6- FACING THE DIRECTION OF PRAYER (QIBLA)
FACING THE DIRECTION OF PRAYER (QIBLA)
Facing the direction of prayer (qibla) is a necessary condition for the prayer’s validity, with the sole exceptions of praying in extreme peril and non-obligatory prayers performed while travelling.
(The rulings below deal with non-obligatory prayers, not the five prescribed ones, which must be performed while facing the proper direction for prayer (qibla) whether one is riding in a vehicle or not.)
A traveller may perform non-obligatory prayers riding or walking, even on short trips.
When riding and able to face the direction of prayer, prostrate, and bow, as when on a ship, one is obligated to. If not able, then one is only required to face the direction of prayer during the first Allahu Akbar of the prayer, provided this is not difficult, as when one’s mount is stationary or when one can tum oneself or one’s mount the proper direction. If it is difficult, as when one’s mount is not properly saddle broken, or if the reins are not in one’s hands, as when riding in a pack train with each animal tied to the one ahead of it, then it is not obligatory to face the direction of prayer at any point of the prayer’s performance, and one merely nods in the direction of travel instead of bowing and prostrating. One’s nod for prostration must be deeper than the nod for bowing. One does not have to bow to the limit of one’s capacity, nor bow the forehead until it touches the mount’s back, though this is permissible if one troubles oneself to do so.
When praying while walking, one must stop to bow and prostrate on the ground (if easy, though if walking in mud, water, or snow, one may simply nod), and may walk during the rest of the prayer, though it is obligatory to face the direction of prayer during the first Allahu Akbar, and at each bowing and prostration.
Such prayers (whether riding or walking) are only valid on condition:
a) That one’s journey continue for the prayer’s duration;
b) And that one not turn from the direction of travel towards anything but the direction of prayer.
If one reaches home while thus praying, or the destination, or a town where one intends to stay, then one must face the direction of prayer, and bow and prostrate on the ground or on one’s mount if stopped.
When at the Kaaba, one must pray directly towards the Kaaba itself. One’s prayer is invalid if one merely faces the semi-circular wall (Hijr Isma’il) that is to one side of it, or directs any part of the body outside the outline of the Kaaba, unless one is standing at the end of a long row of people praying at the periphery of alMasjid al-Haram (n: the mosque of the Kaaba), a row which, if the people in it were to advance, some of them would be facing outside the Kaaba’s outline. To pray in such a row is valid for everyone in it.
For knowledge of the proper direction it is obligatory to rely on the prayer niche (mihrab) of a mosque in a city or village through which many people pass.
At every place the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) faced to pray and established where he stood, it is obligatory to pray facing as he did, without reconsidering the direction of prayer, or turning right or left, though in other places one may use personal reasoning as to whether to turn right or left.
If one does not find an informant to tell one of the proper direction of prayer by having seen the Kaaba in that direction, then one employs personal reasoning, using other evidence.
(To establish the direction of prayer in cities far from Mecca one may use a world globe and a piece of string, since in North America, Australia, and other regions, using a flat world map will yield the wrong direction because of the curvature of the earth, and the error factor is often considerable. One puts the end of the string on the position of Mecca on the globe, the other end on one’s own city, and pulls the string taut, observing the bearing of the string and drawing a line in the same direction ona local map, which can be oriented with a compass and used to indicate the proper direction to pray.)
If one does not know how to use other evidence, (and it is a communal obligation for someone to know,) or one is blind, then one follows another (0: reliable sighted person acquainted with the evidence).
If, after praying, one becomes certain one was mistaken, then the prayer must be repeated.
(In the Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali schools, the criterion for facing the direction of prayer is merely that some portion of the person’s face be directed towards the Kaaba (al-Fiqh ‘ala al-madhahib al-arba’a (y66), 1.195). (A: This takes in 180 degrees, from far left to far right, such that when the Kaaba is anywhere betwteen, one is considered to be facing the direction of prayer.))
(Source: The reliance of the traveller, revised edition, Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller)
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