better and more complete course. Shaykh al-Islam said: “For this reason, whenever the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—was especially earnest in supplication, he would face the qibla, as he did during the prayer for rain in which he raised his hands fully. Abbād ibn Tamīm narrated from his uncle: ‘The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—went out with the people to pray for rain. He led them in two units of prayer, reciting aloud in both, turned his cloak around, raised his hands, supplicated for rain, and faced the qibla.’1 This was narrated by the compilers of the Sahih collections, Sunan works, and Musnads, including al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasā’ī, Ibn Mājah, and others. The report thus states that, during his supplication for rain, he faced the qibla that is also the qibla of prayer.”2

He also said—may Allah have mercy on him: “The Muslims unanimously agree that the qibla which the supplicant is prescribed to face when supplicating is the same qibla that one is prescribed to face when praying. It is likewise the direction prescribed when remembering Allah, as one faces it at Arafah and Muzdalifah and upon Safā and Marwa. Just as everyone who remembers Allah and supplicates is recommended to face the qibla—and it is established that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—would deliberately face it when supplicating—it is also the direction toward which the deceased is prescribed to be placed and toward which sacrificial offerings and other animals are to be directed when slaughtered. It is also the direction one is forbidden to face when urinating or defecating. Muslims—and indeed all others—do not have two different qiblas for acts of worship belonging to two different categories, such as prayer and sacrifice, let alone for acts of worship belonging to the same category, some of which are connected to others. Prayer includes supplication in al-Fātihah and elsewhere, and supplication itself is prayer; Allah has called it prayer in His Book,”