تحويل القبلة

The qiblah — the direction of prayer — was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca in the second year after the Hijra, approximately seventeen months after the Prophet's ﷺ arrival in Medina. The change came through revelation during a prayer at the mosque of the Banu Salima — Ibn Abbas narrates that the Prophet ﷺ had been turning his face toward the sky, waiting. The verse came: 'We have certainly seen the turning of your face toward the sky, and We will surely turn you to a qiblah with which you will be pleased. So turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Haram.' (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:144). The Prophet ﷺ turned mid-prayer; the companions behind him turned. In some accounts, the word reached other mosques while worshippers were praying — they turned mid-prayer, so that front rows became back rows. The qiblah toward Jerusalem had been the practice since the Meccan period, consistent with the orientation of the earlier prophets and creating a point of commonality with the Jewish community of Medina. The change to Mecca had multiple dimensions of meaning: it asserted the primacy of the Ka'bah, built by Ibrahim and Ismail as the first house of monotheistic worship; it distinguished the Muslim community clearly from Jewish practice; and it fulfilled the Prophet's ﷺ own personal hope. The Quran acknowledged that hope directly: 'We have certainly seen the turning of your face toward the sky' — a recognition of the waiting before granting what was waited for. The change was not without critics. The Quran addressed them: 'The foolish will say: What has turned them away from their qiblah which they were on?' (2:142). The response established the theological principle: 'To Allah belongs the East and the West.' Direction itself is not sacred — what is sacred is the worship directed to Allah wherever He commands. The Mosque of the Two Qiblahs (Masjid al-Qiblatain) remains in Medina as a monument to the moment. The qiblah toward Mecca has been maintained unchanged ever since — the direction in which over a billion Muslims face five times daily The moment of turning — the companions mid-prayer, the front row becoming the back row in an instant of obedience — remains one of the most vivid expressions in the seerah of what it means to follow revelation: immediate, total, without argument.