Prayer Times
Prayer Times in United Arab Emirates — All Cities
Prayer times across the United Arab Emirates are calculated using the Gulf Region convention, with Fajr at 19.5 degrees of solar depression and Isha fixed at ninety minutes after Maghrib. The country keeps UTC+4, an hour ahead of the rest of the Gulf, and spans enough longitude that Maghrib on the east coast arrives several minutes before Maghrib in Abu Dhabi.
From Abu Dhabi to the Gulf of Oman
The Emirates are the one country in this part of the Gulf where prayer times genuinely change from one end of the map to the other. The federation runs from Abu Dhabi on the Arabian Gulf coast eastward across the Hajar range to Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and Kalba, which face the Gulf of Oman. That is close to two degrees of longitude, worth roughly eight minutes of solar time, and a little more at some points in the year once the north to south difference between Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah is added in.
Eight minutes is not a rounding error. Maghrib reaches the east coast first and Abu Dhabi last. During Ramadan this matters directly, because a household breaking its fast in Khor Fakkan eats several minutes before a household in Abu Dhabi does. Large numbers of people commute between emirates every day, Dubai to Abu Dhabi or Sharjah to Fujairah, so during the fasting month check the times for the emirate you will be in at sunset rather than the one you left that morning.
An hour ahead of the rest of the Gulf
The Emirates observe UTC+4. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar all keep UTC+3, and none of the five changes its clocks for daylight saving at any point in the year. The consequence is that a prayer time here reads about an hour later on the clock than the equivalent moment in Doha or Riyadh, even though the sun is in a broadly similar position.
This catches people out more often than it should, usually in one of two ways. Adhan broadcast from Makkah, and timetables passed around in regional group chats, are on Saudi time and need an hour added before they mean anything in Dubai. Phone apps that infer location from a SIM card or a VPN endpoint rather than from GPS can also land you on the wrong side of that hour. If a time looks wrong by almost exactly sixty minutes, the timezone is the first thing to check.
How each time on these pages is built
The Emirates use the Gulf Region convention. Fajr comes from a twilight angle set at 19.5 degrees of solar depression. Isha uses no angle at all: it is fixed at ninety minutes after Maghrib, on every day of the year, Ramadan included. Dhuhr follows solar noon and Maghrib follows sunset, both computed from each city's own stored coordinates rather than from a national average.
The fixed Isha is worth understanding if you have moved here from South Asia, Europe or North Africa, where an Isha angle is the norm. Under an angle, the gap between Maghrib and Isha stretches through the summer and contracts in winter. Here it does neither. Isha is ninety minutes after sunset in December and ninety minutes after sunset in July. That makes evening planning unusually predictable, though the time can feel early on a long summer evening when the sky is still bright.
The Hanafi question, which matters more here than almost anywhere
Asr has two long-standing positions. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools begin it when an object's shadow equals the object's own length plus the shadow it cast at solar noon. The Hanafi school defers it until that shadow has doubled, which in the Emirates falls roughly forty to sixty minutes later. The times on this site use the first position.
The Emirates have a very large resident population from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where the Hanafi school predominates, so a substantial share of the people praying in the country each afternoon are working to the later time. Both are valid. The disagreement is one of interpretation, not of astronomy, and neither side claims the other is praying outside the window. If you follow the Hanafi position, take Asr from a mosque that serves your community and read the figure on this page as the earlier of the two acceptable moments.
The east coast, the mountains, and what you actually see
Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and Kalba sit on the far side of the Hajar mountains, on the Gulf of Oman rather than the Arabian Gulf. Two things follow. Their sunrise comes up over open water while the western emirates see it over land, and their sunset happens behind a wall of rock.
Calculated sunset assumes a flat horizon at sea level. On the east coast the sun drops behind the ridge some minutes before it reaches that mathematical horizon, so the light goes well before the printed Maghrib. The prayer time is not wrong: Maghrib is reckoned from the true horizon, which is the standard basis used everywhere. But if you are in Khor Fakkan or Kalba, the sun looks long gone and the countdown still shows a few minutes remaining, that is the explanation. In practice the local mosque is the reference worth following there.
The ten cities on this page
We publish times for Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Khor Fakkan and Kalba. Each is calculated from its own coordinates, which matters more here than in the smaller Gulf states, because Abu Dhabi and Khor Fakkan really are minutes apart rather than seconds. Every page carries today's five prayer times, sunrise, a live countdown to the next prayer and a full monthly calendar.
Frequently asked questions
Which calculation method is used for the United Arab Emirates?
The Gulf Region convention, which sets Fajr at 19.5 degrees of solar depression and defines Isha as a fixed ninety minutes after Maghrib rather than as a twilight angle. It is applied to all ten Emirati cities on this site. Bahrain uses the same convention. Saudi Arabia does not, using the Umm al-Qura Fajr angle of 18.5 degrees instead, and Kuwait uses angles at both ends of the night.
Do prayer times differ between Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah?
Yes, and by enough to matter. The Emirates span close to two degrees of longitude from Abu Dhabi in the west to Khor Fakkan and Kalba on the east coast, which is worth roughly eight minutes of solar time. Maghrib arrives on the east coast first and in Abu Dhabi last, with Dubai and Sharjah in between. During Ramadan, use the times for the emirate you will actually be in when the sun sets.
Why are Emirati prayer times an hour later than Saudi ones?
Because the United Arab Emirates observe UTC+4 while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar all keep UTC+3. Neither side changes clocks for daylight saving, so the one-hour offset holds throughout the year. If you are following an adhan broadcast from Makkah or a timetable shared from elsewhere in the Gulf, add an hour before applying it locally. A time that looks wrong by almost exactly sixty minutes is usually a timezone problem, not a calculation one.
I follow the Hanafi madhab. Does the Asr time here apply to me?
No. Our Asr uses the position of the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, where the prayer begins once an object's shadow equals its own length plus the noon shadow. The Hanafi position waits for the shadow to double, placing Asr roughly forty to sixty minutes later. The Emirates have very large Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities where the Hanafi school predominates, and many mosques serving them announce that later time. Follow your own mosque.
On the east coast the sun sets before the Maghrib time shown. Why?
Because Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and Kalba lie immediately east of the Hajar mountains, and the sun disappears behind the ridge before it reaches the true horizon. All prayer time calculation, everywhere, assumes a flat sea-level horizon, so the printed Maghrib refers to that reference point rather than to the moment the peak blocks the sun. The time is correct on its own terms, but on the east coast the local mosque is the more practical guide.