The True Qiblah: Mecca or Jerusalem?

     In Armstrong’s eleventh chapter titled “Bayt al-Maqdis,” which is a common Arabic name for Jerusalem, she touches on the topic of the qiblah. In Islam, there are five pillars in which Muslims must adhere to; one of them is salat, or the five daily prayers. These prayers must be performed in the direction of the qiblah, the Islamic center of the world and correlatively Islam's most sacred site. Since January of 624, the qiblah has been the al-Bayt al-Haram in Mecca, which contains the Kaaba. This was established despite the idea that “all space…is sacred and no location was holier than another” but because Islam is considered a “realistic faith… Muhammad knew that human beings needed symbols on which to focus” (Armstrong 221).

    Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam also reveres Jerusalem as a holy and sacred space. This is true for Islam because for a period in Muhammad’s lifetime, Jerusalem was the qiblah for Muslims. What does it mean that the sacred space had changed at one point in time? Muhammad deemed Jerusalem the qiblah because while he believed the Kaaba to be sacred, at the time it was being infiltrated by idols and idol worshippers. The concept of shirk, the worship of many gods and/or idols, is prohibited in Islam, and was a common practice of many tribal groups that stemmed from pre-Islamic Arabia. The dominating tribe in Mecca, the Quraysh, were no exception. While the Quraysh tribe was the tribe that Muhammad was born into, they became his opposition as Islam grew in Mecca and into the rest of the Hijaz. This created tension between Muslims, Quraysh, and the Jewish tribes in Mecca. By facing Jerusalem during prayer, Muhammad redirected the Muslims' energy towards the other ahl al-kittab, or people of the book. By associating an Islamic holy site with a Jewish holy site, it was meant to demonstrate connection with the Jews because of their common belief in monotheism and rejection of polytheism. Muhammad believed this would also help with the relationship between the Jewish tribes in Medina since this was a precursor for the second hijra to Medina.

    Muhammad then officially switched the qiblah from Jerusalem to Mecca, following the revelation of the so-called “qiblah verse” of the Qur’an in ayah 144 of Sura al-Baqara. This also led to the reclamation of Mecca after the Muslims had been exiled, also known as the Battle of Badr. This battle and reclamation signified a turning point in the growth of Islam, as well as the establishment of a new “most holy” site for Islam.