Qibla

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Facing the Qibla at a prayer in Damascus

Qibla (قبلة) is an Arabic word for the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays. Most mosques contain a niche in a wall that indicates the qibla.

The qibla has importance to more than just the salat, and plays an important part in everyday ceremonies. The head of an animal that is slaughtered using Halal methods is aligned with the qibla. After death, Muslims are buried with their faces in the direction of the qibla. Thus, Islamic archeology can identify a Muslim necropolis if no other signs are present.

1 History of the qibla
2 Dispute about the direction of the qibla
3 Future questions
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History of the qibla

At one point the direction of the qibla was toward Bayt al-Maqdis, Jerusalem (and it is therefore called the First of the Two Qiblas), however, this only lasted for seventeen months, after which the qibla became oriented towards the Kaaba in Mecca. According to accounts from Muhammad's companions, the change happened very suddenly during the noon prayer in Medina. Muhammad was leading the prayer when he received a revelation from Allah instructing him to take the Kaaba as the qibla (literally, "turn your face towards the Masjid al Haram"). According to the historical accounts, Muhammad, who had been facing Jerusalem, upon receiving this revelation, immediately turned around to face Mecca, and those praying behind him also did so.

The qibla, for any point of reference on the Earth, is the direction of the Kaaba. Some Muslims from North America determine this direction using a rhumb line, while most Muslims worldwide use a great circle. In Muslim religious practice, supplicants must face this direction in prayer. Muslims do not worship the Kaaba or its contents; the Kaaba is simply a focal point for prayer.

In ancient times, Muslims traveling abroad used an astrolabe to find the qibla.

[edit] Dispute about the direction of the qibla

The geometrical calculation of Qibla

In the last 1000 years, several Muslim mathematicians and astronomers, such as al-Biruni, have discussed the correct way of determining the qibla direction from any point on the Earth's surface. All of them agree that at the two moments in each year when the Sun is directly overhead the Kaaba, the direction of shadows in any sunlit place will point directly away from the qibla. This happens on May 28 at 9:18 GMT and on July 16 at 9:27 GMT.

Of course, at any time, only half of the globe is sunlit. Fortunately, there are two moments in each year when the Sun is directly over the antipodes of the Kaaba. At that time, the direction of shadows in any sunlit place will point directly towards the qibla. This happens on November 28 at 21:09 GMT and January 16 at 21:29 GMT.

Because the Earth is almost a sphere, this is almost the same as saying that the qibla from a place is the direction in which a bird would start flying in order to get to the Kaaba by the shortest possible way.

In recent years, some Muslims from North America have argued that the traditional rule is nonsensical, because it leads to apparently absurd results. A Muslim praying from Alaska, they say, should pray almost due North if determining the qibla according to the traditional rule, because a plane going directly from Alaska to Mecca would take that route. Now, anybody who sees a Mercator projection map of the world can see plainly that Mecca is not North of Alaska, but rather to the southeast (or the southwest, depending on the map used). Therefore the "shortest travel distance" rule traditionally used in the old world makes no sense for North Americans.

These Muslims claim that the only correct way of determining the true qibla from a place is drawing a line from that place to Mecca in a Mercator projection map and that the fact that this line is not the shortest possible line has no relevance whatsoever to the matter.

The Muslim communities in North America are currently divided by the dispute: some of them pray to the Northeast according to the traditional doctrine, and some to the Southeast, according to the Mercator doctrine.

This dispute is far from trivial, because the fact that all Muslims pray towards the Kaaba is traditionally considered to be symbol of the unity of all Muslims worldwide under the law of God.

Most qibla calculating programs just use the traditional method and don't even mention the Mercator map method.

[edit] Future questions

In April of 2006, Angkasa, the Malaysian space agency, sponsored a conference of scientists and religious scholars to address the issue of how the qibla should be determined when one is in orbit; this is not merely a hypothetical question, since the Russian Federal Space Agency will be taking a Malaysian astronaut into orbit in 2007, and it is highly likely that this astronaut will be Muslim.