Injunctions and related considerations regarding Qiblah QURAN AL FAJR: “And We did not appoint the Qiblah which you used to observe except to know him who follows the Messenger as distinct from him who turns on his heels. And, it was burdensome indeed, but not on those whom Allah guided. And Allah is not to let your faith go waste. Certainly Allah is very kind, very merciful to the people”. (Verse 143) THE QURAN ILLUSTRATED 16TH JANUARY 2014 Injunctions and related considerations regarding Qiblah As we have explained earlier, Allah is not confined to any direction or dimension - . Say: the East and the West both belong to Allah. (2:115) But in order to institute a communal unity among the Muslims scattered all over the world, Divine Wisdom thought fit to assign them a particular and definite orientation which could serve as a visible symbol of that unity. Now, this orientation could have as easily been provided by the Baytul-Maqdis. But the Kabah was finally chosen as the Qiblah in accordance with the wish of the Holy Prophet (saw), and the injunction was announced in the present verse. The situation required that the Holy Qur’an should use the phrase: Turn your face toward the Kabah, or toward the Baytullah. But we actually find the Holy Qur’an saying: Turn your face in the direction of Al-Masjid al-Haram. This particular mode of expression helps to clarify several important questions with regard to the Qiblah.Although, the Qiblah, to be precise, is the Baytullah, which is known as the Kabah, yet it is obvious that one can turn exactly towards the Baytullah only so long as one can see it with ones own eyes, and that for those who live at some distance and cannot see it directly, it would be too rigorous an obligation to fulfil, if they were required to turn exactly towards the Baytullah - in the case of distant towns, an exact orientation would be difficult and uncertain even with the help of the instruments and calculations. But the Islamic Shariah always aims at making things easy for people. So, the Holy Quran has designated as the Qiblah, not the Baytullah or the Kabah, but Al-Masjid al-Haram which covers a much wider area, and in the direction of which it is easy to turn even for those who live in far off places. Then, a greater facility has been provided by the use of the word Shatr. This Arabic word signifies the half of a thing, or the direction in which a thing lies. According to the consensus of the commentators, here the word has been used in the second sense. So, the word itself points to the rule that in the case of places which are far from Makkah it is not even necessary for the prayers to be valid that one should turn exactly towards Al-Masjid al-Haram - for, it is quite sufficient to turn only in the direction of the Sacred Mosque, as the Holy Qur’ān itself has indicated. (Al. Bahr al Muhit).Let us give an example to make the rule as clear as possible. For countries which lie to the East of Makkah (e.g. Pakistan or India), the direction of Al-Masjid al-Haram means the West. So, if one turns towards the West, ones prayers would be valid enough. Since the point at which the sun sets in the summer is different from that where it sets in the winter, the Fuqaha (the Muslim jurists) have decided that for the purposes of Salah in such countries, the West (the direction of the Qiblah in this case) lies in between these two points. In mathematical terminology it means that an area covering 48 degrees between these two points is to be taken as being the direction of the Qiblah. That is to say, even if one inclines 24 degrees to the right or to the left of the point at which AI-Masjid al-Haran is situated, one would still be considered to be praying in the right direction, and ones prayers would be quite valid. (For details, see Sharh al-Chaghmini, ch. IV)This discussion should be enough to expose the ignorance and muddle-headedness of those who, finding a slight deviation of two or three degrees in the orientation of some mosques in Pakistan and India, have pronounced the prayers offered in these mosques to be null and void. Such baseless opinions only betray the desire on their part to produce confusion and bickering among the Muslims. Let us not forget that the Islamic Shari’ah is meant for all men and for all the countries of the world, and will last till the Day of Judgment. Hence, the injunctions of the Shariah pertaining to all the spheres of human life have been made easy to practise, so that Muslims living in far-flung hamlets, mountains, forests or islands may act upon them only on the basis of their own observation and experience, without needing the help of scientific instruments or mathematical calculations. Thus, people living to the East of Makkah may take an area covering 48 degrees as their Qiblah - a deviation of five or ten degrees would not affect the validity of their prayers in any way. This has been made quite clear by a Hadith reported by al-Tirmidhi from the blessed Companion Abū Hurayrah (RA), which says: “The Qiblah lies between the East and the West. This hadith is actually addressed to the people of Madinah whose Qiblah lies, to be precise, in the direction of the South somewhere between the East and the West, but, in effect, the Hadith provides an explanation of the phrase in the direction of Al-Masjid al-Haram. This is the general principle; one should, however, make an effort to ensure, in laying down the foundation of a mosque that the orientation towards the Baytullah is as exact as possible. The successors of the Blessed Companions and the generations following them had adopted a very simple method for determining the correct orientation: If there was a mosque built by the blessed Companions present in a town, the neighbouring mosques were given the same orientation, and these in their turn used to serve as the models for the mosques in the villages or towns in the region concerned, thus setting up a chain which went on prolonging itself. Consequently, the method of determining the Qiblah in places far off from Makkah has always been this: If an old mosque is present in the vicinity, the new mosques should conform to its orientation, for in so many towns it is the blessed Companions themselves or their successors who have built mosques and determined their orientation which has been followed by later generations.To conclude, the mosques which have so far been built are quite sufficient for the purpose of determining the orientation, and it is not proper to raise unnecessary objections and doubts in this respect – the Shari’ah actually disapproves of such attempts at leading Muslims into perplexity. For, such a perplexity may sometimes have the consequence of making people suspect that in so far as the blessed Companions, their successors or the generality of Muslims have not been able to determine a mathematically correct orientation; their prayers have not been valid. Such a thought is not only false, but also betrays the insolence of the man who can harbour it. It is in view of this that Ibn Rajab, the famous Hanbali scholar of the 8th century A.H., disapproves of the use of astronomical instruments and complex mathematical calculations for the purpose of fixing the orientation. He writes:As for the science of astronomy, it is legitimate, according to the Ulama in general, to acquire it for its being helpful in determining the Qiblah or in finding ones way in a journey or the directions of the roads. A greater knowledge than this is not at all necessary (according to the Shari’ah) for that may lead one to neglect more important things, and an indulgence in complex calculations may sometimes produce vile doubts about the mosques of Muslims in their towns - a weakness to which the amateurs of such sciences are all too prone. It may even lead one to believe that the prayers of the blessed Companions and their successors in certain towns had been invalid - a belief which is totally false. For this reason, Imam Abmad ibn Hanbal has forbidden the Pole-Star to be taken into consideration for determining the orientation, on the ground that the hadith says no more than that the Qiblah lies between the East and the West. As for deserted regions, forests or new settlements, etc. where no earlier mosques are to be found, the Shari’ah lays down this rule on the basis of the practice of the blessed Companions and their successors: in such places one should arrive at an approximate determination of the Qiblah with the help of the Sun, the Moon and Pole-Star, these being the phenomena with which everyone is familiar enough; and if one still suspects some slight deviation, one should ignore it. For, according to al-Badai, the authoritative work on Islamic jurisprudence, in places far off from Makkah, an approximately correct orientation, chosen on the basis of such general indications, stands for the Kabah, and all the injunctions pertaining to the Qiblah apply to the orientation selected in this manner. The Shari’ah provides many illustrations of the basic principle involved here. For example, sleep is taken to stand for the passing of wind, and invalidates the Wudu (the prescribed ablution); or, a journey is taken to represent hardship, even when an actual journey does not involve it, and a man who is in the course of any kind of a journey is given all the concessions allowed by the Shari’ah to a traveller. The principle requires that an orientation determined on the basis of general and familiar indications should be accepted as the Qiblah. The great scholar known as Allamah Bahr al-Ulum lays down the rule thus in his Rasail al -Arkan: “The only condition necessary to be fulfilled in turning towards the Qiblah is that the man offering his prayers should be duly convinced that his face is turned in the direction of the Kabah. The Shariah does not compel us to adopt exactly the orientation which can be obtained only with the help of astronomical instruments. So the Ulama in general have come to the conclusion that a deviation invalidates the prayers only when the difference is as great as between the East and the West.Those interested in a detailed discussion of the subject may consult my book in Urdu, Simt-e-Qiblah.( Source Maarif al Quran ,Vol.1,pp-384-388)
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 05:32:48 +0000
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