Bahrain, at 19.5 degrees, is earlier again. Kuwait discards the fixed interval altogether and uses an angle for Isha as well. Four neighbouring countries, four different answers, which is why the method in force is stated beneath the table on every city page here.
Doha and everywhere else: how little the times actually move
Qatar is a peninsula, and nearly all of its population lives on or close to the eastern side of it. The eight locations covered here, Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Lusail, Al Daayen and Mesaieed, span about two tenths of a degree of longitude in total, worth under a minute of solar time.
It would be easy to write eight pages implying eight distinct timetables. That would be dishonest. Al Rayyan adjoins Doha, Lusail and Al Daayen sit immediately north of it, and Al Wakrah is a short drive south. For all of these the prayer times fall on the same minute nearly every day of the year. We publish them separately because people search for the place they live in, and each page is calculated from its own stored coordinates rather than copied from the capital. But read them as one national timetable with local labels, not as eight competing schedules.
The only spread worth measuring runs north to south. Al Khor lies about seventy kilometres up the coast from Mesaieed, roughly two thirds of a degree of latitude. Latitude has no effect on solar noon, so Dhuhr does not move at all, but it does shift sunrise and sunset slightly near the solstices, by about a minute, and by essentially nothing around the equinoxes. That is the full extent of internal variation in the country.
The evening on a fixed Isha
Because Isha is pinned to ninety minutes after Maghrib rather than to a twilight angle, the shape of a Qatari evening is the same in every season. Maghrib moves with the sunset, and Isha moves with it, always an hour and a half behind. Nothing about that gap changes between January and July.
If you have prayed in Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan or Europe, this will feel different. Angle-based conventions push Isha steadily later through the spring, and at high northern latitudes in midsummer that gap can become genuinely difficult. Qatar never has that problem. The ninety minutes is also not extended for Ramadan, unlike the Saudi convention, which lengthens its interval to two hours for the month. In Qatar it is ninety minutes on every night of the year.
Suhoor, iftar and the length of the fast at twenty-five degrees north
Qatar lies near 25.3 degrees north. Daylight runs from a little under fourteen hours around the June solstice down to roughly ten and a half hours in late December. Because a fast runs from Fajr to Maghrib rather than sunrise to sunset, the figure that matters is longer than that: about fifteen hours for a summer Ramadan and a shade under twelve for a winter one.
Suhoor ends at Fajr, the time labelled Fajr on every city page here, and iftar begins at Maghrib. Because the Isha interval is fixed, Taraweeh follows iftar by the same predictable margin on every night of the month, so a routine set in the first week still holds in the last. The monthly calendar on each page lists Fajr and Maghrib for the whole month at once, which is the more useful view when planning meals, travel or shift work around the fast.
Asr: two positions, one number on the page
Asr is the only prayer where the calculation depends on a point of interpretation rather than purely on the sun. The position held by the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools is that Asr begins when an object's shadow equals its own length plus the shadow it cast at solar noon. The Hanafi school does not begin it until the shadow has doubled. In Qatar the two land roughly forty to sixty minutes apart, the gap varying with the season.
The number shown on these pages is the first of the two. Qatar has a very large expatriate workforce, a great deal of it from South Asia where the Hanafi school predominates, so a significant number of the people praying here each afternoon are using the later time. This is not a case of one calculation being accurate and the other faulty: both follow correctly from the same solar geometry and differ only in the definition applied to it. Follow the position your own mosque follows.
The eight locations on this page
Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Lusail, Al Daayen and Mesaieed each have a page giving today's five prayer times, sunrise, a live countdown to the next prayer and a full monthly calendar, with the Qatari method named beneath the table. Qatar keeps UTC+3 all year and does not observe daylight saving, so nothing here shifts except with the sun.
Frequently asked questions
Which calculation method is used for Qatar?
Qatar has its own national convention, which places Fajr at 18 degrees of solar depression and defines Isha as a fixed ninety minutes after Maghrib rather than as a twilight angle. All eight Qatari locations on this site use it. Because Isha is an interval rather than an angle, the gap between sunset and Isha is identical on every day of the year, and it is not extended during Ramadan.
Are prayer times different in Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakrah and Al Khor?
Only marginally. All eight covered locations sit within about two tenths of a degree of longitude, worth less than a minute of solar time, so Doha, Al Rayyan, Lusail, Al Daayen and Al Wakrah show the same minute on nearly every day of the year. The one real difference is north to south: Al Khor is about seventy kilometres up the coast from Mesaieed, which shifts sunrise and sunset by roughly a minute near the solstices and by nothing at all near the equinoxes.
Why is Fajr in Qatar slightly later than Fajr in Saudi Arabia?
Because the two countries use different Fajr angles. Qatar reckons dawn at 18 degrees of solar depression while Saudi Arabia, following the Umm al-Qura convention, uses 18.5 degrees. A deeper angle means the sun has further to travel before the threshold is met going backwards from sunrise, so Saudi Fajr is reached first, typically two or three minutes earlier. Isha is the reverse: both countries use ninety minutes after Maghrib outside Ramadan, so they agree closely.
How long is the fasting day in Qatar during Ramadan?
It depends on where Ramadan falls in the solar year, since the Islamic calendar shifts back about eleven days annually. Qatar sits near 25.3 degrees north, where daylight ranges from a little under fourteen hours in June to roughly ten and a half hours in late December. Fasting runs from Fajr rather than sunrise, so the actual fast is longer than daylight: about fifteen hours for a summer Ramadan and a shade under twelve hours for a winter one.
Which Asr time do these pages show, and what if I am Hanafi?
They show the position of the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, where Asr begins once an object's shadow equals its own length plus the shadow it cast at noon. If you follow the Hanafi school, which waits until the shadow reaches twice the object's length, your Asr falls roughly forty to sixty minutes after the time listed. Qatar has a large South Asian workforce, and mosques serving those communities commonly announce the later Hanafi time. Follow your own mosque.