The Concept of The Muslim Scholars' Thoughts on Qibla Direction

Abstract

The scholars agree that facing the Qibla in prayer is obligatory because it is one of the conditions of valid prayer. For Muslims who are in the area of the Kaaba and the Al-Haram Mosque, this is not a problem, because it is easier for them to implement this obligation, but for people who are far from the Makkah area, such an obligation is a hard thing, because they find it difficult to point to the Kaaba correctly. Even the scholars disagree about the proper direction, because pointing to the Kaaba, which is a condition of valid prayer, is facing the actual Kaaba.

In the theory of falak science, the position of Indonesia, which is very far from the Kaaba, has implications for a one-degree inclination that already gives a difference in direction of hundreds of kilometers (approximately 111 km for 1 degree) from the point of the Kakbah.