This also clarifies the claim made by those who say:

“For anyone near it or near the mosque of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the qiblah must lie along a straight line, since the Prophet would not be left in error.”

The reply is:

These people assumed that such an orientation towards the qiblah would be mistaken. It would only be mistaken if the obligation were to seek an alignment along a straight line between the centre of one’s nose and the Kaaba. That is not the case; rather, the texts of the Quran and Sunnah cited above establish the contrary.

A similar example is the statement of some that if people mistakenly perform the standing at ‘Arafah on the tenth day, it suffices for them. The correct view is that this is the Day of ‘Arafah, both in reality and outwardly, and there is no error in that. Rather, the Day of ‘Arafah is the day on which people perform the standing at ‘Arafah. Likewise, the crescent moon only counts as such when people proclaim its sighting; if it rises but they do not proclaim its sighting, it does not count as such. There is, however, a well-known disagreement concerning the crescent: does the term denote what rises, even if its sighting is not proclaimed, or what people proclaim sighting? These are two well-known views within the school of Ahmad and elsewhere, unlike the disagreement concerning facing the Kaaba.

Further evidence for this is that, if it were said that a person must seek an alignment along a straight line between the centre of his nose and forehead and the Kaaba, the reply would be that there must then be a means of knowing this. For Allah has not made anything obligatory without providing evidence by which it may be known. Yet it is well known that only a select few know how to determine this, despite their disagreements and their frequent errors in doing so, whereas the obligation to face the qiblah is general