The latitude of a place is the distance between it and the equator, the great circle that parallels the equinoctial line, and it is determined by the altitude of the northern celestial pole. When the two poles lie on the horizon, each is at the same distance from the equator, and the equator itself has no latitude. Thus, if a person moves one astronomical degree away from the equator, the pole rises one degree above the horizon; if he moves two degrees, it rises two degrees, and so on. Therefore a town’s latitude is known by the height of the pole. If two cities share the same latitude—such as Damascus and Baghdad, each at thirty-three degrees—the pole’s elevation is identical in both.

Longitude, on the other hand, has no heavenly marker by which it can be fixed; it is reckoned according to the inhabited part of the earth. One must therefore choose a point as the beginning of the inhabited world. Early geographers used the so-called Fortunate Islands to the west. One may, however, designate any city and measure longitude eastward and westward from it, as some have done by taking Mecca—may Allah ennoble it—as the reference point, because it is enduring, preserved, and protected. In this system longitude is of two kinds: eastern and western.

All of this is sound, rational, mathematical knowledge, yet Muslims’ ability to determine their qiblah in prayer is not dependent on it. It is authentically reported that the Lawgiver—may blessings and peace be upon him—said:

“Whatever lies between the east and the west is qiblah.”

Al-Tirmidhī graded this ḥadīth as sound. On the strength of it, the overwhelming majority of scholars hold that a worshipper is under no obligation to seek guidance from the Pole Star, the star al-Jady, or anything of that nature. Rather, if someone in Greater Syria or the like places the west to his right and the east