Queens Prayer Times

Fajr in Queens ranges from approximately 3:52 AM at summer solstice (late June) to 6:22 AM in January. Queens is at nearly the same latitude as Manhattan (40.73°N vs 40.71°N) but slightly more easterly (73.79°W vs 73.97°W), which means prayer times are approximately 1–2 minutes earlier than Manhattan's. The ISNA method (15° solar depression angle) is standard at most Queens mosques, including those in Jackson Heights, Flushing, Jamaica, and Astoria. Times vary by up to 3–4 minutes between Far Rockaway (southeast Queens) and College Point (northwest Queens) due to the borough's large geographic spread.

Jackson Heights — the neighborhood centered on 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in western Queens — is home to one of the densest concentrations of South Asian Muslims in the United States. Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian Muslim families dominate the commercial and residential fabric of Jackson Heights, which is sometimes called 'Little Bangladesh' or 'Little Pakistan' depending on which block you're on. The 74th Street–Broadway shopping district is packed with halal restaurants serving biryani, nihari, chapli kebab, and karahi; sari boutiques; Pakistani and Bangladeshi sweet shops; Urdu-language bookstores; and money transfer shops connecting families to Karachi, Dhaka, and Lahore. The Masjid Al-Falah (in Jamaica) and numerous community mosques throughout Jackson Heights and Woodside offer daily prayers and Friday Jumu'ah. The neighborhood's subway connections — the 7 train (the 'International Express'), E, F, M, N, R, and A/C/E lines — make it the most transit-accessible Muslim neighborhood in the United States.

Yes — Queens has a significant Somali Muslim community concentrated in the Jamaica and South Jamaica neighborhoods in the southern part of the borough. Somali families, often previously resettled in other states, have migrated to Queens for employment and community connections. Senegalese, Guinean, Malian, Gambian, and other West African Muslim communities are concentrated in areas like Jamaica, St. Albans, and Cambria Heights — neighborhoods with more affordable housing and established African diaspora networks. West African-owned halal restaurants serving thiéboudienne (Senegalese fish and rice), jollof rice, and grilled tilapia, alongside mosques offering Friday prayers in Wolof, Fulani, and other West African languages, make southeast Queens a hub for African Muslim life in New York City.

The Arab Muslim community in Queens is concentrated in Astoria (Egyptian, Yemeni, Moroccan, and Lebanese families), along Steinway Street — sometimes called 'Little Egypt' for its concentration of Egyptian-owned businesses — and in neighborhoods like Corona and Elmhurst. Egyptian-owned restaurants and cafes serve koshari (lentils and pasta with spiced tomato sauce), ta'ameya (Egyptian falafel), and strong Arabic tea. Yemeni and Palestinian families have also settled in parts of Astoria and Woodside. The Guyanese and Trinidadian Muslim communities — with Islamic roots tracing to South Asian indentured laborers brought to the Caribbean in the 19th century — are concentrated in the Ozone Park and South Richmond Hill neighborhoods of Queens, where Indo-Caribbean halal restaurants, mosques, and Muslim cultural organizations have created a distinct Caribbean Muslim community far from the more visible Arab and South Asian Muslim centers.

From Queens, the Qibla points approximately 58–59° from true north — northeast. Queens' eastern position within New York City means the bearing is virtually identical to Manhattan and Brooklyn. The great-circle route from Queens crosses the North Atlantic, passes over Western Europe and the Mediterranean, then descends through Turkey into the Arabian Peninsula to Makkah al-Mukarramah. Queens mosques orient prayer halls to the northeast. Use our GPS Qibla compass at prayertimesnearme.com/qibla for a precise bearing from your specific Queens neighborhood.