– ashkalat: from ashkala – yushkilu – ishkālan; that is, the direction of the qiblah became confused for us on that pitch-dark night.

Lessons derived from the ḥadīth

1. When a traveller is uncertain about the qiblah, performs the prayer, and then discovers that he was mistaken, his prayer remains valid, regardless of whether he learns of the error while the time for the prayer still remains or afterwards.

2. Facing the qiblah is a prerequisite for prayer; without it, the prayer is invalid, whether obligatory or supererogatory, for the Almighty says, “So turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque, and wherever you are, turn your faces toward it” (Q 2:144).

3. Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn remarked that facing the qiblah in prayer is commonly known to every Muslim and is one of the essential conditions for the validity of the prayer. Ibn Rushd added that whatever has reached us by consecutive mass transmission—such as the obligation to face the qiblah and that the qiblah is the Kaʿbah—can be denied only by a disbeliever.

4. The scholars state: whoever is close enough to the Kaʿbah to see it must aim at its very structure, whereas someone who is far from it is required only to face its general direction. Al-Inṣāf clarifies that “distance” here refers to a situation in which one cannot actually see the Kaʿbah, nor find someone with certain knowledge to inform him; it has nothing to do with the legal travel distance for shortening the prayer or anything less than that.

5. Commenting on the noble verse, Ibn Jarīr said: this verse was revealed about people for whom the qiblah became obscure, so they prayed facing different directions; therefore Allah, Exalted is He, said, “So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah” (Q 2:115).

6. The early scholars affirmed for Allah, Most High, the attribute of exaltedness befitting His majesty and greatness, while simultaneously affirming that nothing can encompass Him; rather, He—glorified and exalted—is Himself encompassing all things.