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