Prayer times across the Gulf are set by each country’s own religious authority, not calculated independently by news sites. This page explains where the official timings for each country come from, and why they move a little every day.
It does not publish daily times. For the exact Azan time in your city today, go to the authority that the mosques in that country follow.
Where the official times come from
In the United Arab Emirates the issuing body is the General Authority for Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Zakat, usually shortened to Awqaf. It publishes the timings that mosques across all seven emirates follow, which is why Azan is uniform between Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah rather than set mosque by mosque.
| Country | Authority | Official prayer times |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | General Authority for Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Zakat (Awqaf) | awqaf.gov.ae |
| Qatar | Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs | awqaf.gov.qa |
| Dubai specifically | Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department (IACAD), in line with Awqaf | iacad.gov.ae |
Checked on 26 September 2026. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman each have their own ministry or authority; the two links above are the ones that responded when we checked, and we would rather list three working sources than six that may not open.
The five daily prayers
Five prayers are obligatory each day, and each one opens at a point tied to the sun rather than to the clock.
- Fajr — before sunrise
- Dhuhr — just after the sun passes its highest point
- Asr — in the late afternoon
- Maghrib — just after sunset
- Isha — after darkness has fallen
Because the anchor is the sun and not the clock, every time shifts slightly from one day to the next. That is the reason a printed timetable goes out of date, and the reason a page like this one cannot usefully hold a fixed set of numbers.
The call to prayer
The Adhan, also written Azan or Azaan, is the call announcing that a prayer time has opened. It is delivered by the muezzin, traditionally from the mosque, and in most Gulf cities you will hear it from several mosques at once within a few seconds of each other.
Its practical function in the Gulf is a scheduling one as much as a religious one. Meetings, shop hours and restaurant service all bend around it, and during Ramadan the Maghrib call is the moment the fast breaks.
Why the times move every day
Sunrise and sunset shift through the year, so the five openings drift with them. Across a Gulf summer and winter the drift is substantial rather than marginal, which is why the authorities publish a fresh table rather than a seasonal average.
Two further points matter if you are comparing sources. Different calculation conventions exist for Fajr and Isha, which is why two apps can disagree by several minutes for the same city on the same day. And a national authority’s published time is the one local mosques will actually follow, so where an app and the authority differ, the authority is the one to use.
Common questions
Who decides prayer times in the UAE?
The General Authority for Islamic Affairs, Endowments and Zakat, known as Awqaf. Its timings apply across all seven emirates, and Dubai’s IACAD works in line with them, so Azan does not vary from one mosque to the next within the country.
Are prayer times the same in Dubai and Abu Dhabi?
Close, but not identical. The two cities are about an hour and a quarter apart by road, and that distance shifts sunrise and sunset by a few minutes, so Awqaf publishes separate times for each. If you have travelled between the two, as covered in our guide to getting from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, use the times for the city you are actually in.
Why do two apps show different times?
Because they use different calculation conventions, mainly for Fajr and Isha, where the reference is the angle of the sun below the horizon. Differences of a few minutes are normal. The national authority’s published time is the one that settles it.
Where can I get guidance on how to pray?
From a religious authority or a local mosque, not from a news site. Awqaf in the UAE and the Ministry of Endowments in Qatar both publish religious guidance and run enquiry services, and both are better placed than we are to answer questions of practice.
The honest limit of a page like this one is worth stating plainly. We can tell you who sets the times and why they move. We cannot tell you what time Fajr is tomorrow, and any site that prints a fixed number for that is showing you a figure that was already out of date when it was published.