Bern Prayer Times

Prayer Times in Bern, Switzerland

Bernprayer times are calculated based on the city's precise geographic coordinates (46.9481°N, 7.4474°E) using the Muslim World League calculation method — the standard followed by most mosques in Switzerland. 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 Bern'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 Bern prayer time calendar for the full month is shown below — so you can plan ahead without checking daily.

How Bern's prayer times are worked out

Bern sits 4,061 km (2,524 miles) from the Kaaba in Mecca, so the Qibla from here is 123° from true north — you face southeast to pray. Fajr and Isha depend on how far the sun drops below the horizon, and Switzerland follows the Muslim World League method set by the Muslim World League: Fajr begins when the sun is 18° below the horizon, and Isha when it reaches 17°. 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 Bern. Measured with the Muslim World League method, the longest daily fast here — from Fajr to Maghrib — runs about 18h 50m around June, while the shortest is roughly 10h 23m in December: a swing of 8h 27m across the year. That spread is set by Bern's latitude (46.95°N); cities nearer the equator barely vary, while far-northern ones swing by many hours.

One local quirk worth knowing: Dhuhr in Bern does not fall at 12:00. Because the city sits well west within its Europe/Zurich time zone, the sun peaks about 39 minutes after clock noon, and Dhuhr follows the sun rather than the clock — today it is at 1:37 PM. The nearest cities we also publish times for are Biel/Bienne, Luzern, Basel — close enough that their times differ from Bern's by only a few minutes.