The last third of the night is the time most often recommended for tahajjud, the voluntary night prayer, and for supplication. The reason is a hadith reported in both Sahih al-Bukhari (1145) and Sahih Muslim (758): the Prophet ﷺ said that our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, and says, "Who is calling upon Me, that I may answer him? Who is asking of Me, that I may give him? Who is seeking My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?"
What the hadith does not give is a clock time, and that is deliberate: a third of the night is a proportion, so it moves with the season and with latitude. People who assume it means "from about 3 a.m." are right in some places for part of the year and badly wrong in others. The arithmetic is simple once you decide what "the night" is, and that decision turns out to matter more than anything else.
What counts as the night
To divide the night into thirds you need its two ends. The start is agreed: sunset, which is the beginning of Maghrib. The end is where reckonings differ.
The common view, and the one used by most scholars when they speak of the night for Isha and night prayer, ends it at true dawn — the start of Fajr. That is also how the middle of the night is reckoned for the preferred end of Isha, as measured in when does each prayer's time end. A second reckoning, found in some timetables and discussions, runs the night from sunset to sunrise instead. Neither is a modern invention, and the difference is not trivial: the second night is longer by the whole Fajr window, so its last third begins later.
- Step 1. Take tonight's Maghrib time and tomorrow's Fajr time, and find the length of the night between them.
- Step 2. Divide that length by three.
- Step 3. Subtract one third from Fajr (or add two thirds to Maghrib). That is when the last third begins; it ends at Fajr.
The measured times
We computed the start of the last third, its length and the middle of the night for seven cities on the evenings of the March equinox and both solstices of 2026, using the adhan library with Muslim World League angles — the same calculation behind our prayer times page. Night here is Maghrib to Fajr; times are local clock time, summer time included.
| City | 20 March | 21 June | 21 December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Makkah | 01:37 (3h 33m) | 01:11 (3h 03m) | 01:38 (3h 57m) |
| Jakarta | 01:13 (3h 35m) | 01:07 (3h 40m) | 00:55 (3h 25m) |
| Istanbul | 02:08 (3h 26m) | 01:09 (2h 15m) | 02:24 (4h 23m) |
| New York | 02:00 (3h 26m) | 01:03 (2h 16m) | 01:16 (4h 22m) |
| London | 00:49 (3h 18m) | 23:48 (1h 13m) | 01:17 (4h 42m) |
| Sydney | 02:05 (3h 29m) | 01:18 (4h 12m) | 01:19 (2h 37m) |
| Stockholm | 00:16 (3h 07m) | 23:56 (0h 54m) | 00:57 (5h 05m) |
| City | 20 March | 21 June | 21 December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Makkah | 23:51 | 23:40 | 23:39 |
| Jakarta | 23:25 | 23:17 | 23:12 |
| Istanbul | 00:25 | 00:02 | 00:13 |
| New York | 00:17 | 23:55 | 23:05 |
| London | 23:10 | 23:12 | 22:56 |
| Sydney | 00:21 | 23:12 | 00:01 |
| Stockholm | 22:43 | 23:29 | 22:25 |
What the numbers show
Near the equator the answer barely moves. Jakarta's last third starts between 00:55 and 01:13 at all three dates and always lasts around three and a half hours; Makkah is nearly as steady. For most of the Muslim world, "from about one in the morning" is a fair rule of thumb.
Further from the equator the proportion does real work. Istanbul's last third is 4h 23m long in December and 2h 15m in June. In London it ranges from 4h 42m in December to 1h 13m in June, and in Stockholm from 5h 05m to 54 minutes. Sydney shows the same effect in reverse, because its summer is in December.
The start time, perhaps surprisingly, varies less than the length: in all seven cities it stays between about a quarter to midnight and half past two. What changes is how long you have before Fajr. That is the practical fact behind the June problem described in why you keep missing Fajr — the whole night is compressed, and every part of it is short.
London in June: when Fajr itself is a convention
The London and Stockholm June rows deserve a caution. At 51.5° north the sun never sinks 18° below the horizon in midsummer, so the twilight that defines Fajr and Isha never ends. Every calculator therefore substitutes a high-latitude rule, and the Muslim World League default — the middle of the night — places both Isha and Fajr at the same moment, 01:02 in London. The last third, measured to that Fajr, runs from 23:48 to 01:02: it begins before Isha by this reckoning, which shows how artificial the result is.
Other conventions move the answer substantially. The table shows London on the night of 21 June 2026 under four reckonings. None of them is the one true answer; they are the choices a community or a scholar makes when the sky does not provide one. If you live at this latitude, follow the timetable your mosque uses, and treat the last third as a window within your own night rather than a precise minute.
| Reckoning | Night ends | Last third begins | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| MWL, middle-of-the-night rule | 01:02 | 23:48 | 1h 13m |
| MWL, twilight-angle rule | 02:31 | 00:48 | 1h 43m |
| MWL, one-seventh rule | 03:40 | 01:34 | 2h 06m |
| Sunset to sunrise | 04:43 | 02:16 | 2h 27m |
If you cannot wake for it
The last third is the most recommended time for night prayer, not a condition of it. Any prayer offered after Isha and before Fajr is night prayer, and the Prophet ﷺ is reported in Sahih Muslim as saying that whoever fears he will not get up at the end of the night should pray witr at its beginning, while whoever expects to rise should pray witr at its end, because prayer at the end of the night is witnessed and is better. Abu Hurayra reported being advised to pray witr before sleeping, and it is widely followed for exactly this reason.
So the practical order is: if you reliably wake before Fajr, pray tahajjud in the last third and close with witr. If you do not, pray witr after Isha before sleeping; should you wake after all, you may still pray two rak'ahs at a time, and most scholars hold that witr is not repeated. Supplication in the last third needs no prayer at all — a few minutes of dua before the Fajr alarm is inside the time. Even a short stretch counts: the descent is described for the whole of the last third, not for a single moment within it.
A realistic plan uses the table above. In winter at mid-latitudes there are four hours or more, and rising forty minutes before Fajr is comfortably inside it. In a northern summer the window can be shorter than your sleep cycle, and praying witr before bed is the honest solution rather than a second-best one.
Common questions
- How do I calculate the last third of the night?
- Take the time from Maghrib to the next Fajr, divide it by three, and subtract that from Fajr. In Istanbul on 21 December 2026 that gives a night of 13h 08m and a last third from 02:24 to 06:47.
- Is the last third of the night always after 3 a.m.?
- No. In our seven cities it began between about 23:48 and 02:24 in 2026. In Jakarta it starts around 01:00 all year; in London it ranged from 23:48 in June to 01:17 in December.
- Is the night measured to Fajr or to sunrise?
- The common view ends it at true dawn, the start of Fajr. Some reckon it to sunrise, which makes the night longer and the last third start later — in London on 21 June 2026, 02:16 instead of 23:48.
- Can I pray tahajjud before the last third?
- Yes. Night prayer is valid any time after Isha until Fajr; the last third is the most recommended part, not the only one. If you may not wake, pray witr before sleeping.