will reinforce you with a thousand angels, following one another.’1 Allah then reinforced him with the angels.”2

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim also narrated from Abd Allah ibn Zayd, who said: “The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—went out to this prayer ground to pray for rain. He supplicated and prayed for rain, then faced the qibla and turned his cloak around.”3

It is likewise established that he faced the qibla when supplicating during Hajj: at Safā and Marwa, at Arafah, at the Sacred Monument, and at the first and second pillars. There are numerous hadiths to this effect. They demonstrate that facing the qibla when supplicating is prescribed and that doing so is better and more complete for the supplicant. Nevertheless, it is neither binding nor obligatory during supplication, for it is established that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—supplicated without facing the qibla.

In the Book of Supplications in his Sahih, Imam al-Bukhārī accordingly included a chapter entitled “Supplicating Without Facing the Qibla,” in which he narrated the hadith of Anas ibn Mālik—may Allah be pleased with him—who said: “While the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—was delivering the Friday sermon, a man stood up and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, ask Allah to send us rain.’ The sky became overcast, and it rained so heavily that a man could scarcely reach his home. It continued raining until the following Friday, when that man—or someone else—stood up and said, ‘Ask Allah to turn it away from us, for we have been flooded.’ He said, ‘O Allah, let it fall around us and not upon us.’ The clouds then began to break apart around Medina, and no rain fell upon its inhabitants.”4

It is well known that the preacher has his back toward the qibla while delivering the sermon. This therefore demonstrates that facing the qibla is not a condition for supplication, but it is the