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142.
" the fools among the people will say: ` what has turned them from
their
qiblah (direction of prayer) which they were facing at.'
say:
` allah's is the east and the west;
he
guides whoever he pleases to a straight way '."
commentary :
occasion of the change of qiblah
this verse together with a few
verses following it refers to one of
the great happenings in the
history of islam which caused a huge wave
of excitement among the people
of that time. the explanation for the
occurrence is that the prophet
of islam (p.b.u.h.), under divine
direction, prayed towards the
direction of jerusalem for thirteen years
in mecca after proclaiming his
mission and then, also, for several
months in medina after his migration.
but again, under divine
direction, the qiblah (i.e.
the direction of prayer) was changed and
muslims were commissioned to
pray towards the ka`bah.
the commentators are divided
as to the length of time that
muslims worshipped facing towards
jerusalem in medina. the
duration of this ritual situation
has been cited from seven to seventeen
months. however, during this
period, muslims were always entangled
with the reproaches of the jews,
because jerusalem was originally the
jewish qiblah. since the muslims
used to pray towards the direction of
jerusalem, the jewish qiblah,
during that time, they blamed that their
(muslims) acceptance of their
(jewish) qiblah proved, as they thought,
that the jews were right in
their creed and muslims, who were not
independent for themselves in
the direction of prayer, were not.
these statements were difficult
for the prophet of islam (p.b.u.h.)
and muslims to bear. they were,
on one hand, showing obedience to
the command of allah, and, on
the other hand, the ceaseless sarcasm
of the jews was intolerable.
it was for this reason that by night prophet
muhammad (p.b.u.h.) occasionally
turned his face towards the heavens
in a way that showed he was
expecting to receive divine revelation.
after some time of waiting,
finally the command for changing the
qiblah was revealed. it was
while the prophet (p.b.u.h.) was praying
the noon prayer and he had already
performed only two rak`ats of the
prayer in bani-salim mosque
towards the direction of jerusalem when
gabriel was commissioned by
allah to take the arm of the prophet
(p.b.u.h.) and turn his face
towards the direction of the ka`bah.
the jews were annoyed with this
occurrence and according to
their old traditional style,
they began seeking pretexts. aforetime, they
used to say that they were superior
to muslims because muslims were
dependent on the jews regarding
their qiblah. but, when the
command of changing the qiblah
was sent down by the lord, a party of
the jews protested; as the qur'an
says:
" the fools among the people
will say: ` what has turned them from
their qiblah (direction of
prayer) which they were facing at ? '..."
the jews disputed about why
the muslims altered the former
prophets' qiblah that day. they
said if the first qiblah was correct,
then why the change? and, if
the second one was right, then why had
they been praying towards the
direction of jerusalem for more than
thirteen years?
the lord ordered his apostle
thus:
"...say: ` allah's is the
east and the west; he guides whoever he
pleases to a straight way
'."
similar to this circumstance
the words east and west, besides the
verse under discussion, have
occured in four other verses of the qur'an:
2: 115, 2: 177, 26: 28, 73:
9. there is a short explanation about their
objective meaning when commenting
on verse 115 (pg. 267 this vol.).
the content meaning of these
terms refers to the omnipresence of
allah as the absolute reality,
the hold of which penetrates the
universe in its every part and
particle as well as its whole, meaning both
the rise of the light in the
east and its setting in the west are the
various aspects of manifestation
of allah's mighty and glory i.e.,
whichever direction the mind
turns there is this aspect of his.
this verse was a decisive clear
reasonable answer for those who
sought pretext by letting them
know that jerusalem, the ka`bah and all
other places belong to allah,
and, intrinsically, allah has no house
and no place; he is the omnipresent.
the main principle here is that
we servants should submit to
his command and whatever direction he
appoints for prayer, that direction
is sacred and respectable and that
direction should be prayed towards.
without his commission, no place
has excellence or preference
in its own essence.
and, the change of the qiblah,
in fact, is one stage of the many
different stages of trial and
development, each of which is an example
of divine guidance. it is he
who guides people to the ` straight path '.
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1 the
commentary of the first part of the holy qur`an ended of the previous
page, but verses about the theme
of qiblah in the qur`an is still continued. hence, to complete the idea,
we had to add some verses of part2,
here, at the end of this volume.
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