Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 142 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:142

۞ سَيَقُولُ ٱلسُّفَهَآءُ مِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَا وَلَّىٰهُمْ عَن قِبْلَتِهِمُ ٱلَّتِى كَانُوا۟ عَلَيْهَا ۚ قُل لِّلَّهِ ٱلْمَشْرِقُ وَٱلْمَغْرِبُ ۚ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ

“The foolish among the people will say, "What has turned them away from their qiblah,[50] which they used to face?"[51] Say, "To Allāh belongs the east and the west. He guides whom He wills to a straight path."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Before the mockery came, Allah gave the answer: east and west are His, and He guides whom He wills to a straight path.

A reflection

No direction is holy by itself

On a night flight, a passenger watches the moving map on the seat-back screen. The little aeroplane swings over the sea. North, then east, then south. Directions he took for fixed shift every few minutes as the plane turns.

When the qibla changed from Jerusalem to the Kaʿba, critics asked: 'What has turned them from the qibla they used to face?' The answer given is short. 'Say: To Allah belong the east and the west.'

A major theologian unpacks it. All directions belong to Allah, as property and as dominion. So no direction deserves to be a qibla in itself. A place becomes the qibla only because Allah made it so. And if He made it so, no one can object when He turns people from one to another.

A narration-based commentary draws the conclusion for the believer. The whole matter is obeying Allah's command. Wherever He directs us, we turn. If He directed us to many directions in a single day, we would turn each time. We are His servants.

This cuts deep into the ego. We like our sacred things to be ours: our place, our custom, our way of doing it. The ayah reminds us that even the holiest direction on earth is holy only by His choosing. What we face is a gift. It is not a possession.

Does Allah need us to face anywhere at all? No. He is free of all need (35:15), and east and west are already His. The facing is for us. It gives a scattered creature one point to turn to.

The passenger's map kept turning all night. The Owner of every direction did not.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.