144. " indeed we see turning your face (o' muhammad) to the heavens,
and now we shall turn you (in prayer) to a qiblah
that you shall be pleased with.
turn then your face towards the sacred mosque and wherever you are,
turn your faces towards it (for prayer) and those
who have been given the (earlier) book know well that it is
the truth from their lord.
and allah is not at all heedless of what they do."

commentary :

turn towards the sacred mosque

as it was mentioned before, jerusalem was the first, but
temporary, qiblah of the muslims. so, as the prophet (p.b.u.h.) was
waiting to receive the command from allah to change the qiblah,
especially after he had migrated to medina and continued praying
towards the same direction, i.e. towards the direction of jerusalem, the
jews used to very frequently taunt the muslims at not having a qiblah
of their own and stated that but for the jews' faith, the holy prophet
(p.b.u.h.) would not even know the direction towards which, by the
direction of allah, he should turn in prayer. owing to the sneers of
the jews he (p.b.u.h.) desired a change and allah granted it to him. in
the above verse this subject is referred to when the command of the
qiblah has been issued to the prophet (p.b.u.h.). it says thus:

" indeed we see turning your face (o' muhammad) to the heavens, ..."
"... and now we shall turn you (in prayer) to a qiblah
that you shall be pleased with. ..."
"... turn then your face towards the sacred mosque..."
"... and wherever you are, turn your faces towards it (for prayer)..."

according to the islamic traditions, we know that this change of
the qiblah happened in medina, at a very sensitive moment when the
prophet (p.b.u.h.) was praying the noontime prayer. the bringer of
divine revelation took muhammad's (p.b.u.h.) arm and turned him
from the direction of jerusalem to the direction of the ka`bah. at the
same time muslims immediately changed their rows, too. it is also said
that in that event even the women had to change their place of prayer
with the men. (it should be noted that in that occurrence jerusalem
was located approximately towards the north while the direction of the
ka`bah was towards the south.)

it is also noteworthy that the change of the qiblah had been one
of the signs of the call of the prophet of islam (p.b.u.h.) written in the
former scriptures. the jews had learnt therein that he (p.b.u.h.) would
pray towards two directions for his qiblah.

therefore, in the above verse, after the command of the qiblah, it adds:

"... and those who have been given the (earlier) book know well that it is
the truth from their lord. ..."

the phrase " those who have been given the (earlier) book " means
the jews who through the prophecies in their scriptures (vide deut 18:
15 & 18) already knew that the holy prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h.) was
a true prophet, thus:

" the lord, thy god, will raise up unto thee a prophet from the
midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me; unto him you shall
hearken:" deut 18: 15.

" i will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like
unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto
them all that i shall command him." deut 18: 18,19

moreover, the prophet of islam (p.b.u.h.) did not follow the
customs of his locale at first, and put aside the ka`bah which was the
center of idols that the arabs loved very much. he formally accepted
the direction of the qiblah of a limited minority, i.e. jerusalem. this
was, in itself, considered proof of the rightfulness of his invitation and
the divinity of his call.

at the end of the verse, it adds:

"... and allah is not at all heedless of what they do."

that is, instead of introducing the change of the qiblah as a sign
of his rightfulness, they rejected it and raised a tumult. but allah is
heedless neither of their actions nor of their intentions.