he came out of it. When he came out, he performed two units of prayer in front of the Kaʿbah and said, “This is the qiblah.” (1)

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Mulayḥī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Nuʿaymī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us; ʿAmr ibn Khālid informed us; Zuhayr informed us; Abū Isḥāq informed us from al-Barāʾ that, when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, first arrived in Medina, he lodged with his maternal relatives—or, he said, his maternal uncles—among the Anṣār. He prayed toward Jerusalem for sixteen or seventeen months, and he liked for his qiblah to be toward the House. The first prayer he performed was the afternoon prayer, and some people prayed with him. Then one of those who had prayed with him went out and passed by people in the mosque of Qubāʾ while they were bowing, and he said, “I bear witness by Allah that I have just prayed with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, facing Mecca.” So they turned, as they were, toward the House.

The Jews had liked it when he prayed toward Jerusalem, because it was the qiblah of the People of the Book. But when he turned his face toward the House, they objected to that. Al-Barāʾ said in this report: “Some men had died and been killed while facing the qiblah before it was changed, and we did not know what to say concerning them.” Then Allah Most High revealed: “Allah would never cause your faith to be lost.” (2)

The qiblah was changed in Rajab, after the sun had passed its zenith, two months before the Battle of Badr. Mujāhid and others said: This verse was revealed while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was in the mosque of Banū Salamah. He had led his Companions in two units of the noon prayer, then turned during the prayer and faced the waterspout. The men moved into the place of the women, and the women into the place of the men. Thus that mosque came to be called the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs. It was also said that the change took place outside the prayer, between the two prayers, and that the people of Qubāʾ received the news during the dawn prayer.

Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Sarakhsī informed us; Abū ʿAlī Zāhir ibn Aḥmad al-Faqīh al-Sarakhsī informed us; Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-Hāshimī al-Sāmirī informed us; Abū Muṣʿab Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Zuhrī informed us from Mālik ibn Anas, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Dīnār, that ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar said: While the people of Qubāʾ were engaged in the dawn prayer, someone came to them and said, “Quran was revealed to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, tonight, and he has been commanded to face the Kaʿbah, so face it.” Their faces had been toward Syria, so they turned toward the Kaʿbah. (3)