The Prophet's Prayer
Described
Facing The Ka'bah
When the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) stood
for prayer, he would face the Ka'bah in both obligatory and voluntary
prayers1,
and he (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) ordered that, saying to the
"one who prayed badly"2
: When you stand for prayer, perform ablution prefectly, then face
the qiblah and say takbeer.3
"During a journey, he (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) would pray voluntary
prayers and witr on his mount, wherever it faced carrying him [east or
west]."4
The saying of Allaah, the Exalted, "Wherever you turn, there is the Face of
Allaah" (Baqarah, 2:115) applies to this.5
"[Sometimes] when he intended to pray non-obligatory prayers on his she-camel,
he would make it face the qiblah, say takbeer, and pray towards wherever his
mount turned its face."6
"He would make rukoo' and sajdah on his mount by lowering his head, making the
sajdah lower than the rukoo'."7
"When he intended to pray obligatory prayers, he would dismount and face the
qiblah."8
In prayer during severe fear, he (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) set the
example for his ummah to pray "on foot, standing on their feet, or mounted;
facing the qiblah or not facing it"9, and he also said, When they (the
armies) meet, then it (i.e. the prayer) is takbeer and indication with the
head.10
He (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) also used to say: What is between the
east and the west is qiblah.11
Jaabir (radiallaahu 'anhu) said:
"Once, when we were with the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa
sallam) on an expedition, the sky was cloudy, so we tried to find the Qibla but
we differed, so each one of us prayed in a different direction, and each of us
drew marks in front of him in order to mark our positions. In the morning, we
looked at it and found that we had not prayed towards the Qiblah. So we
mentioned this to the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) [but he did not
order us to repeat (the prayer)] and he said: Your prayer was
sufficient."12
"He (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) used to pray towards Bait al-Muqaddas [with
the Ka'bah in front of him] before the following verse was revealed: "We
see the turning of your faces to the heavens; now shall we turn you to a Qiblah
that shall please you: turn then your faces in the direction of the Sacred
Mosque" (Baqarah 2:144). When it was revealed he faced the Ka'bah. There
were people at Qubaa' praying Fajr when someone came to them and said, 'Verily
the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) has had some of the
Qur'aan revealed to him last night and he has been ordered to face the Ka'bah,
[verily] so face it'. Their faces were towards Shaam, so they turned round [and
their Imaam turned round to face the qiblah along with them]."13
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