A Rawdah appointment is booked in the Nusuk app, one permit per person, and on the scheduled route it can be issued only once every 365 days. Men and women enter at different hours of the day.
Most guides show you which buttons to press. The part that decides whether you actually pray in the Rawdah is choosing the right booking route for your situation — there are three, not one — and checking the hours against your itinerary before you pay for the trip.
Once per 365 days
Entry · Gate 37 courtyards
Al-Rawdah Al-Sharifah is the area between the Prophet’s ﷺ house and his pulpit, of which he said, “Between my house and my pulpit there is a garden of the gardens of Paradise” (Sahih al-Bukhari 1196). Because the space is small and the number of visitors is very large, the General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques manages entry by appointment through Nusuk. The permit is issued at no charge and the booking takes about three minutes. Getting a slot you can actually use takes a little planning, and that is what most of this guide is about. If you are still choosing dates and hotels, the number of nights you have in Madinah is the variable that matters most — our Umrah departures page shows which programmes start in Madinah.
Three Ways In, Not One
Almost every article about the Rawdah describes a single process: book a permit, get a slot, go. In fact the Nusuk platform offers three routes, and they have different rules. The Saudi Press Agency announced the two additional methods alongside the original scheduled permit:
| Route | How it works | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled permit | Book a date and time window in advance in the Nusuk app | Valid once every 365 days per person |
| Instant booking | Book when you are already near the Prophet’s Mosque; the platform allows “multiple visits to Al-Rawdah Al-Sharifah throughout the year, as long as they are near the Prophet’s Mosque and within its capacity limits” | Subject to capacity at that moment |
| Waitlist | Register when no slots are showing; “visitors can register if bookings are unavailable and will be notified when a slot becomes available to confirm their reservation” | Notification only — not a guarantee |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
This changes the advice in one important way. If you have already used your 365-day permit — on a previous Umrah, or earlier in the same year — you have not lost your chance. Once you are in Madinah, open the app and try instant booking, and put yourself on the waitlist. Conversely, if this is your one trip of the year, use the scheduled permit rather than gambling on capacity.
Booking the Scheduled Permit, Step by Step
The Nusuk app is available on the App Store and Google Play. You will need your passport details, and the account you create is the same one used for Umrah permits — so if you have already issued an Umrah permit, you are logged in. Do this at home. Creating an account on hotel wifi at 11:00 pm, with an SMS code going to a phone that is not roaming, is the single most avoidable problem in this whole process.
The permit you need is the Rawdah prayer permit — a separate service from the Umrah permit and from the visit permit. In the services list it is the one described as booking an appointment to visit the Prophet’s Mosque’s Rawdah in order to pray there.
The app will only offer you windows that apply to you, but it will happily offer a 2:00 am slot to a man and a 5:20 am slot to a woman. Before you tap, check the slot against where you will physically be at that hour — in the hotel, on a coach, or at the airport. The hours are in the next section.
There is no family permit. A husband and wife travelling together need two permits, for two different time windows, and a teenager with their own passport needs their own. Add each person as a companion in the app or log in to each account. Families discover this at the gate more often than anywhere else.
Screenshot it or download it. The courtyards around the Prophet’s Mosque hold enormous numbers of people and mobile data there is unreliable at exactly the moment you need to show a QR code.
Not the nearest door to your hotel. Entry for the visit is managed through a specific set of courtyards — see “On the day” below. Allow thirty to forty-five minutes between joining the queue and reaching the Rawdah itself, and more on a Friday.
The Hours, for Men and Women
Men and women enter at different times, and the times are re-announced for Ramadan and for the Hajj season. These are the times the General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques announced on 24 May 2026 for the Hajj season:
| Who | Ordinary days | Fridays |
|---|---|---|
| Men | 2:00 am until Fajr; 11:20 am until Isha | 2:00 am until Fajr; 9:00 am until Isha |
| Women | After Fajr until 11:00 am; after Isha until 2:00 am | After Fajr until 9:00 am; after Isha until 2:00 am |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Read those two rows as an itinerary problem, not a timetable. The men’s daytime window is long and easy to fit around a group programme. The women’s windows both sit at the edges of the day: the hours after Fajr, or the hours after Isha. A programme with two nights in Madinah, a late arrival on the first night and a mid-morning departure on the last day leaves a woman with roughly one usable window in the entire stay — and if the group is at breakfast or loading luggage during it, none.
An earlier announcement, from December 2025, gave a slightly different Friday morning window for men and described the permit as “valid once every 365 days” — the difference is a reminder that these schedules are operational decisions that change. Always confirm in the app for your own dates rather than from any article, including this one.
On the Day: Where to Go
The December 2025 announcement is specific about the entrance: entry for the visit “is strictly managed through the southern courtyards in front of Makkah Gate 37.” Go there, not to whichever gate your hotel faces. Gates at the Prophet’s Mosque are numbered and lit, and finding Gate 37 is much easier than finding a described landmark in a courtyard holding tens of thousands of people.
Once inside, the pace is managed. You will move with a group, pray two rak’ah where there is room, and be guided onward — the space is small and the queue behind you is long. This is worth knowing in advance because pilgrims who expect a long private sitting often feel rushed and disappointed. Plan for a few minutes, not an hour, and make your dua before you go in.
Five Things That Go Wrong
- Booking one permit for the family. There is no family permit. Everyone with a passport needs their own, and spouses will be given different windows.
- Using the 365-day permit on a slot you cannot reach. Because the scheduled permit is once a year, a wasted slot is genuinely gone. Check the hour against your coach times before confirming.
- Waiting until you land. Slots for good windows go early, and the app needs a working phone number for verification. Book from home.
- Going to the wrong courtyard. Entry is through the southern courtyards in front of Makkah Gate 37. Arriving at another gate with fifteen minutes left on your slot usually means missing it.
- Assuming the operator has done it. Some groups book permits for their pilgrims and some do not. Ask directly, and ask by when. If the answer is vague, book it yourself: the permit is issued at no charge, and a missed 365-day slot cannot be replaced.
If You Do Not Get In
Nothing about your Umrah is affected. Praying in the Rawdah is a virtue that Muslims have sought for centuries, not a requirement of Umrah or of visiting Madinah, and there is no penalty, no missing rite and no need to make anything up. The reward of praying in the Prophet’s Mosque at all is itself the subject of the hadith, “One prayer in my Mosque is better than one thousand prayers in any other mosque excepting Al-Masjid-Al-Haram” (Sahih al-Bukhari 1190) — and that applies anywhere inside the mosque, at any hour, with no permit.
So if the app shows nothing, put yourself on the waitlist, try instant booking each day you are in Madinah, and spend the rest of your time praying in the mosque, sending salam at the Prophet’s ﷺ grave from the designated area, and sitting in the courtyards. In practice, the long quiet hours inside the mosque are what most visitors describe afterwards, and none of them require an appointment.
For the wider picture of a Madinah stay — where to stay, which gates, how far the central-area hotels really are — see our guide to Madinah hotels and the central area. If you are travelling as a woman without a mahram, the Rawdah hours are one of several things that change your planning; our women’s guide to Umrah collects the rest.
Enough nights in Madinah to actually use the hours
See our upcoming Umrah departures, how many nights each one gives you in Madinah, and which hotels are inside the central area.
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Common Questions
Does a Rawdah permit cost anything?
No. It is issued through the Nusuk app at no charge. Anyone asking you to pay for the permit itself is not booking it through Nusuk.
How often can I get a Rawdah permit?
The scheduled permit is valid once every 365 days per person. Two other routes exist: instant booking when you are already near the Prophet’s Mosque and within capacity, and a waitlist that notifies you when a slot opens.
Can I book one permit for my whole family?
No. Each traveller needs their own permit, and men and women are given different time windows, so a couple will not enter together.
Which gate do I use?
Entry for the visit is managed through the southern courtyards in front of Makkah Gate 37, according to the General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques.
What if there are no slots for my dates?
Join the waitlist, and try instant booking once you are in Madinah. Both are inside the Nusuk app.
Does missing the Rawdah affect my Umrah?
No. It is a virtue that many pilgrims hope for, not a rite of Umrah or of visiting Madinah. There is nothing to compensate for.
Rawdah times and permit rules are operational decisions by the Saudi authorities and are re-announced for Ramadan and the Hajj season. The times above are those announced in May 2026; confirm your own dates in the Nusuk app before you travel. This guide is general information, not a personal religious ruling. Last reviewed: September 2026.
Sources: Nusuk platform, Rawdah permit service · SPA, Rawdah visit times for the Hajj season (May 2026) · SPA, Rawdah visiting hours, permits and Gate 37 entry (December 2025) · SPA, two additional booking methods for the Rawdah · Bukhari 1196 · Bukhari 1190