Change of Qiblah from Jerusalem to Mecca

# The Change of the Qiblah

The Direction That Was Changed

The qiblah — the direction Muslims face in 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. This change, recorded in Surah al-Baqarah (2:144), was one of the most theologically and politically significant revelations of the Medinan period.

Before the change, Muslims prayed facing al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem — following the practice of the earlier monotheistic traditions and, in the period of the Meccan mission, consistent with the Prophet's ﷺ orientation toward the earlier prophets and their communities. After the migration to Medina, the Prophet ﷺ began to hope for and expect the change. Ibn Abbas narrates that the Prophet ﷺ would turn his face toward the sky, waiting. The revelation came during the Dhuhr (or Asr, in some accounts) prayer at the mosque of the Banu Salima — the mosque that would be renamed Masjid al-Qiblatain (the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs), because in it, mid-prayer, the direction was changed.

The Revelation

Allah said in Surah al-Baqarah (2:144): "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. And wherever you are, turn your faces toward it. Those who have been given the Scripture well know that it is the truth from their Lord. And Allah is not unaware of what they do."

The Prophet ﷺ, mid-prayer, turned to face Mecca. The companions praying behind him turned with him. In some accounts, the word reached other mosques where people were praying — they turned mid-prayer as well, so that what had been the front row became the back row and vice versa. The Mosque of the Two Qiblahs remains in Medina as a historical monument to this moment.

Why Jerusalem — and Why the Change

The qiblah toward Jerusalem had been the practice during the Meccan period and the first seventeen months of Medina. Jerusalem was the direction of the earlier prophets — Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa — and the initial qiblah expressed the continuity of the Islamic message with what had come before. It also served a secondary purpose in the early Medinan period: the shared direction of prayer created a point of commonality with the Jewish community of Medina, whose direction of prayer was also toward Jerusalem.

The change to Mecca had multiple dimensions of meaning.

First, it asserted the primacy of the Abrahamic foundation of the Ka'bah. The Ka'bah — built by Ibrahim and Ismail as the first house of worship to the one God — was the original qiblah before any later religious tradition had specified a different direction. Facing Mecca was, in this understanding, not a departure from the tradition of Ibrahim but a return to it — and a claim that Islam was the restoration of the pure monotheism of Ibrahim, uncorrupted by later theological additions.

Second, it distinguished the Muslim community clearly from the Jewish community. The seventeen months of shared qiblah had produced criticism from some quarters: were the Muslims simply following Jewish practice? The change made unequivocal that the Islamic qiblah was independent and specifically anchored to the Ka'bah, to Mecca, and to the Abrahamic legacy that the Quran claimed as its foundation.

Third, it represented the fulfillment of a hope. The Prophet ﷺ had wanted this change — had turned his face to the sky waiting for it. The revelation acknowledged that longing directly: "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." The change was not merely administrative; it was the answer to a hope, the granting of a wish, the alignment of the external form of worship with the emotional and spiritual orientation of the Prophet ﷺ and, through him, the community.

The Test of the Change

The revelation that commanded the change also acknowledged that it would be difficult for some: "The foolish among the people will say: What has turned them away from their qiblah which they were on? Say: To Allah belongs the East and the West. He guides whom He wills to a straight path." (2:142) Some hypocrites and Jewish critics used the change to question the consistency of the Muslim community — if the qiblah toward Jerusalem was right, why was it changed? If Mecca is right, why was Jerusalem right before?

The Quranic response to this challenge was theological: the direction itself is not the point. Allah owns every direction. The point is the worship and the community whose worship is directed — "And thus We have made you a median community, that you may be witnesses to the people and that the Messenger may be a witness to you." (2:143) The change of qiblah was a test of faith — would the believers follow the revelation, or would they cling to what they had been doing because it was what they knew?

The community turned. The companions praying in the Mosque of Two Qiblahs turned mid-prayer. That act of immediate obedience — turning in the middle of a prostration, without argument, without asking for clarification — is one of the clearest expressions in the seerah of what iman (faith that acts) actually looks like. The qiblah toward Mecca has been maintained unchanged ever since, the unified direction of over a billion Muslims across the world who face the Ka'bah five times a day, replicating in their bodies the orientation of every prophet who ever prayed in the tradition of Ibrahim. Every prayer that begins with the believer finding the direction of Mecca is a small re-enactment of what the companions did in the mosque of Banu Salima that day: turning away from what had been, toward what Allah had commanded.

Sources: Sahih al-Bukhari (Kitab al-Salah, Kitab al-Tafsir); Sahih Muslim (Kitab al-Masajid); Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya; Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Quran al-Adhim; Surah al-Baqarah (2:142-144)