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QIBLA DIRECTION
 

 
QIBLA DIRECTION

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Qibla Direction

The controversy of Qibla from North America surfaces from time to time. One group of people favors the direction of South-East, and another group favors North-East. Now the question is whether South-East is correct or North-East is correct. Those who favor South-East are mislead by looking at the flat map with an argument that Makkah is south and East of North America. The fallacy is that the earth is not a flat plane; it is more like a sphere floating in space of three dimensions. North Pole is a point from where every direction is South; there is no East or West from there. If you take a globe and stretch a thread from Alaska to Makkah, you will see that the thread passes through or close by North Pole. So, the Qibla from Alaska will be towards North.

 

 

The above map is a true projection of the globe keeping Makkah at the center of projection. This projection allows us to draw a line from any place to Makkah and note the angle from the longitude lines. That gives the Qibla from North. For example, take Alaska, and draw a line from Alaska to Makkah (as shown by blue line). You will see that the line passes through North Pole, so the Qibla from Alaska is due North. Curved lines on this map are longitude lines and they all meet at South and North Poles. They are not like latitude lines that are parallel to each other and do not meet. Take another example, Miami. The green line from Miami to Makkah makes an angle of about 56 degrees from the longitude line that goes to North Pole. So, the Qibla from Miami is 56 degrees to East from North.

If that is confusing, then let us think that there is a very high minaret over Kabah, so high that it reaches the sky. Everyone would agree that if we can see that minaret, facing to that is the direction of Qibla. Now, Allah (SWT) has provided that imaginary minaret in the form of the sun being at the top of that minaret. It has been observed for centuries that there are two days in a year (May 28 and on July 16) when sun comes exactly overhead Kabah at the local noon time. Muslims in many distant countries for centuries used to wait for these dates, in the hope to see which direction is the sun and then set the orientation of the mosques.

It has been observed that around noon time of Makkah, it is about 6 am in Nova Scotia, Canada and Maine, USA. The sun rises in those locations as it comes overhead Makkah at local noon time. Facing the sun on those two dates around 6 am gives the correct direction of Qibla from North America. Those who had observed this confirmed that they saw the sun in North East direction at the specified time and date. Therefore, it is correct to say that Qibla from North America is generally North-East, except from Alaska and California where it is close to North direction.

The actual direction of the sun observed verifies with the angle calculated using Spherical Trigonometry for calculating the direction from one point to another. For the 48 contiguous states of USA, the Qibla is some angle between North and East; the angle varies from location to location. The precise value of what angle from North one should turn to face the Qibla can be calculated from Spherical Trigonometry, using Great Cirlce concept or shortest distance theory, assuming the earth is a sphere. The fact that the earth is a geoid (ellipsoid flattened at the poles) affects the results in negligible and practically immeasurable quantities.

More Accurate Method

It is not advisable to determine Qibla using compass specially for Orienting Masajid. The following method which uses the sun is more reliable. It has been observed for centuries and reported in many books by Muslims around the world that two times a year the sun comes overhead above Ka'bah. This is observational fact for centuries, and is used to set the correct Qibla direction in places far from Makkah by Muslims for last so many centuries. Those two dates and times are:

May 28 at 9:18UT
July 16 at 9:27UT

When you observe the sun at these times (after converting it to your local time), you will be facing the Ka'bah giving you Qibla direction, because if there were a very high minaret over Ka'bah reaching up to the sky, then you will see it just like you are seeing the sun. Now, let us take a few examples. If you are in Islamabad, Pakistan (+5 hours time difference from Greenwich), the local time to observe the sun would be 2:18pm on May 28, and 2:27pm on July 16.

Similarly, if you are in Nova Scotia, Canada (-3 hours time difference from Greenwich), the local time to observe the sun would be 6:18am on May 28, and 6:27am on July 16.

If you are at a location that you cannot see the sun on the above mentioned two dates, then you can locate Qibla from the sun when it comes overhead at a point diametrically opposite of Makkah on the globe and look for the following two dates and times:

November 28 at 21:09UT
January 16 at 21:29UT

Face toward the shadow from the sun at these times (after converting it to local time) and you will be facing Ka'bah. If you can see the sun but cannot see the shadow, put your back towards the sun and your face will be towards Qibla.

Most Accurate Method

Every day, at a certain time the Qibla can be determined from the sun, either by facing it or by facing the shadow from it, or else there is a time when Qibla would be 90 degress left or right of the sun. This time can be calculated for everyday for any desired location. This is the most accurate method. Remember, the compass, cannot tell you the True North, because its needle points to Magnetic North, and there is no way to know exactly how many degrees it is away from Ture North. Estimated values of the difference between True North and Magnetic North can be used but they can have errors, because magnetic field is not only changing continuously, but also can be erratic due to other physical changes present inside the earth. Moreover, the presence of other magnetic fields or metallic objects can deflect compass needle pointing in the wrong direction.

 
 
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