THE FIRST MOSQUE: FACING THE QIBLA

Somebody asked Muhammad which was the mosque �first set up on the earth.� He answered that it was the Ka�ba.  The second one was the great mosque in Jerusalem (1056, 1057).

In the beginning, when Muhammad was trying to cultivate the Jews, he prayed facing their temple in Jerusalem.  But later on, the direction (qibla) was changed to Mecca.  One tradition says: �We prayed with the Messenger of Allah towards Bait-ul-Maqdis for sixteen months or seventeen months.  Then we were made to change our direction towards the Ka�ba� (1072).  The followers had no difficulty and adjusted to the new change with alacrity.  Some people were praying their dawn prayer and had recited one rak�ah.  Someone told them that the qibla had been changed.  �They turned towards the new qibla in that very state� (1075).

The translator assures us that �this was a change of far-reaching importance. . . . It strengthened the loyalty of the Muslims to Islam and the Prophet� (note 732).  It must have made a strong appeal to Arab nationalism.

author : ram swarup