When the Messenger of Allaah
(sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) stood for prayer, he
would face the Ka'bah in both obligatory and voluntary
prayers
1, and he (sallallaahu 'alaihi
wa sallam) ordered that, saying to the "one who prayed
badly"
2 : When you stand for prayer,
perform ablution prefectly, then face the qiblah and say
takbeer.
3 "During a journey, he (sallallaahu 'alaihi
wa sallam) would pray voluntary prayers and witr on his
mount, wherever it faced carrying him [east or west]."4
The saying of Allaah, the Exalted,
"Wherever you turn, there is the Face of
Allaah" (Baqarah, 2:115) applies to this.5
"[Sometimes] when he intended to pray
non-obligatory prayers on his she-camel, he would make
it face the qiblah, say takbeer, and pray towards
wherever his mount turned its face."6
"He would make rukoo' and sajdah on his
mount by lowering his head, making the sajdah lower than
the rukoo'."7
"When he intended to pray obligatory
prayers, he would dismount and face the qiblah."8
In prayer during severe fear, he
(sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) set the example for his
ummah to pray "on foot, standing on their feet, or
mounted; facing the qiblah or not facing it"9, and he also said, When
they (the armies) meet, then it (i.e. the prayer) is
takbeer and indication with the head.10
He (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) also
used to say: What is between the east and the west is
qiblah.11
Jaabir (radiallaahu 'anhu) said:
"Once, when we were with the Messenger of
Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) on an expedition,
the sky was cloudy, so we tried to find the Qibla but we
differed, so each one of us prayed in a different
direction, and each of us drew marks in front of him in
order to mark our positions. In the morning, we looked
at it and found that we had not prayed towards the
Qiblah. So we mentioned this to the Prophet (sallallaahu
'alaihi wa sallam) [but he did not order us to repeat
(the prayer)] and he said: Your prayer was
sufficient."12
"He (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) used
to pray towards Bait al-Muqaddas [with the Ka'bah in
front of him] before the following verse was revealed:
"We see the turning of your faces to the heavens;
now shall we turn you to a Qiblah that shall please you:
turn then your faces in the direction of the Sacred
Mosque" (Baqarah 2:144). When it was revealed he
faced the Ka'bah. There were people at Qubaa' praying
Fajr when someone came to them and said, 'Verily the
Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) has
had some of the Qur'aan revealed to him last night and
he has been ordered to face the Ka'bah, [verily] so face
it'. Their faces were towards Shaam, so they turned
round [and their Imaam turned round to face the qiblah
along with them]."13
