Mast Qalandar (a.k.a. Aziz Akhmad)
Normally, I receive four or five e-mail messages daily that I want to read, mainly from family and friends. That day I received two dozen, or more — from places as far as Swat in Pakistan to San Francisco in the US. It was not junk mail, but helpful advice, offered in earnest, on how to determine the exact direction of the qibla (the location of Ka’ba, the cubic structure in Mecca, towards which Muslims pray) in North America. The messages came in response to an article that I had written about the APPNA meeting, “I fell among (the APPNA) doctors”, which was published on ATP and in The News.
In that article, I had described the various events I witnessed, from the sidelines, at the annual get-together of the Pakistani-American doctors in Washington DC. The events included recreational, social, political, and spiritual activities, both organized and spontaneous. Among other things, I had mentioned, passingly, an incident where a doctor, seemingly in a rush to say his maghrib prayer, had asked me the direction of the qibla, and I had, reflexively, pointed to the west, whereas the qibla, here in North America, is generally to the east.
Reading the messages, what surprised me was the lengths to which the different writers went and the pains they took to explain the various ’scientific’ techniques and procedures they thought should be employed to determine the exact direction of the qibla.
Personally, I never had a problem in determining the direction of the qibla. For me, in Pakistan, the qibla was always to the west. Actually, where I grew up, the direction of the qibla was toward the mountain behind which the sun set. A few degrees this way or that way didn’t matter as long as one faced the general direction of the mountain. No one ever heard of a debate or discussion on the subject. Nor anyone felt the need for employing any scientific techniques to determine the precise direction.
When I first came to the US, many years ago, as a young student, our campus was situated at the foot of a mountain range. And, just like back home, here, too, the sun set behind the mountains. Reflexively, I thought that must be the direction of the qibla. But, since we were on the other side of the globe, it didn’t take any deep understanding of Astronomy or Calculus to know that the direction of the qibla, here, was in the opposite direction - away from the mountains. One got used to the new orientation just as one got used to driving on the right-hand side of the road. Again, never did one hear of any deliberations or debate on determining the precise direction of the qibla - to the nearest decimal, that is.
But I guess those were the proverbial good old days when things were relatively simple. We used common sense to find answers to common questions. We hadn’t yet entered the field of “rocket science”. We stumbled on that branch of knowledge much later. (Incidentally, in those days in the US, we also didn’t read the label on a box of cereals to check if it contained animal proteins. Nor did we stop brushing our teeth for fear that the toothbrush might have animal bristles on it. We knew bristles on toothbrushes were made of synthetic fiber, thanks to DuPont who started making nylon in 1938.)
Some of the ” helpful advice” I received in my in-box varied from simple to very complex.
One writer offered a simple and easy-to-follow advice. He said:
“qibla direction in North America is North-East, not just East.”.
Another writer, a bit more precise, said:
“Qibla is 45 degrees North of East. ” Yet another said: “17 degrees North-East”
But the question is, which way exactly is the east? And how do you measure degrees? Carry a compass?
Another writer, Mr. Khan, from France, wrote:
“The physical direction of qiblah Q from the place where you live Y is a vector YQ. You can very well decompose this vector into YX (vector from your place Y to any landmark X) and vector XQ. The sum of these last two vectors, YQ+XQ will be the first one YQ.”
Since I didn’t quite follow the thread of Mr. Khan’s logic, I wrote back to him, thanking him for his advice and confessing that I had dropped mathematics as a subject at the first available opportunity in college, and therefore if he could explain his point in simple language.
Mr. Khan came back with a diagram of the globe, marked with points and lines, and a page length of explanation. I reproduce only a few lines of the explanation (you will know why):
“Any point in a rectilinear coordinates can be represented in (X, Y, Z) three dimensions. Since our earth is sphere, we better use the spherical coordinates. In this system we use R, Theta, and Phi, where R is the radius of the sphere, in this case radius of the earth, which remains constant, so we simply have to know Theta and Phi of any place to know its exact position …”
Mr. Khan reminds me of one of our professors who scribbled equations on the blackboard, furiously, like a man possessed, without looking back at the class, using up the chalk to the point where his fingers could not hold it any longer. While he would use up chalk after chalk on the blackboard, the class would pray for the bell to ring.
I decided not to seek any further explanation from Professor Khan.
There were several other suggestions, some referring to the latitudes, longitudes and to the angle of the tilt of the globe etc. However, the most useful tip, because it was the quickest and did not involve any calculations on my part, came from someone in the US, from the West Coast (I suspect from Silicon Valley). The gentleman sent me an Internet link. All I had to do was open the given web page, enter my zip code, click Enter, and I would get the precise direction in the form of a red line pointing to the qibla.
I opened the web page recommended by the writer, entered my New York zip code and clicked the Enter key. Up came, on the computer screen, a virtual 3-dimensional Google map of Manhattan, showing all the streets and landmark buildings. Penetrating through the maze of streets was a thick, solid, red line emitting, like a laser beam, from my specific address, on the West Side of Manhattan, heading straight into the Empire State Building!
Rather than choosing any of the solutions offered, that is, carrying a compass, trying to solve Professor Khan’s mathematical equations, or facing the Empire State Building, personally, I feel more comfortable with the 1400 years old advice that says: “Righteousness is not whether you turn your face to the east or the west” rather it is serving humanity and doing good deeds (2:177).
The article was also published in The News of August 15, 2008.
You can visit ATP on your Mobile Phone. Here's how!
Here’s another. QiblaDirection.com
I quite like this one because it’s mobile phone friendly and it tells me the prayer times for my location.
AHsn,
All I can say to your long and well researched comment is that the reason I have stayed with ATP for 2 years now is NOT because it occasionally publishes my silly articles, but because of the commenters like yourself. I always learn something new from such comments.
And, by the way, I do not “play dumb to show my humor”. I am a bit dumb when it comes to mathematics and physics. The words like “rectilinear” and “coordinates” send me daydreaming and I lose the thread. The humor that you might see in what I say is probably incidental. But I do not “become frivolous to prove my happiness”. Happiness does not need to be proved. It simply shows. Incidentally, happiness and lightheartedness are synonymous. Aren’t they?
I must say that I am impressed by your recall of a nearly 2-year old post on Khota Qabar. I remember that post specifically because our friend PMA had admonished me for making fun of our glorious not-too-distant-past and almost killed the “budding writer” in me.
I am sure there will soon be a North-South dialogue on the last part of your comment.
@Ya Mast Qalandar,
hope you found your Qibla !! if you have,
” Durust kar lo ” !!
Btw, your last reference of 2:177 is like this :
It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces
Towards East or West ;
But it is righteousness–
To believe in God
And the Last Day
And The Angels
And The Book
And The Messengers ;
To spend of your substances,
out of love for Him,
For your kin
For Orphans,
For the needy,
For the wayfarer,
For those who ask,
And for the ransom of slaves ;
To be steadfast in prayer,
And practice regular charity ;
To fulfil the contracts
Which you have made ;
And to be firm and patient,
In pain (or suffering)
And adversity,
And throughout
All periods of panic.
Such are the people
Of truth, the God-fearing.
The above translation carry all the punctuations to
understand the inter-relations of all verbs, adverbs and
adjectives etc. which is imperative and complimentary to
details concerned for comprihension.
(your positive remarks should be “after” the brackets
(2:177) to which I have tried to list the details) .
If you don’t mind !!
Rafay Kashmiri
Dear Mast Qalandar (a.k.a. Aziz Akhmad)
As Fauzia said, your post is a “Good humour writing”. Only problem is that some time you play (1) dumb to show your humour or (2) become frivolous to prove your happiness.
You have made a fun of poor Mr. Khan by showing your ignorance of simple mathematics of which you have already shown the knowledge on a previous occasion.
Instead of quoting the whole text of Mr. Khan you quote only:
“Any point in a rectilinear coordinates can be represented in (X, Y, Z) three dimensions. Since our earth is sphere, we better use the spherical coordinates. In this system we use R, Theta, and Phi, where R is the radius of the sphere, in this case radius of the earth, which remains constant, so we simply have to know Theta and Phi of any place to know its exact position …”
The rest of the message that you have abbreviated with three dots contains the explanation of the relation of these two angles with latitude and longitude with the help of a diagram. Knowing these last two of any place one can determine its position on an Earth’s globe. There is no mathematical calculation or “rocket engineering” involved or required. Also, you do not need any compass as the compass work has been already supplied to you in terms of latitude and longitude which are traced on a spherical Earth globe.
Dear MQ, you are very well versed not only with latitude and longitude but also with altitude (elevation)! In one of earlier posts you supplied us the following information:
“It is so small a place that you won’t find it on any map of Pakistan. However, to my pleasant surprise, a Google search turned up the following information on Khota Qabar or Khote di Qabar: latitude 34.09; longitude 73.17; elevation 3,251 feet.”
But you feel more comfortable with the 1400 years old advice that says:
[“Righteousness is not whether you turn your face to the east or the west” rather it is serving humanity and doing good deeds (2:177)]
If you say that you consider Humanity superior to a Religion then that can be an acceptable statement. But if you use an Ayet of the Holy Book to prove your point of view you should read the complete Ayet before your own extrapolation of serving the humanity.
Yusuf Ali’s translation is : It is not righteousness That ye turn your faces Towards East or West; But it is righteousness To believe in Allah And the Last Day, And the Angels, And the Book, And the Messengers, To spend your substance, Out of love for Him, For your kin, For orphans, For the needy, For the wayfarer, For those who ask, And the ransom of slaves; To be steadfast in prayer, And practice regular charity; To fulfil the contracts Which ye have made; And to be firm and patient, In pain (or suffering) And adversity, And throughout All periods of panic. Such are the people Of truth, the Godfearing.
After the first line, Allah gives a long list of obligations. There is no mention of Human or Humanity. According to Faith the first condition to become human is to believe in Allah. Does your Humanity contain only the believers?
The complications involved in determining the correct direction to Ka’ba is Man made. As far as I know, Allah talks only of East and West (sun-rise and sun-set) when He advises to face Ka’ba. Does He ever talk of North ad South (*)?
If a physical body is moving from one place to another then the nearest direction is necessary, otherwise, when a message is sent by sound waves or any other wave, there is no need of a particular direction. The waves travel, in spherical form, in all the directions. So the prayers will reach Ka’ba no matter in what direction one is praying. One should keep his Faith.
In my opinion, my dear MQ, you are committing two errors:
(1) You are trying to solve the simple problem (already solved) of East and West with the help of some mathematical differential equations or with some rocket technology.
(2) You are using (wrongly), your faith (Ayet) to prove your point instead of Reason
(*) I will be glad and thankful, if one of the readers, sends me the Ayet where North or South directions are explicitly mentioned.
ahsan@noos.fr
Good humor writing, but some comments are humorless :-)
For a Kaum that will indulge in moon fighting a few days from now. With that I mean When does Ramazan start and when does it End. When is Eid?? etc etc.
We love to Disagree. As we have it ..we hatefully disagree in everything!!!!
This Compass phenom is too sophisticated. ;)
We can’t agree on what is seen ( i.e moon) .
HOW can we agree on Qibla because we can’t see it and its a matter of my Compass is more accurate than yours.
I saw months back a Arab guy criticizing a African American Imam giving khutbah that his accent does not qualify him to lead the prayers. I argued with him but he got mad at me and left.
This religion is about the condition of our hearts and yet we focus on dari, pawnche ooper karo, Sar ki Topi, Don’t say Ameen Loudly, Women shouldn’t be allowed in masjid during Juma, Eid moon fighting etc etc.
Also …Due to limitation of Space we go to a Jewish Synagogue for Juma Prayers.
The Question is would Muslims allow Jews or Christians to come to our masjids when we have a hard time alowwing Shia’s or Sunni’s to share the same masjid????
I seriously doubt that.
9-11 forced the muslims to be open and let other faiths see masjid and do interfaith dialogue. Seems like we opened up due to fear not because it was required of us to be open.
We have forgotten what Islam is !!!
and mostly I and all of us need to re-analyze what Islam is???
lida