Introduction:
We @ Mumbai Multimedia Studio described and analyse the controversial articles written by several Islamic experts on their research and analysis. The Qibla Is Between The East & The West- Finding The Qibla despair have used this conspiracy theory as an argument against Islam which was first proposed by Dan Gibson - Daniel "Dan" Gibson is a self-published Canadian author studying the early history of Arabia and Islam. I will be able to simply quote Islamic scriptures, show whether the first Mosques faced Petra or Makkah and quote from an actual expert. Myself still remember the Masjid E Kufa in Madina Munawwara declared and put an information in Big Block articles in every languages that it's the order of Al Mighty to divert the Qibla Route - Qibla is also known as Kaaba, it is situated in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. All Muslims across the world face toward Qibla while offering prayer, no matter where they are in the world. The direction of Qibla can be located through the accurate compass app as well. Qibla direction finder is an Islamic app for all Muslims in the world.
Discussion
#1- The Qibla Is Between The East & The West- Finding The Qibla in line with Islamic Tradition & Culture. There are several traditions within the Islamic heritage showing that the determination of the Qibla was accommodated with some flexibility apart from Makkah because of the small knowledge within the fields of geography and geometry within the early centuries of Islam.
حَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ نَافِعٍ، أَنَّ عُمَرَ بْنَ الْخَطَّابِ، قَالَ مَا بَيْنَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ قِبْلَةٌ إِذَا تُوُجِّهَ قِبَلَ الْبَيْتِ .
Experts associated from Malik Nafi that Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "Any direction that's between east and west will be taken as a Qibla if the person praying is face-on to the House."
In Al-Muntaqa - the commentary on Muwaṭṭaʾ, we read the subsequent about this report :
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Concerning "[Anywhere] between the East and also the West may be a qibla", Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: "This applies to all or any countries except in Makkah at the House [i.e., the Sacred Mosque] where whoever shifts from it's missed the qibla." Ahmad ibn Khalid said: "This hadith applies to the inhabitants of Madinah and whoever is like them whose qibla is between East and West", narrated by Muhammad ibn Maslamah from Malik. Ahmad ibn Khalid said: "As for people who are located to the East of Makkah or to the West, their qibla is between South and North and that they have room therein [i.e., flexibility within the determination of the direction] the maximum amount because the inhabitants of Madinah Munawwara have it.
" This opinion mentioned by Ahmad ibn Khalid is evident and proper but it goes in pairs with the hassle [ijtihad] for whoever is knowledgeable during this respect. this is often thanks to the actual fact that in their facing the Qibla the people are in two categories. First, those that can see the House must head towards it and it's not permissible for them to try to to otherwise because it's mandatory for people who see the Qibla to follow it and whoever doesn't has shifted from it undoubtedly, which isn't permissible and there's no disagreement that. an analogous opinion has been narrated from Muhammad ibn Maslamah.
Secondly, people who cannot see the Qibla are either people able of performing ijtihad or imitators. people who are able of performing ijtihad are absolute tohave sexso asto work out the direction of the Qibla between East and West while heading towards the House. But, people whodon't seem to besuitable ijtihad are certain to follow the latter if any. Otherwise, said Qadi Abu al-Walid, may Allah be pleased with him, he has the status of somebody from whom the evidence pointing to the Qibla is concealed. I'd rather prefer that he delays his prayers to the top of their allotted times hoping that he might find someone to imitate and this is applicable to each place except Al-Madinah where it's not suitable to form an ijtihad resulting in a Qibla different than the Qibla of the Mosque of the Prophet, peace be upon him, since it's the Prophet, peace be upon him, is that the one who set its Qibla and this constitutes an evidence from him during this regard. Ibn al-Qasim narrated from Malik that Jibril, peace be upon him, is that the one who determined for the Prophet, peace be upon him, the qibla of his mosque.
Another report:
وَعَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ - رضى الله عنه - قَالَ : قَالَ رَسُولُ اَللَّهِ - صلى الله عليه وسلم - رَوَاهُ اَلتِّرْمِذِيُّ , وَقَوَّاهُ اَلْبُخَارِيُّ . 1
1 - صحيح . رواه الترمذي (344) وقال : حديث حسن صحيح . قلت : وليس في إسناده إلا الحسن بن بكر شيخ الترمذي فيه جهالة ، وللحديث طرق أخرى وشواهد يصح بها ، إلا أن هذا الطريق هو الذي قواه البخاري .
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: "The direction between the east and west is Qiblah." [Reported by at-Tirmidhi, and al-Bukhari considered it Qawi (strong)].
Imam al-Ahwadhi comments on the aforementioned hadith in his Tuhfah saying :
With regards to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said "[Anywhere] between East and West could be a Qibla."
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Al-Suyuti said: "This isn't a general statement about every country, it only applies to al-Madinah and its likes." Al-Bayhaqi said in Al-Khilafiyyat [The Controversial Matters]: "Those who are meant [by this hadith], and Allah knows best, are the inhabitants of al-Madinah and whoever his qibla is that the same because the people of al-Madinah." Al-Shawkani said: "There has been a disagreement about the meaning of this hadith." Al-ʿIraqi said: "This isn't a general statement about all countries, it's rather a applicable to Al-Madinah and any spot having the identical qibla and this was the opinion of al-Bayhaqi in Al-Khilafiyyat which of Ahmad ibn Khaluweih al-Rahbi who said: the opposite countries have an identical room in determining the qibla between South and North." Likewise, ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said: "This is correct and can't be refuted and there's no disagreement between the students about it."
Al-Athram said: "I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about the meaning of this hadith, he said: "This is applicable to all or any countries except Makkah at the House, shifting from it slightly isn't any but missing the Qibla." Then he said: "This is that the East" and he pointed towards it, and "this is that the West" and pointed towards it and between them may be a qibla. I told him: "Whoever heads between them in his prayer, his prayer is valid. He said: "Yes, and he must seek the center." ibn ʿAbd al-Barr commented on Ahmad's statement "This is applicable to any or all countries" saying that he means all the countries who like al-Madinah head towards the South where the Kʿabah is found then they head towards it and may go aside to the proper and to the left between the East and therefore the West putting the West on their right hand side and therefore the East on their left hand side. Similarly, the people of Yemen have the identical flexibility in their qibla between the East and therefore the West, after they head towards the qibla they out the East on their righthand side and also the West on their lefthand side. Similarly, the people of Iraq and Khurasan have the identical room in facing the qibla between the South and therefore the North. The people at the other to Iraq face at the alternative of this. The qibla is restricted just for the people within the Holy Mosque. It widens a bit for the inhabitants of Makkah, and widens a touch more for the people of the Haram [the precincts of the Holy Land] so it's as wide as described earlier for the people of other locations".
All the above establishes that the that the first salaf accepted some flexibility within the determination of the Qibla whichit had been not determined with a compass precision because the early Muslims didn't have the tools to seek out that precision. the employment of prophetic saying to understand the Qibla is employed even today. within the Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools of Islamic Jurisprudence, the criterion of facing the direction of prayer (i.e., Qibla) is simply that some portion of the person’s face to be directed towards the Kʿabah. This takes in 180°, from left to far right, such when the Kʿabah is anywhere between, one is taken into account facing the prayer - within the Shafi‘i school, facing the direction of prayer may be a necessary condition. If the direction isn't known that the person asks someone who knows; if no such person is obtainable he uses personal reasoning (See Reliance Traveller 123–125). So whether or not we assumed that the Muslims did pray towards Petra that doesn’t invalidate Islam in the slightest degree although the command makes it clear they need to face the K’abah in how.
#2- Did Early Mosques Intentionally Face Petra instead of Makkah?
Concerning the first mosques in Egypt and Iraq, David King states (emphasis mine):
The first mosque to be in-built Egypt was built facing winter sunrise, and it had been this direction which remained the foremost popular throughout the medieval period amongst the religious authorities. Likewise a number of the earliest mosques in Iraq were built facing winter sunset. Only recently has it become known that astronomical alignments were used for the Qibla, so some modern historians (sic!) have mistakenly inferred from the orientations of the first mosques in Egypt and Iraq that they weren't built to face the Kaaba in the slightest degree, but rather to face another sacred site. Now, however, we even know why such astronomical alignments were used.
The difference of mosque orientation and corresponding winter sunrise/sunsets azimuths for the cities is little apart from Kūfa where the orientation of the mosque is closer to actual Qibla. This shows that the first mosques (except for Kūfa, of course) were astronomically oriented towards their corresponding winter sunrises/sunsets.
Figures 5 and 6 show the astronomical alignment of the Kʿabah as implied by the MS Milan Biblioteca Ambrosiana 73 Sup., a treatise authored by a Yemeni astronomer Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Farisi (c. 1290).
Figure 5: The alignments of the Kaabah implied by the primary section of the text illustrated in MS Milan Biblioteca Ambrosiana 73 Sup. Image sources
Figure 6: The alignments of the Kaabah implied by the second section of the text illustrated in MS Milan Biblioteca Ambrosiana 73 Sup. Image Sources
Astronomically, this all is smart. Studies by Hawkins and King using the trendy tools of astronomy have shown that the particular alignment of the Kʿabah are the following:
Figure 7: Actual alignments of the Kaabah Image Sources
8-Astronomical alignments of the Kaabah drawn to scale Image Sources
From the sunshine of above knowledge we will see why the first mosques in Iraq were aligned towards the winter sunset. Aligning the mosques in Iraq towards the winter sunset would mean “facing” the northeast (or southwest) wall of Kʿabah (Figure 5 and 8). Similarly one can see that the mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in Fusṭāṭ just outside Cairo faced the winter sunrise because this may mean “facing” the northwest (or southeast) wall of Kʿabah (Figure 5 and 8).
#3- What the Real Experts say
No serious scholar, Muslim or non-Muslim, would ever have thought that mosques might have been deliberately oriented toward somewhere other than Makkah. If they had, they would rightly be considered to be deranged.
David King further states:
People seem to forget that the sacred direction in Islam is not toward Makkah but toward the Kaaba in Makkah. There is a significant difference between facing an edifice that one cannot see but which one knows is astronomically aligned and facing a distant city. People need to be reminded of this, because what was obvious to a medieval mind is not obvious to us moderns. All of Gibson’s mosques are aligned toward the Kaaba in one way or another. Since the 9th century, when mathematical geography and mathematical methods became available, mosques have generally been aligned toward Makkah, usually, but not always, using mathematical methods. In major centres there was sometimes a palette of qibla-directions – covering as much as a quadrant of the horizon – used by different interest groups.
Figure 3. A brilliant geometrical construction for finding the Qibla proposed by Habash al-Hasib, the leading astronomer of 9th-century Baghdad. The complicated modern formula can be derived directly from Habash’s diagram.
Another fundamental error with this argument is the following: even hundreds of years after the supposed shift to Makkah, mosques were still built facing Petra. An example from the Mansouri Great Mosque, which was built in 1294 CE, yet according to Gibson, faces Petra. This is also against the claims made by Jay Smith.
Why, if Gibson’s own research is reliable, were mosques built (supposedly) facing Petra centuries after the (imaginary) shift? Gibson himself stated that it is impossible to say whether some of the earliest 7th-century CE mosques faced Petra or not. He classifies a number of early mosques as having “unknown Qiblahs”.
According to actual experts like David King, the Ka’bah itself is astronomically aligned and all mosques, by means that Gibson has not mastered, align towards it. He states that historical Qibla directions cannot be the same as modern Qibla directions, and thus one should not use modern directions of Makkah or Petra to accurately determine whether the mosques faced Makkah or Petra.
#4- Islamic Inscriptions in Makkah & Petra
The Petra theory (the shift from Makkah to Petra) necessitates a massive cover-up. The earliest Islamic inscription in Petra is from 727 AD, which is exactly (according to Gibson) the year that mosques started to face Makkah and when they supposedly abondoned Petra. Why then are the Islamic inscriptions from Petra dated to after this supposed shift?
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There are even Islamic inscriptions from Petra that date to 809 CE. By then, wouldn’t the Muslims have left Petra permanently?
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There is a severe lack of evidence for Petra to be the birthplace of Islam instead. The Islamic inscriptions from Makkah come earlier than those of Petra.
Conclusion
In the light of evidence, the likes of Dan Gibson and Jay Smith’s claims hold no water. The Qibla is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Makkah, which is used by Abdali's conclusion was widely circulated and then accepted by the Muslim community, and mosques were subsequently reoriented as a result.
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