What time is Fajr prayer?
الفجر · two fard rak'ah · from true dawn until sunrise
Fajr begins at true dawn and ends at sunrise. True dawn (ṣubḥ ṣādiq) is the first white light that spreads horizontally along the horizon — not the faint vertical glow that precedes it, which the Qur'anic scholars call the false dawn. In most places that gives a window of roughly 60 to 90 minutes before the sun appears.
How Fajr is calculated
Because dawn is a gradual thing, timetables express it as an angle: how far the sun sits below the horizon. Common choices are 18° (Muslim World League, Umm al-Qura), 19.5° (Egyptian General Authority) and 15° (ISNA, widely used in North America). A wider angle gives an earlier Fajr. Follow the method your local mosque uses so you pray with the congregation.
The two Sunnah rak'ah
Before the two obligatory rak'ah come two Sunnah rak'ah, of which the Prophet ﷺ said: "The two rak'ah of Fajr are better than the world and everything in it." (Sahih Muslim 725) They are prayed short, usually with Surah Al-Kafirun and Surah Al-Ikhlas.
If you sleep through it
The window closes at sunrise, but missing it through sleep is not a sin — the Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever forgets a prayer or sleeps through it, its expiation is to pray it when he remembers." (Sahih Muslim 684) Pray it as soon as you wake, then keep the habit that helps you next time: an earlier Isha, a charged phone, a reminder set the night before.
Free, accurate Fajr times
Happy Islam works out Fajr from your device location using the method you choose, and can nudge you before it enters. No subscription, no premium tier, no adverts.
Related: All five prayer times · Asr time · Maghrib time