Qibla

The qibla (Arabic: قبلة, lit. 'direction') is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. According to Islamic tradition, the Kaaba is believed to be a sacred site built by prophets Abraham and Ishmael, and that its use as the qibla was ordained by God in several verses of the Quran revealed to Muhammad in the second Hijri year. Prior to this revelation, Muhammad and his followers in Medina faced Jerusalem for prayers. Most mosques contain a mihrab (a wall niche) that indicates the direction of the qibla. The qibla is also the direction for entering the ihram (sacred state for the hajj pilgrimage), the direction to which animals are turned during dhabihah (Islamic slaughter), the recommended direction to make du'a (supplications), the direction to avoid when relieving oneself or spitting, and the direction to which the deceased are aligned when buried. The qibla may be observed facing the Kaaba accurately (ayn al-ka'ba) or facing in the general direction (jihat al-ka'ba). Most Islamic scholars consider that jihat al-ka'ba is acceptable if the more precise ayn al-ka'ba cannot be ascertained. The most common technical definition used by Muslim astronomers for a location is the direction on the great circle—in the Earth's Sphere—passing through the location and the Kaaba. This is the direction of the shortest possible path from a place to the Kaaba, and allows the exact calculation (hisab) of the qibla using a spherical trigonometric formula that takes the coordinates of a location and of the Kaaba as inputs (see formula below). The method is applied to develop mobile applications and websites for Muslims, and to compile qibla tables used in instruments such as the qibla compass. The qibla can...