قَدْ نَرَى تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاء فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنتُمْ فَوَلُّواْ وُجُوِهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ أُوْتُواْ الْكِتَابَ لَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ وَمَا اللّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ







Indeed We see the turning of your face to heaven, so We shall surely turn you to a qiblah which you shall like; turn then your face towards the Sacred Mosque, and wherever you are, turn your face towards it, and those who have been given the Book most surely know that it is the truth from their Lord; and Allah is not at all heedless of what they do.



M Shakir's Quran Translation







This shows the sincere desire of Mustafa to seek light from above in the matter of the Qiblah. Until the organization of his own People into a well-knit community, with its distinctive laws and ordinances, he followed a practice based on the fact that the Jews and Christians looked upon Jerusalem as a sacred city. But there was no universal Qiblah among them. Some Jews turned towards Jerusalem as a sacred city. But there was no universal Qiblah among them. Some Jews turned towards Jerusalem, especially during the Captivity, as we shall see later. At the time of our Prophet, Jerusalem was in the hands of the Byzantine Empire, which was Christian. But the Christians oriented their churches to the East (hence the word "orientation") which is a point of the compass, and not the direction of any sacred place. The fact of the altar being in the East does not mean that every worshipper has his face to the east; for, according at least to modern practice, the seats in a church are so placed that different worshippers may face in different directions. The Preacher of Unity naturally wanted, in this as in other matters, a symbol of complete unity, and his heart was naturally delighted when the Qibla towards the Kaaba was settled. .



(Yusuf Ali's Commentary from Qur'an Translation)







Muslims are living in all parts of the world and if they were not any specific direction, some might have faced the west some might have faced the east and that would have created doubts and lack of unity. For this reason all the Muslims of the world face towards one Kaaba. Firstly the Muslims faced towards the Jerusalem and then towards Kaaba, clearly indicating that these are only directions meant just for the reason of unity.







Kaaba the racial centre



All the renowned races of the world and nations live from 15 to 35 degrees longitude. The arians and Mongolian in the east, the blacks (habash) and red Indians in the west. So for spreading Islam ALLAH chose the center 20 degree longitude, i.e. Makkah.



Location of Kaaba in Light of Plate movement through the geological ages



Quran uses the Arabic word مكه which means and few muslims have claimed that Kaaba is the racial center of the world.

Dr. Salih Muhammad Awadh, Faculty of science, geology department in Baghdad University came up with an interesting research. He explains the importance of the geographical location of Makkah in light of the plate movements and the continental drift. Here is what Dr. Salih has to say:



Geologists divides the historical geology of the earth into many divisions and subdivision to make it understandable when talking about a certain period of the earth age , the earth's age is estimated to be 4.5 billions years ,the earth age extends from the Cambrian age till the modern age , since this age , the earth plates have been moving continuously changing their shapes and locations and even their numbers – some of them were broken forming new plates while others were joined together .



It is scientifically –established that the earth plates, through the long geological age, have been moving regularly around the Arabian plate; these plates constantly converge towards it as if they pointed to it. Scientific studies affirm and attest these facts though not published to discuss the convergence of the plates towards the Arabian plate but published with irrelevant aims.







Figure 1



The movement of the Indian plate 71 millions years ago estimated according to the magnetic anomalies in according to Indian Ocean bed – the source is :( Spencer, 2003)



(Figure -2) shows the movement of the Indian plate according to magnetic anomalies estimations regarding the floor of Indian ocean, it also shows the different locations that both the Indian and srilanka plates occupied over the span of the last 71 millions years up till now till it seemingly took its final place that is because its movement can't be seen and that its movement is too slow, if compared with the human age. It is clear in (figure -2) that the Indian plate had moved northwards with a slight circulation counterclockwise (figure-2), the movement of the Arabian plate is not taken into consideration in this figure; the location of the Saudi Arabia is a part of the Arabian plate.







Figure 2



The movement of the earth plates according to the Arabian plate one million years ago (source Forster, 1978)



(Figure -3) shows the location of Arabian plate according to the Indian , African , Turkish and Iranians plates ( it was first composed of a number of parts , this figure also shows the part middle of Iran as a separate part from the north of the west of Iran ) and Afghanistan , (figure -3) shows the location of these plate surrounding the Arabian plate , the dotted lines parts ( plates represented with discontinued line ) to the earth plate during the mid Jurassic Age



(That is one millions years ago). When looking carefully at (figure -3), we will find that the Indian plate has moved northwards counterclockwise as far as a few degrees and so did the plates of Afghanistan, the middle and the north of the west of Iran, and Turkey







Figure 3



The location of the Holy Makkah in the Arabian plate



If we look at the location of the Arab plate in the one million years ago (the part which is represented by dots) in (figure 3), we will find that it has moved a little northwards taking into consideration the movement of the far plates; it moved around counterclockwise. We can conclude that the Arabian plate in the last million years (before creating the human being) and at the present time took a mid position among the earth plates – these plates encompass it (figure-3)



During her long time journey, the Arabian plate didn't cover along distance as it is the center of the circulation movement, it has moved within the shorter diameter. So it is clear that the Arabian plate is center of the earth plates, and everywhere it goes, it is followed by the other plates going round it regularly, each plate keeps its constant direction towards the Arabian plate. It is well-established that Mecca where the Muslim Kaaba lies is in the Arabian plate.



Now, if we use the same approach applied on the Arabian plate, we can say that every thing on and in the earth directs its face to Mecca where the Muslim Kaaba lies, this system will go on, according to Allah's will, to a certain time assigned by Allah, this accurate unwavering system can't be out of a chance; it is a supernatural power that made it and is still keeping it going on – that is Allah, who rose the heavens with unseen pillars.



(Excerpted with slight modifications from Dr. Salih Muhammad Awadh's article "Makkah the Center of the Earth")



Also see the book: The Ka'aba is the center of the earth by Dr. Saad al Marsafi



To see this document with figures, search it at scribd.com







See the complete list of Scientific Miracles in Surah Baqarah here







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