06-24-2008, 09:52 AM
Bismillah
Praise be to Allah Creator of the Worlds, Lord of the House (Ka`ba), One Who Holds my soul in His Hands, prayer and peace be upon his final Messenger, all prophets and messengers till the Day After.
In continuation to the Qibla issue, an issue of multifaceted aspects. On the superficial it merely refers to the direction where a Muslim must face as part of the Salat rituals. I mean if one does not face Qiblah, Salat is invalid. But it has another hidden aspect that requires an insightful approach to understand. First we need to understand what is the meaning of the word Qiblah. The word Qibla means the direction where one is heading to, it is derived from Iqbal. Iqbal is when you head towards something, anything, is when you walk towards something, when you are accepting and motivated to do something willingly. Thus, the word is not restricted on merely a direction to be applied during Salat, but rather has a more in depth connotation. No wonder Allah Used this word in particular to refer to where we must direct ourselves during Salat. Combining between those two actions, is really significant. As we know, Salat is our meeting, connection, communication means with Allah. To prove this, we face the Qibla, we accept doing Salat, we are willing to look to this direction which is the direction of Allah. In other words, we admit accepting Allah's law, commands, and renew our covenant with Allah. From this, we understand that Qibla is an approach, part of the attitude, and way of life, not just a direction during Salat. Facing the direction, is a symbol to obeying Allah, and accepting full content of Islam. Let us just go back a little bit to the beginning of the set of Ayahs addressing the Qiblah issue, it starts with an essential explanation saying:
"The fools (pagans, hypocrites, and Jews) among the people will say, "What has turned them (Muslims) from their Qiblah [prayer direction (towards Jerusalem)] to which they were used to face in prayer." Say, (O Muhammad ) "To Allah belong both, east and the west. He guides whom He wills to a Straight Way." (Quran 2:142). The superficial situation is that Muslims used to perform Salat facing Ka`ba (being the house of Allah that holds special sanctity position) which changed by a divine command to Al Aqsa. The Ayah is being sarcastic of those who are mocking Muslims for changing the direction. The mock because they adopt a shallow approach towards the divine commands, they fail to take an insightful look into the implied meaning. The meaning was to validate Muslims' level of faith. That is why Allah Say To Allah belong both, east and the west. The whole universe is His. Allah Is free to command us to direct towards where Allah Pleases. To those who don’t understand, they took it as abandoning a very important symbol by shifting away from Ka`ba. They adopted a shallow approach, failed to see the inner meaning. The whole point was to see who worships the Lord of the House rather than the house. Who created the house, who is the owner of the house, not only the house, who is the owner of the whole universe? Concurrently, the situation, meaning and in depth connotation, makes us realize that the Qiblah is a way of life, an approach, methodology..etc. No wonder Allah after two Ayahs including the one we highlighted above; ends this set of Ayahs with a harsh warning to His beloved Messenger (which is in turn a warning to all of us) saying: "Verily, if you follow their desires after that which you have received of knowledge (from Allah), then indeed you will be one of the wrong-doers". Precisely". This warning makes it very explicit what exactly is the role of a Qiblah. It is the compass, the direction of one's desires, orientation and trends. Being so, it is grave for a Muslim, leave alone the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam to follow the desires of the non Muslims. But before the warning there is an extremely deep statement.
The Ayah say: " And even if you were to bring to the People of the Scripture all the Signs, they would not follow your Qiblah (prayer direction), nor are you going to follow their Qiblah (prayer direction). And they will not follow each other's Qiblah (prayer direction). Verily, if you follow their desires after that which you have received of knowledge (from Allah), then indeed you will be one of the wrong-doers." (Quran 2:145).
It establishes a fact that is clear and evident till today. In this Ayah, Allah Is making a collective statement about people of scripture (Jews and Nazarenes), actually telling His Messenger that no matter what he does and introduces of evidences and proofs to those people that he is the Messenger and that they must follow Islam as was originally introduced to them before they corrupted their own religion (referred to here as Qiblah), still they will not accept or follow. But the statement is succeeded with stating another fact to the Messenger and certainly all Muslims then, that he will not also follow their Qiblah (trends). This makes it impossible for a Muslim to follow their suits. Again and for the 3rd time, Allah States that even among them, people of the book, will not follow each other's Qiblah (no need to re explain the meaning here). Sobhan Allah, you will not find today a Nazarene who follows Jewish approaches, trends, ..and vice versa, Jews will not follow, adopt or apply the Nazarenes way of life. If you are in a supermarket, you will simply find a Kosher corner catering for the Jewish community because they are not to follow the Nazarenes way of life concerning food. And this is just one example. Sobhan Allah, how eloquent the Quran language is, in just one word, Allah Explained a whole system of life that sustains till today. Truly, neither both groups do follow footsteps of each other. But the most important is for us to stay firm and keep this noble Ayah right in mind each and every moment. To stay firm on our Qiblah and never change direction. To observe our direction rather than running to follow their footstep.
May Allah Assist us to stay so.
Alhamdulelah and prayer and peace be upon the Messenger.