A NEW app downloaded by thousands of Muslims across the world was developed in Blackburn.

Masjid Times allows people to view actual mosque prayer times and directions to their nearest place of worship.

The app is the brainchild of a Blackburn man who came up with the idea after he realised that over 90 per cent of mosques only had their prayer scheduled available in paper format.

The developer did not wish to be named as he did not wish to take credit for something he felt was a religious obligation on his part.

He told us: “It was at this point that I thought I should create an app than would enable users to view their mosque prayer times hence I called my app Masjid Times.

“Over time, new features were implemented like directions to nearest mosques based on your location, contact numbers and directions to pray.

“Multi-faith rooms in airports, shopping centres and hospitals were also added bringing the total to over 600 places of worship added on the app. After months of development and rigorous testing the app was approved by Apple and went live onto the stores.”

Users can view actual mosque prayer times, view and get directions to their nearest mosques and view the direction to Makkah all in one app. The Qiblah direction is built in, which gives a precise direction in which to pray and even works without internet connection.

He said: “Since the beginning, my intentions were that even if only one person benefits from the app then all my time, effort and savings that’s gone behind this project, it’s all worth it.

"Before going to bed I sent out a message to friends and family to share.

“The next morning I checked my app and we were ranked seventh in the world under the reference category on the app store and I had hundreds of emails from users saying what a fantastic app I have created. I still cannot comprehend how all this happened overnight.”

He said he was overwhelmed by the support he had received since the launch and wanted to inspire others to follow their dreams, adding: “My lesson learnt from all this is, keep yourself humble. Don’t let anything put you down and remember that in the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity.”