Qibla

The Qibla (Arabic قبلة, DMG qibla, qibla ') is prescribed by the Quran Qibla of the Muslims to the Kaaba in Mecca, the highest sanctuary of Islam wherever the believer may be on the earth. The determination of this direction led to significant improvements in early astronomy and celestial mechanics by the Arabs.

In contrast to orthodox Muslims ( Sunni and Shia ) pray the Alevis, because they know no obligatory prayer, not in the direction of the Qibla.

History

At the beginning of Islam, the Muslims prayed, according to the Jewish ( and early Christian ) tradition, Muhammad was familiar with in this respect, in the direction of al -Quds (Jerusalem). The traditions in the biography of the Prophet give no clear information about the direction of prayer of the Prophet before his emigration to Medina. According to some reports he and his followers prayed toward Jerusalem; other traditions enter a mediator and say that Muhammad did indeed prayed towards Jerusalem, but doing the Kaaba taken into account in this direction. After the Hijrah, the emigration of Muhammad and his companions ( sahaba ) from Mecca to Medina, the Islamic community prayed continue towards Jerusalem. Only in the second year after the Hijrah, probably 16-17 months after the emigration from Mecca - traditionally February 11 624 is called as a date - Muhammad changed the prayer direction to the Kaaba in Mecca, a historic decision, the read in the Koran is.

" We see that you are undecided where the sky Do you shalt turn ( in prayer ) with the face. That's why we want you (now ) have a qiblah with which you will love to be in agreement: Turn your face towards the Sacred Place of Worship ( in Mecca ) "

"The reason for the change in the Jerusalem qibla is in the new position to the older religions of revelation that Muhammad had gained gradually in Medina. While he used the Jews and Christians felt closest related, made ​​him the failure of his propaganda among them, to look after other ties, and he finally found her in the religion of Ibrahim ', the revelation closely intertwined with the Ka'ba So ... the pagan Kultusort was suitable as a sanctuary of Islam and as such the place of Qibla, as was Jerusalem for the Jews. "

Originally pagan - - In Sura 3 Verse 96-97 the founding of the Meccan sanctuary is transferred back to the very earliest times the people, it is also " the holy place of Ibrahim " ( to see also Sura 2, verse 125). By changing the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca also gets the - also originally pagan - Pilgrimage to Mecca their final Islamic character: "And the people are against God obliged to make the pilgrimage to the House - as they apply to a possibility " ( Sura 3, verse 97).

The reorientation from Jerusalem to Mecca, by God's command: " Turn your face towards the Sacred Place of Worship ( in Mecca ) " needed even in the time of Muhammad a "historical " reasons. This was done through the presentation of the so-called " Abraham legend" from an Islamic perspective. Muhammad's claim to Mecca, towards which he and his community in Medina from December 623 / January 624 prayed, located in the Koran itself justified: it is Abraham / Ibrahim - with his son Ishmael - who had been commissioned by God, the impurity of the eliminate Meccan sanctuary, so there could be carried out the monotheistic rituals of Islam. The change of Qibla and the prayer direction applicable to the present confirm to the Islamic view that the statements about Abraham / Ibrahim and its relation to the Meccan sanctuary not a legend, but historical facts.

Thus Mohammed has an unqualified right to the pre-Islamic Kaaba shrine, whose builder has been to the Islamic teachings of Abraham ( Ibrahim ), and emphasizes Islam understood as a continuation and completion of Abrahamic monotheism. The mosque in Medina, Quba ʾ, where the change of direction of prayer was held, called the " Mosque of the two Qiblas " مسجد القبلتين. The biographies of the Prophet's companions mention the first followers of Muhammad from Mecca and Medina as a group " who prayed in both directions of prayer ", thereby highlighting their early conversion to Islam.

The Sunni orthodoxy called after her self-image as " the people of the Qibla and unity of the Muslims ." The term " ahl al- qibla " is a synonym for " ahl al- islam ", for Muslims per se ahl al- qibla wal- Jamaa'ah / أهل القبلة والجماعة / ahlu ʾ l - qibla wa - ʾ l - ʿ ǧamā a

Determination

The methods for determining the Qiblah were relatively simple in the early centuries of Islam. In a treatise on folk astronomy of al -Hasan ibn ʿ Alī al - Umawi (late 12th century ) explains that in Andalusia so that the celestial pole is located behind the left shoulder, stand up for determining the Qiblah and then south must look. This also explains why the Great Mosque of Cordoba shows with their qibla wall due south.

According to traditional teaching shows in the two moments in each year when the sun is above the Kaaba in the zenith, every shadow on the earth exactly in the opposite direction of the Qibla; it may even without instruments, only with the help of a calendar and a clock, twice a year can be accurately determined. This formula makes mathematically addition to determining the Qibla along a great circle, ie after the shortest straight line; this great circle exists in contrast to the shadows on the night side of the earth where it can be used to determine the Qiblah. In North America, there are Muslims who prefer the determination based on the same course, for there the great circle method provides a more northeasterly direction in Alaska even almost exactly north, while the rhumb line gives the intuitively correct appearing southeastern direction. However, most Muslims in America also use the more traditional great-circle method.

In Islamic countries is often to be found ( eg in hotels ) on the ceiling of the Qibla arrow in green.

Other Uses

The Qibla has a meaning also in other areas of life of the Muslims, because it speaks to prayer and intercession (Du ʿ ā ʾ ) in the direction of Mecca. The slaughter of animals, not only of sacrificial animals, also occurs with the animal's head toward Mecca. Muslim graves are aligned so that the deceased lying on the right side rests with the face towards the Qibla. In the mosques, the prayer direction is indicated by the mihrab.

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