into two halves and the west into two halves, and at the southern stars, which likewise divide the east into two halves and the west into two halves. The southern stars are on the southern side, and the northern stars on the northern side. Yet only one who has become well acquainted with them while out in the open desert, with no electric lights around him, can recognize these stars. Those who know them can determine the passage of the night and day by the hour—indeed, by less than an hour. They may say: Half the night has now passed; a quarter has passed; an eighth has passed; a tenth has passed. They infer this from these stations.

Some scholars said that major mountains may also be used as indications (1).

Others said that rivers and their outlets may be used as indications (524).

Others said that the winds may be used as indications (524).

However, the indications provided by these three are subtle. This is why the author, may Allah have mercy on him, passed over them and did not mention them. Some people possess a keen sense, such that they can tell you: “The wind is southerly; the wind is easterly; the wind is westerly”—even if they are blind—and they use the winds to determine directions.

In our time, Allah has bestowed precise instruments by which the direction of the qiblah may be determined. Indeed, I have heard that there are instruments by which the exact qiblah itself may be determined, because they say that the Ka'bah is the center of the globe, and that they have now developed precise instruments whose direction is always toward the center of the earth, which is its middle.