CHANGING DIRECTION
The True Import
“The foolish will ask, ‘What has made them turn away from their direction of prayer which they used to face?’ Say, ‘The East and the West belong to God. He guides whom He pleases to the right path.’ Thus, We have made you a middle nation, so that you may act as witnesses for humankind, and the Messenger may be a witness for you. We decreed your former prayer direction towards which you used to face only in order that We might make a clear distinction between the Messenger’s true followers and those who were to turn their backs on him. This was indeed a hard test for all but those whom God has guided. God will never let your faith go to waste. God is compassionate and merciful to humankind.” (2: 142-143)
THE qiblah (present-day Kabah) is the direction Muslims face when they pray. This direction has to do with the form, rather than the spirit, of worship. A qiblah is appointed so that prayer may assume an organized pattern. God can change it as He pleases, for every direction faces Him. The direction that He lays down is the one that we should face in our prayer, whatever direction it may be.
The change of qiblah was a sign indicating that God had changed the course of history towards peace and reconciliation.
Before the advent of Islam, Jews offered their prayers facing towards Jerusalem. This old qiblah had come to be thought of as sacred and inviolable. In the second year after the Prophet’s emigration to Madinah, he was commanded to change the direction of prayer, and face Makkah instead of Jerusalem. Some people found this switch difficult to accept. How, they thought, could another place be the qiblah when Jerusalem had held this position since time immemorial? The Jews used the change of the qiblah as an excuse for spreading all sorts of rumours about the Prophet. Previous prophets have always faced Jerusalem in their prayer, they said. How is it that this prophet has gone against them? They inferred that the only purpose of his mission was to spite the Jews. Some poured scorn on Muhammad’s claim to prophethood. “He seems to be in two minds about his own mission”, they said. “Sometimes he faces Jerusalem, sometimes Makkah.” Others said: “Well, if the Kabah in Makkah is the real qiblah, then all the prayers which Muslims have made towards Jerusalem have been wasted.”
These were the sort of objections that Jews and hypocrites made. True believers, those who were not caught up in the externals of religion, did not let such things dishearten them. They realized that it is not the direction of prayer that really matters, it is God’s commandment. God can lay down any qiblah, whenever He likes. Whatever He prescribes should be followed. The commandment regarding the change of qiblah was revealed seventeen months after the Prophet’s emigration to Madinah. The Prophet was praying along with a group of his Companions at the time. As soon as God’s commandment became clear, all of them turned, as they were praying, from Jerusalem to Makkah—a 1600 turn from north-west to south.
The change of qiblah was a sign indicating that God had changed the course of history towards peace and reconciliation. Now, the Kabah would remain, until the end of time, a rallying-point for the call to divine religion, a centre for all true believers in God.
The true believers now had to communicate the word of God to their fellow human beings, just as the Prophet of God communicated it to them. This is what is meant by the word ‘middle nation’. In other words they were the connection between the Prophet and other people. This is a responsibility that is always incumbent upon the Muslim community. Their success, both in this world and the next, depends upon how they discharge this responsibility.
“We have frequently seen you turn your face towards heaven. So, We will make you turn in a direction for prayer that will please you. So, turn your face now towards the Sacred Mosque: and wherever you may be, turn your faces towards it. Those who were given the Book know this to be the truth from their Lord. God is not unaware of what they do.
But even if you should produce every kind of sign for those who have been given the Book, they would never accept your prayer direction, nor would you accept their prayer direction: nor would any of them accept one another’s direction. If, after all the knowledge you have been given, you yield to their desires, then, you shall surely become a transgressor. Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it just as they recognize their own sons. But, some of them knowingly conceal the truth. Truth is what comes from your Lord; therefore, do not be of those who doubt.” (2: 144-147)
Not until the Prophet of Islam received divine revelation on a certain matter, did he change the pattern of previous prophets. Faithful to this principle, he initially made Jerusalem his qiblah, for prophets since the time of Solomon had prayed in that direction. The faith conveyed by the Prophet of Islam had also to be separated and made distinct from the previous traditions so that it could appear in a new and unmistakably pure form.
For the above reason, the Prophet was eagerly awaiting instructions to change the qiblah. In the second year after his emigration to Madinah, he received the commandment. The Prophets who had come among the Jewish people had been informed that one day God would alter the qiblah, and they had passed the knowledge on to the Jews. Yet when it happened only a few of them, such as Abdullah ibn Salam and Mukhaireeq, confirmed the authenticity of this commandment and acknowledged that God had revealed the truth through the Prophet Muhammad.
Whenever God reveals some truth to the world, He makes it absolutely clear. To accept it one should discover God their creator. People summarily reject the truth, and think that a few words that they have deigned to utter are proof that they are standing on firm intellectual ground. But sooner or later, they are bound to realize the weakness of their arguments and it will dawn upon them that, all along, they had been labouring under a false sense of security.