Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions

This verse instructs prayer towards the [[Ka'bah]] (the word ''qiblah'' referring to the direction that one has to face in order to pray towards the Ka'bah). Taken literally, "turning one's face" toward the Ka'bah is only possible on a flat Earth, since on a spherical Earth, a prayer made in any direction from anywhere other than the immediate vicinity of the Ka'bah will point towards the sky and ultimately outer-space, not Mecca. Other Islamic practices such as defecting opposite the Ka'bah and sleeping facing the Ka'bah are likewise complicated. Indeed, in facing the Ka'bah perfectly, one's hind side would also, on a sphere, necessarily face the Ka'bah with equal perfection.

Other problems emerge as well. For instance: the Americas are largely contained in the hemisphere of the antipode (point directly opposite on a sphere) to Mecca. The great circle lines across the continent diverge from the antipode before they start to converge when they enter the hemisphere of Mecca, causing people north and south across the Americas to face away from each other as they pray, with those on the west coast of North America even facing the Arctic. Many find this psychologically awkward, so among American Muslims the [[W:Rhumb line|rhumb line]] method is often preferred (a rhumb line appears as a straight line on [[w:Mercator_projection|Mercator projection]] world maps). The two very different methods can lead to disagreement and criticism among Muslims in the same locale. Another difficult implication is that a person located at the antipode of Mecca itself would simultaneously be facing toward and directly away from Mecca no matter which direction they turned, a situation similar to that a person attempting to pray within the walls of the Ka'bah itself.