Madison Prayer Times

Prayer Times in Madison, Wisconsin

Madisonprayer times are calculated based on the city's precise geographic coordinates (43.0731°N, 89.4012°W) using the ISNA calculation method — the standard used by most mosques in Wisconsin and across the United States. 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 Madison'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 Madison prayer time calendar for the full month is shown below — so you can plan ahead without checking daily.

How Madison's prayer times are worked out

Madison sits 11,165 km (6,937 miles) from the Kaaba in Mecca, so the Qibla from here is 47° from true north — you face northeast to pray. Fajr and Isha depend on how far the sun drops below the horizon, and Wisconsin follows the ISNA method set by the Islamic Society of North America: Fajr begins when the sun is 15° below the horizon, and Isha when it reaches 15°. 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 Madison. Measured with the ISNA method, the longest daily fast here — from Fajr to Maghrib — runs about 17h 11m around June, while the shortest is roughly 10h 26m in December: a swing of 6h 45m across the year. That spread is set by Madison's latitude (43.07°N); cities nearer the equator barely vary, while far-northern ones swing by many hours.

One local quirk worth knowing: Dhuhr in Madison does not fall at 12:00. Because the city sits well west within its America/Chicago time zone, the sun peaks about 66 minutes after clock noon, and Dhuhr follows the sun rather than the clock — today it is at 1:05 PM. The nearest cities we also publish times for are Milwaukee, Chicago, Bridgeview — close enough that their times differ from Madison's by only a few minutes.