Inputs used for every city
Each calculation begins with a Gregorian date, a reviewed latitude and longitude, and the Asia/Riyadh time zone. The calculator converts the date to a Julian day, adjusts for longitude and determines the sun’s apparent declination and the equation of time. Those values allow it to estimate solar noon and the hour angles at which the configured dawn, sunrise, Asr and sunset conditions occur.
City coordinates represent a practical center point, not every street or mosque. Saudi Arabia uses one civil time zone, but solar events are location dependent. A user near the edge of a large metropolitan area may see a small difference from a local institution using another coordinate. The page exposes its own coordinates so the comparison is transparent rather than hidden behind a method label.
Prayer-specific settings
Fajr is calculated when the sun is 18.5 degrees below the horizon. Sunrise and Maghrib use a 0.833-degree adjustment for the apparent solar radius and refraction near the horizon. Dhuhr is based on calculated solar noon. Asr uses a shadow factor of one. These settings are applied consistently to every city; only the date, coordinates and resulting solar geometry change.
Isha follows the Umm al-Qura interval model used by this service: 90 minutes after Maghrib on ordinary days and 120 minutes after Maghrib during Ramadan. Ramadan detection uses the Umm al-Qura Islamic calendar when the server’s international date library is available, with a calendar conversion fallback. The displayed Hijri date is informative and may differ from an officially announced lunar date based on observation.
Iteration, rounding and display
The solar-time estimates are refined through two calculation passes. The civil time-zone offset and longitude correction are then applied. Results are rounded to the nearest displayed minute. Because another service may truncate rather than round, select a nearby but different coordinate, add an offset or use a different dawn angle, a one-minute or larger difference can occur even when both systems are functioning as designed.
Times are formatted in 24-hour notation to avoid ambiguity. The main values are written into the server response, while the countdown is enhanced in the browser. Monthly schedules are cached by city, year, month and calculator version. Cache keys change when the calculation version changes, and public page caching is intentionally short because the next-prayer state and current date are time sensitive.
Validation and quality controls
Quality checks cover valid time ordering, complete month length, city coordinate ranges, language labels, canonical URLs and agreement between daily and monthly output. Representative cities are checked at different latitudes and longitudes. REST output is generated from the same functions as the visible page, which reduces the risk that the interface and public data endpoint silently diverge.
A credible comparison must use the same date, place and purpose. Mosque calendars can include safety margins intended for worshippers. An official schedule can incorporate observation or local policy. An application can use a different school for Asr. Method differences should be documented, not flattened into an unsupported claim that one number is universally exact for every observer and institution.
Known limitations
The model does not calculate a custom visible horizon for every neighborhood, building or mountain. It does not know a mosque’s iqamah, Friday prayer or special-event schedule. Device clocks can be wrong, cached browser tabs can be old and network delivery can be delayed. The service therefore presents a calculation method and responsible-use guidance instead of promising an impossible level of universal precision.
If a verified defect is found in a coordinate, calendar conversion, prayer formula or route, it should be corrected at the structured source. This allows the fix to reach all dependent pages. Reports should include the full URL, date, city, prayer, displayed value and comparison source. The corrections policy explains how the team evaluates and records material changes.
The service these policies describe
KSA Prayer is a focused bilingual utility for calculated prayer times in Saudi cities. Arabic pages are available from the root of the site and corresponding English pages are available under /en/. City pages show today’s timetable, the next calculated prayer, tomorrow’s main values and a full month. They also identify the city coordinates, time zone and calculation convention so a visitor can understand what produced the displayed result.
The service is independent. It is not a Saudi government website, a mosque, a university publication or an official calendar. The words “Umm al-Qura” describe the calculation settings; they do not state sponsorship or approval by Umm al-Qura University. The site is designed to support daily planning while making the difference between a calculated prayer-entry time and a mosque’s iqamah schedule explicit.
How to verify important information
For normal planning, compare the page heading, date, city and time zone before relying on a value. Refresh the page after traveling or returning to an older browser tab. When attendance at a particular congregation matters, verify the iqamah, Friday prayer, Ramadan program or Eid arrangement with that mosque. When an official authority publishes a timetable for a special event or holy place, that notice should be followed for its intended audience.
If two sources differ, record the city, date, prayer, displayed minute, calculation method and coordinates before reporting the issue. A difference can be caused by rounding, a safety offset, elevation, horizon conditions or another accepted convention. Evidence makes a correction request useful. It lets the team distinguish a software or data problem from an expected method difference and apply a change consistently across daily, monthly, Arabic, English and API output.
Related standards and updates
The About page explains the purpose and ownership stance of the publication. The Methodology page documents the calculation inputs and settings. The Editorial Policy explains review and corrections. The Privacy Policy covers data handling, while the Terms and Disclaimer explain permitted use and service limits. These pages are linked together and from the footer so a reader does not need to search for the rules that govern the service.
Policy text is reviewed when the site’s features, data practices or calculation logic materially change. A date is displayed on each trust page to show the current editorial review point. Dates are not changed merely to make a page look fresh. Where a policy update materially affects how visitors use the service or how contact data is handled, the new text applies from its stated effective date and earlier messages remain subject to the commitments made when they were submitted.