Ar Rifā‘ Prayer Times

Prayer Times in Ar Rifā‘, Bahrain

Ar Rifā‘prayer times are calculated based on the city's precise geographic coordinates (26.1300°N, 50.5550°E) using the Umm al-Qura calculation method — the standard followed by most mosques in Bahrain. Times shown are for today's date and update automatically at midnight.

The five daily prayers — Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha — are calculated from the sun's position relative to Ar Rifā‘'s latitude and longitude. As the sun's declination changes throughout the year, prayer times shift by several minutes each day. This is why a Ar Rifā‘ prayer time calendar for the full month is shown below — so you can plan ahead without checking daily.

How Ar Rifā‘'s prayer times are worked out

Ar Rifā‘ sits 1,210 km (752 miles) from the Kaaba in Mecca, so the Qibla from here is 247° from true north — you face southwest to pray. Fajr and Isha depend on how far the sun drops below the horizon, and Bahrain follows the Umm al-Qura method set by Umm al-Qura University, Makkah: Fajr begins when the sun is 18.5° below the horizon, and Isha is fixed at 90 minutes after Maghrib rather than an angle. A city that used ISNA's 15° instead would get a noticeably different Fajr — which is why the method, not just the coordinates, decides the answer.

Day length is what really moves the timetable in Ar Rifā‘. Measured with the Umm al-Qura method, the longest daily fast here — from Fajr to Maghrib — runs about 15h 20m around June, while the shortest is roughly 11h 55m in December: a swing of 3h 25m across the year. That spread is set by Ar Rifā‘'s latitude (26.13°N); cities nearer the equator barely vary, while far-northern ones swing by many hours.

One local quirk worth knowing: Dhuhr in Ar Rifā‘ does not fall at 12:00. Because the city sits well east within its Asia/Bahrain time zone, the sun peaks about 15 minutes before clock noon, and Dhuhr follows the sun rather than the clock — today it is at 11:44 AM. The nearest cities we also publish times for are Riffa, Madīnat Ḩamad, Sitrah — close enough that their times differ from Ar Rifā‘'s by only a few minutes.