Congregants at a mosque in\u00a0Turkey\u00a0had been praying in the wrong direction for nearly four decades before its new imam realised the error, according to reports in Turkish media.<\/p>\n
The mosque in Sugoren, in the country\u2019s western Yalova province, had a key flaw in its construction that meant faithful Muslims \u2013 who are instructed to\u00a0kneel in the direction of\u00a0Mecca\u00a0during prayers \u2013 had misaligned themselves by as much as 33 degrees, the\u00a0Daily Sabah\u00a0<\/em>reported.<\/p>\n Hurriyet<\/em>, citing the Demiroren\u00a0News Agency, said imam Isa Kaya was appointed last year and that, following rumours about the alignment of a niche in the mosque\u2019s wall indicating the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, he decided to ask the advice of local muftis.<\/p>\n The officials confirmed the niche, or\u00a0mihrab<\/em>, had been constructed in the wrong place when the mosque was built in 1981, it was reported.<\/p>\n Rather than tear down the niche immediately, Mr\u00a0Kaya\u00a0used a temporary measure to point people in the right direction \u2013 placing arrows made of white tape on the mosque\u2019s carpet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have explained the situation to our congregation and most of them have reacted positively to our solution,\u201d the imam told\u00a0Demiroren\u00a0News Agency.<\/p>\n An architect will be given the task of redesigning the structure.<\/p>\n Dr Mustafa Baig, Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter\u2019s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, explained the misalignment.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to emphasise that Muslims do not worship the Ka\u2018ba but it is the direction (or\u00a0qibla<\/em>) to which Muslims pray,\u201d he said. \u201cWorship is to Allah.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Qur\u2019an it states: \u2018Wherever you turn, there is the countenance of Allah (2:115).\u2019 Moreover, the direction (or\u00a0jiha<\/em>) is determined by a 90 degree span and not at the exact angle of the Ka\u2019ba.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Baig added: \u201cThe Qur\u2019an mentions: \u2018Turn your face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque\u2019 (2:149) and the word shatar in this verse has been defined as one of the four cardinal directions, giving a leeway of 45 degrees to either side of the Ka\u2018ba: in other any aspect of the forehead should be facing the Ka\u2018ba. In this particular case, the niche was \u2018misaligned\u2019 by 33 degrees so it is with the 45 degree limit.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in the event of praying outside the range of direction, the jurists stipulate that if one has made an effort to determine the direction of the qibla (where due diligence was made) then if later (after the prayer time has lapsed) it becomes known that the prayer direction was completely wrong, the prayer will be considered valid and need not repeated,\u201d the lecturer added.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, therefore, the previous prayers would not be considered invalid and the placement of the prayer niche is also not \u2018wrong\u2019, although they may want to reposition it in order to be facing in the exact direction of the Ka\u2019ba.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n The Independent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Congregants at a mosque in\u00a0Turkey\u00a0had been praying in the wrong direction for nearly four decades before its new imam realised the error, according to reports in Turkish media. The mosque in Sugoren, in the country\u2019s western Yalova province, had a key flaw in its construction that meant faithful Muslims \u2013 who are instructed to\u00a0kneel in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5069,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5067\/revisions\/5069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}