Allah has made evident those of you who strive and has made evident those who are steadfast?” {142} [Āl ‘Imrān 142]

The meaning of the verse in Sūrat al-Shūrā is that, if He, glorified is He, wills, He stills the wind, leaving the ships motionless upon the sea’s surface; and if He wills, He wrecks them because of what their occupants have earned, pardons much, and those who dispute Our signs come to know. All of this falls within the consequence of the condition “if He wills.” That is, if He wills, He destroys them for their sins and also pardons many of those sins; alongside this, those who dispute Our signs come to know that they have no escape. Thus, if He wills, He combines destroying some and pardoning others with those who dispute His signs then coming to know that they have no escape.

The tenth response concerns his statement: “Furthermore, He, exalted is He, has made the Throne the direction we face in supplication, just as He has made the Kaaba the direction we face in prayer.”

He should be told: This is false, and its falsehood is self-evident both rationally and religiously. This becomes clear from several considerations.

First, Muslims unanimously agree that the direction one is prescribed to face when supplicating is the same direction one is prescribed to face when remembering Allah, as at ‘Arafah and Muzdalifah, and on al-Safā and al-Marwah. Likewise, everyone remembering Allah or supplicating is encouraged to face that direction, as it is established that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would deliberately face it when supplicating. It is also the direction towards which the deceased are prescribed to be turned, and towards which sacrificial animals and other animals to be slaughtered are directed. It is the same direction that one is forbidden to face when urinating or defecating. Muslims—and indeed others—therefore do not have two distinct directions to face, even for acts of worship belonging to two different categories