Question 1

What does Prayer Times API do?

Accepted Answer

Al Adhan Prayer Times API is a free, comprehensive Islamic prayer time calculation service providing accurate daily prayer schedules for any location worldwide, including all cities and geographic coordinates across Nigeria. With Nigeria being a country with approximately 100 million Muslim citizens — one of the largest Muslim populations in the world — accurate prayer time calculation is a fundamental requirement for a wide range of Nigerian mobile apps, websites, and digital services serving Muslim communities. Al Adhan solves this cleanly with a zero-cost, zero-setup API.

The five daily Islamic prayers (Fajr at dawn, Dhuhr at midday, Asr in the afternoon, Maghrib at sunset, and Isha at night) are calculated based on the sun's position relative to the observer's geographic location. Prayer times vary by location and change every day throughout the year as the sun's position shifts with the seasons. Manual calculation requires astronomical formulas, and different global Islamic authorities use slightly different calculation methods (different angles for Fajr and Isha). Al Adhan implements all major calculation methods and exposes them through a simple query parameter, allowing Nigerian developers to match the calculation method preferred by local Islamic authorities.

Nigeria's geography spans multiple latitudes from south (Lagos at approximately 6°N) to north (Sokoto, Maiduguri at approximately 13°N), creating meaningful differences in prayer times between northern and southern Nigeria. The summer/winter variation in day length is also more pronounced in the north. Al Adhan handles these geographic differences correctly — an Abuja user and a Kano user querying the same API get different, location-appropriate prayer times. The API accepts either a city name plus country code or geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude), accommodating both named city queries and precise GPS-based lookups for rural Nigerian locations not in the city database.

Supported calculation methods include the Muslim World League (MWL), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Egyptian General Authority of Survey, Umm Al-Qura University (Mecca), University of Islamic Sciences Karachi, Institute of Geophysics University of Tehran, Gulf Region, Kuwait, Qatar, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, Union Organization Islamic de France, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı Turkey, Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, and Moonsighting Committee Worldwide. For Nigerian Muslims, the Muslim World League (MWL) method is commonly used in the north, though local mosques may prefer other methods. The API supports all of these through the method parameter.

The daily prayer times response includes: Fajr, Sunrise, Dhuhr, Asr, Sunset, Maghrib, Isha, Imsak (pre-Fajr time), Midnight, and Firstthird/Lastthird of the night — more data than most applications need, but developers select the fields relevant to their use case. The response also includes the current Hijri (Islamic calendar) date alongside the Gregorian date, useful for displaying Islamic dates in apps, noting Islamic months like Ramadan, and scheduling Ramadan-specific features automatically.

Monthly and yearly timetable endpoints return prayer times for an entire month or year in a single API call, avoiding the need for daily API requests. Nigerian apps generating printed prayer timetables, mosque bulletin boards, or calendar exports use these endpoints to generate complete schedules efficiently.

The Qibla API returns the precise compass bearing toward the Kaaba in Mecca from any geographic coordinate. For a user in Lagos, this is approximately 71°NE; for Kano in northern Nigeria, approximately 68°NE; for Maiduguri in the northeast, approximately 63°NE. Providing Qibla direction is a standard feature in Islamic prayer apps, and Al Adhan's Qibla endpoint makes this trivial to implement.

No API key, no account, no credit card, no rate limit documentation — Al Adhan is entirely open for use. For Nigerian developers building any application serving Muslim users, this API eliminates the engineering cost of implementing prayer time calculations from scratch (which requires implementing astronomical algorithms) while providing higher accuracy than simplified calculations and flexibility across all Nigerian geographic locations.

Question 2

How much does Prayer Times API cost?

Accepted Answer

Prayer Times API is free to use. Completely free. No API key required. Supports all Nigerian cities and coordinates.

Question 3

How do I authenticate with the Prayer Times API API?

Accepted Answer

None (no authentication required)

Question 4

Is there a rate limit on Prayer Times API?

Accepted Answer

No rate limit documented. Fair use.

Question 5

Does Prayer Times API offer a sandbox or test mode?

Accepted Answer

No public sandbox is documented for Prayer Times API. Check the official docs for the recommended way to test integrations safely before going live.

Question 6

What is Prayer Times API best suited for?

Accepted Answer

Developers building Islamic prayer time features into Nigerian apps — calculating accurate Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha times for any Nigerian city or GPS coordinate.

Question 7

Is there anything else I should know before integrating Prayer Times API?

Accepted Answer

Al Adhan Prayer Times API is a free, accurate Islamic prayer time calculator supporting all major calculation methods. Nigeria fully supported — major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Sokoto. Free, no API key. Critical for Nigerian Islamic apps.

Question 8

Where can I find Prayer Times API's documentation?

Accepted Answer

The official API documentation is at https://aladhan.com/prayer-times-api.

Question 9

Does Prayer Times API support Nigerian developers?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Prayer Times API explicitly supports Nigerian developers/use cases.

Prayer Times API

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