In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Salamu 'Alaykum (Peace be upon you)!

All praise be to the Lord Most High, who sent us miraculous signs during 2024 - the year of the signs - and who blessed us greatly with evidence affirming the preservation and truthfulness of the Quran in its declaration of being from God.

Introduction:

In this post I will prove to you by using the Quran and the Arabic language that we are commanded by God to turn our directions towards the general direction/side of the Sacred Mosque when we pray.

Verse in focus:

Quran 2:144:

“We have indeed seen your face turning toward the sky. So We will surely make you turn to a direction that you will be pleased with. So face the side of the Sacred Mosque. And wherever you all are, then face its side. And indeed those who were given the Scripture surely know that it is the truth from their Lord. And God is not unaware of what they do.”

This could not be any clearer: we are explicitly commanded, all of us, to turn toward a physical object on this earth, namely the Haram (Sacred) Mosque in Mecca. Yet some remain unconvinced, and in this article I will do my best to convince them.

To turn towards the side where a mosque is located proves that it is a physical facing and not metaphorical or spiritual one:

The words:

"فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ"
(So turn your direction toward the side of...)

Means to turn your direction (or to "face") its "half," i.e., its side, whether it be west, east, north or south - depending on where we are on earth, we are to turn our directions towards the sacred Mosque in prayers. So God is not commanding us to use compasses to find the exact line stretching towards the sacred Mosque, but rather just the side where it is located - if you are in the west, just turn east and you're good.

• Classical Arabic Dictionary on "Shatr" (side/half):

"The root ش ط ر ( sh-t-r ) means half of something, and its plural is أَـ ـشْطُرٌ ( ashṭur ). To share something with someone means to divide it equally. To intend something is to go towards it."

Source: Zayn al-Dīn al-Razī, Mukhtār al-Ṣiḥāḥ (d. 1266 CE)

And:

شَطْر
(pl.
أَــشْطُر
شُطُوْر)
a. Half: part.
b. Hemistich, cæsura.
c. Side, direction, region.

Source: Habib Anthony Salmone's dictionary

This alone creates a major problem for those who refuse to face this direction during prayer, because it is entirely implausible that God commanded us to only partially turn, or to turn towards the side of His faith, or any other spiritual or metaphorical interpretation they want to assign to this verse. This is not to say that a faith-related "turn one's face toward" does not exist in the Quran as well, because it does.

As Abraham said in the Quran 6:79:

I have turned my face towards the One Who has originated the heavens and the earth—being upright—and I am not one of the polytheists.”

This verse here is not about a physical turning of his direction, because no created object or location is involved when it comes to God. Rather, it means that Abraham directed his direction to be toward God by following His true faith. Associating God with a physical direction does not work, since God is not confined to or bound by any direction or location in the physical sense.

Is turning toward the side of the sacred Mosque done by observing Islamic practice?

If we try to interpret this as a turning toward Islamic practices, that would also be strange. Are we to practice Islam only partially (Shatr: "Half")?

The only logical way to understand this passage is in a geographical sense: one is to face the side in which the Sacred Mosque is located, regardless of where one is on Earth or where you leave from.

It can neither mean that worship is to be dedicated to the Sacred Mosque itself, for worship belongs to God alone. To dedicate worship toward anything other than God would constitute polytheism.

The word "Qiblah" and its definition:

It generally means "before" according to dictionaries, but also to turn:

• Classical Arabic dictionary:

"Al -qubl" also means your turning towards something. You say, "I have turned towards you ," as if you desire nothing else"

Source: Al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī, Kitāb al-ʿAin (d. 786 CE)

The word is even used as "turning" in the Quran:

Quran 12:71:

"And they turned (wa aqbalu) towards them saying, 'What are you missing?'"

So the very word "Qiblatan" used in 2:144 is defined as "direction."

When the verse not only mentions an object in relation to a direction, but specifically refers to its sides ("shatra" - side), and addresses people in different locations:

“…And wherever you all are, then turn your directions toward its side.”

And even mentioned geographical directions when mentioning the word "qiblah":

"Say: “To God belong the East and the West. He guides whom He wills to a straight path.” (Quran 2:142)

And said that each has their own direction:

"And for each is a direction that he turns toward." (Quran 2:148)

Understanding this as each person or community having its own directional bearing relative to the Sacred Mosque fits smoothly with the nearby verses. For example, someone in Syria faces south, someone in Yemen faces north, someone in Egypt faces east, and someone in Iran faces west, and so on. It becomes difficult to argue that the passage refers to anything other than a physical orientation during prayer. To say that God meant "To each is a faith" would conflict with the fact that He only accepts Islam as the true faith, as He confirms in another verse.

When we read the Bible, we notice that they also turned towards the side of Jerusalem - and the Quran mentions this as well:

Daniel 6:10:

"... he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God..."

And in their Biblical history books as well:

1 Kings 8:29–30:

"...that You may hear the prayer which Your servant shall make toward this place. And hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place..."

And:

1 Kings 8:44:

"If Your people go out to battle... and they pray unto the LORD toward the city which You have chosen, and toward the house that I have built for Your name..."

And:

2 Chronicles 6:20–21:

"... May You hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place...

This is the former qiblah (direction) the Quran mentions:

Quran 2:142:

"The foolish among the people will say: “What has turned them away from their direction (qiblah) which they were upon?” Say: “To God belong the East and the West. He guides whom He wills to a straight path.”

Again, God mentions geographical directions in relation to the word "qiblah" because "qiblah" is about a physical direction.

The verses people use to deny that Qiblah is the direction of prayer and the responses:

Quran 2:177:

"Righteousness is not in turning your faces towards the east or the west. Rather, the righteous are those who..."

And then the same verse then mentions those who pray.

Answer:

The verse does not say that turning one's face toward a direction is wrong, meaningless, or unnecessary. Rather, it says that righteousness does not consist merely in facing a particular direction.

This is similar to saying:

"Goodness is not wearing a police officer's uniform, but serving people."

Such a statement does not imply that uniforms should never be worn or that wearing one is not good. Rather, it means that the uniform itself is not the essence of goodness, even though it may still have an important role.

Notice that God does not deny that facing east or west can be a righteous act. Instead, He denies that righteousness itself consists in turning toward the east or the west, and then proceeds to list numerous beliefs and actions that characterize the righteous. There is a significant difference between the two. Had He simply stated that turning is not righteousness without going on to describe the many qualities of the righteous, the implication would have been entirely different.

This is the end of part 1, and in part 2, I will continue this last section for the entirety of the post.

/ By Exion.