Prayer Times in Saudi Arabia — All Cities

The Umm al-Qura convention

Prayer times across Saudi Arabia are governed by the convention published by Umm al-Qura University in Makkah. It sets Fajr at a solar depression of 18.5 degrees, meaning dawn is reckoned to begin when the centre of the sun sits 18.5 degrees below the horizon. Isha is handled differently from most of the Muslim world: instead of a twilight angle, Umm al-Qura defines it as a fixed interval of 90 minutes after Maghrib, extended to 120 minutes during Ramadan.

That fixed interval is the reason Isha in Riyadh or Jeddah does not drift through the year the way it does in Cairo or Istanbul. Wherever you are in the Kingdom, Isha sits an hour and a half after sunset for eleven months of the year, and two hours after sunset during Ramadan. Visitors from South Asia or Europe often notice this immediately, because it places Isha earlier in summer and later in winter than the angle-based methods they are used to.

Asr and the Hanbali position

Saudi Arabia is predominantly Hanbali in its jurisprudence, and the Hanbali position on Asr is the same as the Shafi'i and Maliki one: Asr begins when an object's shadow equals its own length plus the shadow it cast at solar noon. This is the standard applied to every Saudi city here.

The alternative Hanafi reckoning, which waits until the shadow reaches twice the object's length, produces an Asr time roughly forty to sixty minutes later. Saudi Arabia hosts a very large expatriate population from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, where the Hanafi school predominates. If you follow the Hanafi position, expect the Asr time on this page to be earlier than the one you would use at home, and take your timing from a mosque that serves your community.

Makkah, Madinah and the Haramain

The two holy cities carry particular significance for timing. The Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah both operate to the Umm al-Qura convention, and the adhan from the Haramain is broadcast widely across the Kingdom and beyond. Because a great many worshippers time their prayers by those broadcasts, Umm al-Qura functions as the effective national standard even in cities far from either mosque.

Note that Makkah and Madinah are roughly 340 kilometres apart, which produces a real difference in their prayer times of several minutes. Madinah, lying further north and west, sees a later Maghrib than Makkah for most of the year. Pilgrims moving between the two during Hajj or Umrah should check the times for the city they are actually in rather than carrying one timetable across both.

Geography and the spread of times across the Kingdom

Saudi Arabia is large enough that a single national timetable would be misleading. The Kingdom spans roughly 1,500 kilometres east to west, from the Gulf coast at Dammam and Dhahran to the Red Sea at Jeddah and Yanbu. Despite the whole country observing Arabia Standard Time at UTC+3, the sun reaches Dammam noticeably before it reaches Jeddah. The practical effect is that Maghrib in Jeddah falls around thirty five to forty minutes later than Maghrib in Dammam on the same day.

There is a north to south spread as well. Tabuk and Sakaka in the north sit close to 30 degrees latitude, while Jazan and Najran in the south lie near 17 degrees. Northern cities therefore experience a much wider seasonal swing, with long summer days and short winter ones, while the southern cities stay comparatively even through the year. This is why we publish times per city rather than per country.

Ramadan in Saudi Arabia

During Ramadan the Umm al-Qura Isha interval extends from 90 to 120 minutes after Maghrib, which pushes Isha and the Taraweeh prayers that follow it later into the evening. Suhoor ends at the beginning of Fajr and iftar begins at Maghrib, and in most Saudi cities the cannon or the mosque broadcast marks both.

Working hours across the Kingdom shift during the month, and shops and restaurants typically reopen after Taraweeh and trade late into the night. If you are planning around the fast, the monthly calendar on each city page gives you the full month of Fajr and Maghrib times at a glance, which is more useful than checking a single day at a time.

Which cities we cover

We publish prayer times for forty Saudi cities, the widest coverage of any country on this site. That includes Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah, Dammam, Khobar, Dhahran, Taif, Tabuk, Buraidah, Unayzah, Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, Najran, Hail, Sakaka, Arar, Yanbu, Jubail, Al Ahsa, Hafar Al Batin and others. Each has its own stored coordinates, so the times reflect that city's actual position rather than a regional approximation.

Select any city below for today's five prayer times, sunrise, a live countdown to the next prayer, and a full monthly calendar. Every page states the Umm al-Qura method in force beneath the times table.