Refuting a Delusion
Some of those deviants said: “Common sense shows every human being that the direction of al-Qiblah is the shortest distance.” This is extremely astonishing, full of lies, and contrary to what is evidenced. If their saying had been correct, then the old mosques would have faced toward the direction they falsely claim. If their saying had been correct, there would not have been a difference among the Muslims in the USA and Canada on the issue of al-Qiblah. Moreover the shortest distance was not unknown to the Muslim scholars whose saying we mentioned, who knew precisely that they shape of Earth was oblate. Some of them lived long after Columbus had discovered America the year 898 AH. Among such scholars are Shamsuddin ar-Ramilyy ash-Shafi^iyy who died in the year 1004 AH, Muhammad ^Arafah ad-Dusuqiyy, who died in the year 1230 AH, ash-Shaykh Muhammad ^Ulaysh al-Malikiyy, who died in the year 1299 AH, Mansur Ibn Yunus al-Buhutiyy al-Hanbaliyy, who died in the year 1046 AH, and Ibn ^Abidin al-Hanafiyy who died in the year 1253 AH, and others.
If common sense had shown every human being that the direction of al-Qiblah was the shortest distance, al-‘Azhar of Egypt would not have ruled recently that al-Qiblah for those in the USA and Canada is southeast, nor would the scholar of our time have ruled likewise. Similarly, there would not have been compasses numbered to show the direction of al-Qiblah was to the southeast (bearing in mind that we do not accept the saying of non-Muslims in this matter). So what do the adopters of this false opinion say about all of that? Is it not obvious that if what they had said was true, then all would have agreed on that one thing by common sense? Are they claiming that all of those whom we have mentioned impede common sense and do not have it whereas they are the only ones with common sense? Verily, Allah is the One who protects from sinning and He empowers one to be obedient.
We read a letter sent to the Canadian al-Mir’at newspaper by one of those complex intelligence pretenders is which he rejects the ruling of al-‘Azhar that al-Qiblah for those in Canada is southeast. In his letter he confessed that the maharib of the old mosques of Canada were directed southeast and that the spherical geometry is complex and lay Muslims do not comprehend it. Toward the end of his letter, he listed qualification that would justify him addressing such an issue. We did not find any more than a degree in engineering (specialty not mentioned), chief editor of a magazine, and board member of one of the organizations. There was no mention about acquiring religions knowledge from any of the reliable scholars, or earning a recognized degree from them. Moreover, his extreme inadequacy in understanding the statements of the scholars and their terminology led him to mention names of books, as reference on the subject of time and determining al-Qiblah, that contradict him! The authors of these books stand as witnesses to his mistake. For instance, he cited as a reference Abul ^Abbas Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn ^Uthman al-‘Azdiyy al-Marrakishiyy, the one who say regarding this issue: “I conclude that al-Qiblah of that people of the west among the northern region from Makkah, (may Allah increase its honor) {like the united state of America}, is in the south eastern quarter and that he who prays to the south western quarter is certainly mistaken. Likewise (he is mistaken) if he prays to one of the two northern quarters.” As you can see, his saying is completely in accordance with our saying, totally contradicting the saying of this claimer. Verily, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.
With a great deal of pity, we see today that the issue of religion is being tackled by whoever wants to, without guidelines or supervision. If one of them should need to fix his car he would go to a specialist. But with regard to answering religions questions without knowledge, they are very aggressive and daring and to them it is as easy as sipping from a glass of water. You would find them very keen on adhering to the deviant cases and to that which contradict the saying of the ancient scholars. They think of themselves as the ones meant by the saying: “Even though I belong to the recent time, I shall accomplish that which the predecessors did not.” Abu ^Aliyy ad-Daqqaq said, “He who keeps silent about saying the truth is a mute devil,” hence, we shall not be silent about those people.
We pray to Allah to facilitate that this treatise corrects that which was established incorrectly. Also we ask that He facilitates, for whomever He willed the guidance, to read it thoroughly and accept the truth it contains. Verily, Allah does what He wills and guides to the proper path.
Add comment July 16th, 2005