During their years of wandering, the Tent of Meeting remained with the Children of Israel. They prayed toward it, for it was their qiblah and their Kaʿbah. Their imam was Moses—Allah’s spoken-to servant, peace be upon him—and the one who presented their offerings was his brother Aaron, peace be upon him. When Aaron passed away, followed later by Moses, the descendants of Aaron continued to perform the sacrificial duties their forefather had overseen, and that responsibility has remained with them to this day.

After Moses, the burdens of prophethood and the leadership of the community were shouldered by his disciple Joshua son of Nun, peace be upon him, the one who led them into Jerusalem, as will be detailed later. Once Joshua took possession of the Holy House, he set up this Tent upon the Rock of the Sanctuary, and the people prayed toward it. When the tent disappeared, they continued to pray toward its former site—the Rock itself. For that reason it remained the qiblah of the prophets after him until the time of the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ.

The Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, did in fact pray toward it before the Hijrah, placing the Kaʿbah before him. After he migrated he was commanded to face Jerusalem, and he continued to do so for sixteen—or, it is said, seventeen—months (1). The qiblah was then shifted to the Kaʿbah, the qiblah of Abraham, in Shaʿbān of the second year AH, during the ʿAsr prayer—though some report it was during ẓuhr—as we have explained in detail in our Tafsīr (2) when discussing Allah’s words: “The foolish among the people will say, ‘What has turned them away from the qiblah they used to face?’ … ‘We have certainly seen the turning of your face toward heaven, so We shall surely turn you to a qiblah that pleases you. So turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque’” (3) [al-Baqarah 2:142–144].