An-Najah Staff

Qibla is the direction to Mecca, more specifically to the Kaaba, towards which each Muslim must face in order to perform his daily prayer. In a mosque, the Qibla is identified by the Qibla wall which contains a niche; or what is called, Mihrab. This paper lists many methods used to determine the Qibla in general, and then elaborates on the Qibla problem found in Nablus mosques. A field study indicated that most of the Nablus mosques are not directed correctly towards Mecca. The traditional mosque buildings have an average deviation of 26.4 degrees towards the west; the most recent mosques have 17.1 degrees also towards the west. Mosques built by 1996, have the most accurate qibla, with average deviation of 3.7 degrees, but towards the east. This paper discusses the main reasons that stand behind these deviations in qibla, and then concludes with the most acceptable ways to handle this problem.

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