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Qibla

القبلة

The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba which the worshipper faces in prayer; in Medina it was turned from Bayt al-Maqdis to the Kaaba by the verses of al-Baqara 1, and facing it is a condition of prayer in fiqh 2.

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Worship and the pillars

Overview

The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba which Muslims face in prayer — among the clearest markers of unity in the Islamic world. In the early Medinan period the Prophet ﷺ and his companions prayed toward Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem); the turn to the Kaaba came in the verses of Surat al-Baqara 1.

In fiqh and creed

Facing the qibla is a condition of valid prayer in fiqh, and Fiqh al-Sunna details the rulings for one unable to determine it and the acts to which facing extends 2. The Tahawiyya creed names the Muslims 'the people of our qibla' 3, making the qibla a banner of the community's identity itself.

People and things also explored

The ruling on one who abandons prayer· Ada' (performance of an obligation within its time)· Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)· Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation· The adornment of desires and the goods of this world· The people of the bench (ahl al-suffa)· The earth made a place of prayer and purity· Spending in the way of God (infaq)

Sources

  1. Tafsir Ibn Kathir
  2. Sayyid Sabiq, Fiqh al-Sunnah (Dar al-Fikr)
  3. al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya, Dar Ibn Hazm 1995 , §73
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Qibla”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/qibla/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.

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The ruling on one who abandons prayer

Al-Sallabi quotes Ali: whoever does not pray is an unbeliever. He then reports from al-Nawawi the dispute over one who neglects prayer while believing it obligatory: the majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i) hold him a sinner to be asked to repent, others hold him an unbeliever, a view ascribed to Ali; Abu Hanifa and the Kufans hold him not an unbeliever but to be disciplined.