A More Advanced Athan Automation in Home Assistant

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Info

This is a follow-up to my original Athan / Adhan Prayer Time Notifications on Google Home via Home Assistant post from 2018. That post covers the basic REST sensor and a single automation to play the Athan. This one covers everything I’ve built on top of it since.

My original Athan automation was a REST sensor, a handful of template sensors, and one automation to play a sound file. It worked, but it was fragile and did exactly one thing.

The Home Assistant Athan automation I run now is a lot more capable: it lives in its own package, handles Ramadan differently to the rest of the year, dims the lights and speaker for Fajr specifically, speaks a reminder before each prayer, and reverts the room to how it was once the Athan finishes. Here’s how it’s put together.

TL;DR: prayer times and Hijri date come from the Al Adhan API, a set of “N minutes before” template sensors drive a spoken reminder, the Athan playback automation snapshots and restores a scene around itself, a quiet_mode toggle gates every announcement in the house (not just this one), and Ramadan gets its own extra automation.

The sensors, now in a package Link to heading

Everything below lives in a single package file (packages/prayertimes.yaml) rather than scattered across the main configuration. Home Assistant packages let you group a feature’s sensors, templates, scripts and automations together instead of splitting them across configuration.yaml, automations.yaml and templates.yaml by type, which is how the 2018 version was organised.

rest:
 # <- latitude/longitude below are placeholders - use your own, e.g. from Google Maps ->
 - resource: "https://api.aladhan.com/v1/timings?latitude=<YOUR_LATITUDE>&longitude=<YOUR_LONGITUDE>&method=3"
 scan_interval: 86400
 sensor:
 - name: "Fajr"
 value_template: "{{ today_at(value_json.data.timings.Fajr) }}"
 device_class: timestamp
 - name: "Dhuhr"
 value_template: "{{ today_at(value_json.data.timings.Dhuhr) }}"
 device_class: timestamp
 - name: "Asr"
 value_template: "{{ today_at(value_json.data.timings.Asr) }}"
 device_class: timestamp
 - name: "Maghrib"
 value_template: "{{ today_at(value_json.data.timings.Maghrib) }}"
 device_class: timestamp
 - name: "Isha"
 value_template: "{{ today_at(value_json.data.timings.Isha) }}"
 device_class: timestamp

 - resource_template: "https://api.aladhan.com/v1/gToH/{{ now().strftime('%d-%m-%Y') }}"
 scan_interval: 86400
 sensor:
 - name: "Hijri Month"
 unique_id: hijri_month
 value_template: "{{ value_json.data.hijri.month.number | int }}"

Two changes from the 2018 version worth calling out:

I’ve switched from platform: rest sensors under a top-level sensor: list to the modern rest: integration, which lets you define several sensors off one resource in a single block.
Rather than parsing the raw HH:MM string with timestamp_custom on a second template sensor, I pass it straight into Home Assistant’s today_at() template function. It returns a proper timezone-aware timestamp for today at that local time, which device_class: timestamp needs, and Home Assistant’s own timezone handling takes care of GMT/BST for free. No manual UTC conversion required.

Pick whichever calculation method matches your local mosque or community’s convention; Al Adhan supports several.

“N minutes before” template sensors Link to heading

These feed the spoken reminder automation further down. One per prayer, all following the same pattern:

template:
 - sensor:
 - name: "Fajr 10 Min Before"
 unique_id: fajr_10_min_before
 device_class: timestamp
 state: "{{ (as_datetime(states('sensor.fajr')) - timedelta(minutes=10)).isoformat() }}"
 - name: "Dhuhr 10 Min Before"
 unique_id: dhuhr_10_min_before
 device_class: timestamp
 state: "{{ (as_datetime(states('sensor.dhuhr')) - timedelta(minutes=10)).isoformat() }}"
 - name: "Asr 10 Min Before"
 unique_id: asr_10_min_before
 device_class: timestamp
 state: "{{ (as_datetime(states('sensor.asr')) - timedelta(minutes=10)).isoformat() }}"
 - name: "Maghrib 10 Min Before"
 unique_id: maghrib_10_min_before
 device_class: timestamp
 state: "{{ (as_datetime(states('sensor.maghrib')) - timedelta(minutes=10)).isoformat() }}"
 - name: "Isha 10 Min Before"
 unique_id: isha_10_min_before
 device_class: timestamp
 state: "{{ (as_datetime(states('sensor.isha')) - timedelta(minutes=10)).isoformat() }}"

Ramadan detection Link to heading

The Hijri month sensor from earlier drives a simple binary sensor:

template:
 - binary_sensor:
 - name: "Ramadan"
 unique_id: is_ramadan
 state: "{{ states('sensor.hijri_month') | int == 9 }}"

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Hijri calendar, so this flips on and off automatically without me touching a calendar or a date range every year. It gates the Maghrib livestream automation near the end of this post.

The Athan automation Link to heading

This is the core of it, and the part that’s changed the most since 2018.

automation:
 - alias: "Prayer - Athan"
 initial_state: true
 trigger:
 - platform: time
 at:
 - sensor.fajr
 - sensor.dhuhr
 - sensor.asr
 - sensor.maghrib
 - sensor.isha
 condition:
 - condition: state
 entity_id: input_boolean.quiet_mode
 state: "off"
 action:
 - service: scene.create
 data:
 scene_id: before
 snapshot_entities:
 - media_player.living_room_speaker
 - light.upstairs_corridor_air_freshener_light
 - light.living_room_air_freshener_light
 - choose:
 - conditions:
 - condition: time
 after: "00:00:00"
 before: "09:00:00"
 sequence:
 - service: media_player.volume_set
 target:
 entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
 data:
 volume_level: 0.25
 default:
 - service: media_player.volume_set
 target:
 entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
 data:
 volume_level: 0.50
 - service: light.turn_on
 target:
 entity_id:
 - light.upstairs_corridor_air_freshener_light
 - light.living_room_air_freshener_light
 data:
 rgb_color: [0, 255, 0]
 brightness_pct: 100
 - choose:
 - conditions:
 - condition: time
 after: "00:00:00"
 before: "09:00:00"
 sequence:
 - service: media_player.play_media
 target:
 entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
 data:
 media_content_id: https://s3.intahnet.co.uk/athan/fajr.mp3
 media_content_type: audio/mp3
 default:
 - service: media_player.play_media
 target:
 entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
 data:
 media_content_id: https://s3.intahnet.co.uk/athan/normal.mp3
 media_content_type: audio/mp3
 - delay: 5
 - wait_template: "{{ is_state('media_player.living_room_speaker', 'idle') }}"
 - delay: 5
 - service: scene.turn_on
 data:
 entity_id: scene.before

A few things worth explaining:

Scene snapshot and restore. Before doing anything, it captures the speaker and air freshener lights into a scene.before, then restores that scene once the Athan finishes playing. Whatever state the room was in beforehand, it goes back to it, rather than leaving the volume or lights wherever the automation last set them.
Different volume and audio for Fajr. Between midnight and 9am, the speaker plays quieter and the Fajr-specific audio file is used instead of the normal one. Traditionally the Fajr Athan includes an extra phrase not present in the others, so it genuinely needs a different recording, not just a lower volume.
The air freshener is real now. In the 2018 post I mentioned, half as a joke, that I might switch on an Ambi Pur air freshener plugged into a smart socket during the Athan. It’s now a proper part of the automation, turned on green at full brightness alongside the speaker.
Self-hosted audio. Both .mp3 files are served from my own S3-compatible storage rather than a public link, so they’re never at the mercy of a third-party host disappearing.
The wait_template. Rather than guessing how long the recording takes, the automation waits for the speaker to report idle before restoring the scene, so it works regardless of which prayer (and therefore which recording length) triggered it.

Quiet mode Link to heading

The condition on the automation above checks input_boolean.quiet_mode, a toggle that mutes every non-critical announcement in the house, not just the Athan. I built two reusable scripts around it so any future automation can respect the same toggle without duplicating the check:

script:
 conditional_announcement:
 alias: "Conditional Announcement"
 mode: queued
 max: 10
 fields:
 entity_id:
 required: true
 media_content_id:
 required: true
 media_content_type:
 default: "audio/mp3"
 volume_level:
 default: 0.5
 sequence:
 - choose:
 - conditions:
 - condition: state
 entity_id: input_boolean.quiet_mode
 state: "off"
 sequence:
 - service: media_player.volume_set
 target:
 entity_id: "{{ entity_id }}"
 data:
 volume_level: "{{ volume_level }}"
 - service: media_player.play_media
 target:
 entity_id: "{{ entity_id }}"
 data:
 media_content_id: "{{ media_content_id }}"
 media_content_type: "{{ media_content_type }}"

 conditional_tts:
 alias: "Conditional TTS Announcement"
 mode: queued
 max: 10
 fields:
 entity_id:
 required: true
 message:
 required: true
 sequence:
 - choose:
 - conditions:
 - condition: state
 entity_id: input_boolean.quiet_mode
 state: "off"
 sequence:
 - service: tts.speak
 target:
 entity_id: tts.home_assistant_cloud
 data:
 media_player_entity_id: "{{ entity_id }}"
 message: "{{ message }}"

Deliberately, quiet mode never touches the alarm system. It’s for voice reminders and ambient sounds, not security.

A spoken reminder before each prayer Link to heading

Ten minutes before each prayer, an automation triggers off the “N minutes before” sensors from earlier and speaks a short reminder through the living room speaker:

automation:
 - alias: "Prayer - Notify Before Prayer"
 initial_state: true
 trigger:
 - platform: time
 at: sensor.fajr_10_min_before
 - platform: time
 at: sensor.dhuhr_10_min_before
 - platform: time
 at: sensor.asr_10_min_before
 - platform: time
 at: sensor.maghrib_10_min_before
 - platform: time
 at: sensor.isha_10_min_before
 action:
 - variables:
 prayer_name: >
 {% set map = {
 'sensor.fajr_10_min_before': 'Fajr',
 'sensor.dhuhr_10_min_before': 'Dhuhr',
 'sensor.asr_10_min_before': 'Asr',
 'sensor.maghrib_10_min_before': 'Maghrib',
 'sensor.isha_10_min_before': 'Isha'
 } %}
 {{ map[trigger.entity_id] }}
 - service: conversation.process
 data:
 agent_id: conversation.notification_agent
 text: >-
 Prayer time reminder. Prayer name: {{ prayer_name }}.
 Notify that there are 10 minutes until {{ prayer_name }} prayer. Keep it concise and friendly.
 response_variable: agent
 - service: script.conditional_tts
 data:
 entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
 message: "{{ agent.response.speech.plain.speech }}"

The conversation.process call is optional and needs its own conversation agent configured (conversation.notification_agent here is whatever LLM-backed conversation agent you’ve set up in Home Assistant). If you’d rather skip that entirely, replace the conversation.process and response_variable steps with a plain string, for example message: "{{ prayer_name }} prayer is in 10 minutes.", and call script.conditional_tts directly. Either way, it still respects quiet mode through the script.

Ramadan: casting the Maghrib stream Link to heading

One automation only runs during Ramadan, using the binary sensor from earlier:

automation:
 - alias: "Prayer - Cast Stream Before Maghrib"
 initial_state: true
 trigger:
 - platform: time
 at: sensor.maghrib_10_min_before
 condition:
 - condition: state
 entity_id: binary_sensor.ramadan
 state: "on"
 action:
 - service: media_player.play_media
 target:
 entity_id: media_player.living_room_chromecast
 data:
 # <- placeholder - use your own mosque or community's livestream URL ->
 media_content_id: "<YOUR_MOSQUE_OR_COMMUNITY_LIVESTREAM_URL>"
 media_content_type: "video"

Ten minutes before Maghrib during Ramadan, it casts a livestream to the living room Chromecast, so it’s already up before the Athan plays and the fast breaks. I usually point it at Islam Channel or Eman Channel; they’ll often have Dua and dhikr with speakers like Mufti Menk in the run-up to Maghrib, which sets a different atmosphere for the month, even if I could do without the food adverts squeezed in right before iftar. Outside Ramadan, the binary_sensor.ramadan condition keeps this automation from firing at all.

Refreshing the sensors daily Link to heading

One more small piece: the prayer time and Hijri sensors are pulled once a day by their scan_interval, but I also force a refresh at midnight so nothing’s left showing yesterday’s times if a fetch was ever missed:

automation:
 - alias: "Prayer - Refresh Prayer Times"
 initial_state: true
 trigger:
 - platform: time
 at: "00:00:00"
 action:
 - service: homeassistant.update_entity
 target:
 entity_id:
 - sensor.fajr
 - sensor.dhuhr
 - sensor.asr
 - sensor.maghrib
 - sensor.isha
 - sensor.hijri_month

Where this leaves it Link to heading

None of this was built in one sitting. Each piece got added when the previous version annoyed me in some specific way: the scene restore because I kept finding the volume left low after Fajr, quiet mode because a work call interrupted by a full-volume Athan is not a good look, the Fajr-specific audio and dimmer volume because 5am at full volume through the living room speaker wakes up more of the house than intended.

If you’re starting from my 2018 post, the sensors and the core play_media call are still the same idea. Everything else here is what accumulated around it once the basic version was working reliably enough to stop thinking about.

Ramadan on Hamzah Khan — DevOps Engineer & Tech Blog

A More Advanced Athan Automation in Home Assistant

The sensors, now in a package Link to heading

“N minutes before” template sensors Link to heading

Ramadan detection Link to heading

The Athan automation Link to heading

Quiet mode Link to heading

A spoken reminder before each prayer Link to heading

Ramadan: casting the Maghrib stream Link to heading

Refreshing the sensors daily Link to heading

Where this leaves it Link to heading