Volume 5 No. 1, April, May 1997

Editor: Ali R. Fazely, Associate Editors: Saied Andalib and Milan Sulc P.O.Box 80333 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808 e-mail: 76451.271@CompuServe.com

Once again, we are humbled by GOD's Signs in the Quran through a mathematics beyond our knowledge. The All Knowing, The All Wise encourages us that we should examine facts, verify them and come to a conclusion based on an objective and unbiased scrutiny of the data. The data obviously comes from the Quran, which was passed and being passed and will be passed from generation to generation to people whom GOD chooses. [1] There is obviously no end to GOD's Signs and this is to reassure us and to strengthen the hearts. believers as well as people who possess knowledge. [2]

The Sign, I am about to introduce to you, is about the frequency of occurrence of H's and M's in the H.M. initailled chapter 43. We focus on the verses with a prime number assigned to them and contain both usages of the Arabic letters Ha and Meem. We find that there are 11 such verses. Now immediately comes to mind the number 1143 = 9 x 127. The total sum of the frequency of H's + M's upto and including verse 89 is 59. Note that 89 is the the 24th prime number and chapter 59 in the Quran is the only chapter which contains 24 verses. it is noteworthy that 43 is the 24 initialled sura and the first verse in this chapter happens to be the 4324th numbered verse from the beginning of the Quran. Now if we subtract 4324 from 8959, we get 4635. Note that chapter 46, the last H.M. initialled sura, has 35 verses. All praises are due to GOD, Creator of all things.

We shall glorify and thank GOD day and night and ask Him to keep us on the straight path. We must always remember that there is no power, except what is GOD's [3].

In the recent pilgrimage to the Sacred Mosque, there was a tragic fire in a camp where hundreds of people were killed and over a thousand suffered injuries. We, as Muslims, have to remember that GOD tells us in the Quran exactly how and when to fulfil our duties with regards to Haj. The methods of fulfilling Haj has been so distorted that no longer has anything to do with "Millate' Ibraaheem" (the methods of worship inspired by GOD to Abraham). We have to come back to GOD's word that we may be successful, or else embarrassments and miseries like this will occupy our lives and in the hereafter, we have to answer to GOD.

In the last few years there as been intense debate as to the direction of Qiblah. Nobody, of course, disputes the fact that we must face the Sacred Mosque in Mecca during our daily prayers, but the debate and dispute centers as to what this direction is, especially in North America. There has been excellent articles written by Dr. Ali Fazely, Milan Sulc and a very comprehensive 37 page article by S. Kamai Abdali (of National Science Foundation), all showing, scientifically and mathematically, that the correct direction is northeast. There has also been demonstration given by Milan Sulc, among others, using globe, laser beam etc. showing that northeast is the correct direction. It has also been pointed out that prayer rooms at many airports such as Atlanta's, as well as many mosques including the one in Washington, probably the biggest in the U.S., have the northeast as the direction of Qiblah.

In this article, I shall try to explain what Quran says on this subject and whether it supports or refutes either of the two views. I will refer to the mentioned articles specially Abdali's, as it is a very comprehensive and excellent article. From discussions and comments I have heard, it appears that most people have not taken the time to study it before making up their mind.

There are essentially two views regarding the direction of Qiblah for any locality. There are those who think the Qiblah should be along the rhumb line to Mecca. Rhumb line is a path that cuts all the meridians (longitude or pole to pole lines) at a constant angle. The proponents of this view essentially follow a Mercator projection map, a flat map, very similar to the person who looks at a flat map and he can "very clearly" see that Mecca is to the south of north America and he can "very clearly" see there is straight line going from his location to Mecca so he is sure the direction is south. But this is wrong since it is shown and mathematically proven this supposed straight line is not straight and is not the shortest distance between the two points on a sphere. On a spherical earth rhumb lines can't be straight and therefore an object moving along a rhumb line does not move in a straight course. It follows then that light can not travel along the rhumb line and it is not possible for an object to appear in the rhumb line direction of another.

The second view is that the direction of Qiblah is the great circle route direction, geodesic, which is mathematically shown to contain the shortest distance between any two points on a sphere. I will summarize some of the terms so it will be easy to follow the argument given.

Great Circle: if a plane connecting two points on a sphere, such as earth, cuts the sphere, the intersection is a circle. If the plane also goes through the center of the sphere, the sphere is cut in half, (hemisphere) and the intersection is called great circle.

Antipodes: two points that are located on the opposite end of a diameter, for example north and south poles are antipodes of one another. For Mecca, its antipode is at about 140 degree longitude, 21 degrees latitude, in the Pacific Ocean in French Polynesia, exactly on the opposite side of the earth.

Some of the properties of the great circle connecting any points are that there is only one such circle for any two points, the shortest path between two points is along great circle, objects moving in straight lines above the earth, such as laser beams, etc. appear to move along great circles direction. The fact that the direction of the great circle connecting locations in most of north America and Mecca is northeast is, as Dr. Fazely has stated: "an incontrovertible mathematical argument." This has been further explained in the articles mentioned and demonstrations given.

It is an established fact that because of the spherical shape of the earth, any point on it can only be seen (by the so called line of sight) in only one half the earth; no matter how powerful a telescope you have, no matter how tall you make that point to be no matter how tall a tower you construct over it. This can easily be demonstrated by a simple experiment or thought experiment. Imagine that the point or location is north pole; no matter how tall a tower you build over the north pole, it can only be seen from the northern hemisphere, from its own hemisphere, from all locations above the equator. It can't be seen, absolutely, from any location below the equator in the southern hemisphere. Each location, each point on earth has also the property, that is, it can only be seen from locations within its own hemisphere, it has its own "equator", its own "hemisphere". The so-called hemisphere for any location is simply the half of the earth that it is located in, or more precisely, all points within 90 degrees of it or the circle that lies midway between that particular location and its antipode. For Mecca, for example, we indicated its antipode is 21, 140 degrees latitude and longitude, respectively, so its "equator" would be the circle going around the earth connecting them and its hemisphere would be the circle that lies midway between the two, or 90 degrees from all directions starting from Mecca. The tallest imaginable tower with even the most powerful telescope can only be seen from points within his own hemisphere, all points within 90 degrees of Mecca. This, of course is simply due to the curvature of the earth.

In determining the direction of Qiblah, in simple terms, there are two different circumstances, depending on your particular location with respect to Mecca, or the Sacred Mosque. If your location falls within the hemisphere that Mecca is located, it is a relatively simple matter, because your direction of Qiblah will be simple the line of sight, toward the Sacred Mosque. You can imagine a tall tower over Ka'abah and that will be direction of your Qiblah, north or south depending on whether your particular location is south or north of Mecca and then some degrees east or west depending on whether Mecca is to your east or west. For all particular purposes, in this situation, the straight line or flat map approach can be used. You can simply look at a flat map and see whether the direction is north or south, and then adjust some degrees toward east or west. The difficulty and confusion appears when your particular location is outside the so called Mecca's hemisphere, on the other side of earth as is most places in north America. The flat map approach etc. will result in exactly the wrong Qiblah. There is no line of sight between the two locations. The so called imaginary tower over Ka'abah in the absolute sense can't be seen from your locations, outside the Mecca's hemisphere. You may think you are facing Mecca and the Scared Mosque, but the curvature of the earth makes this impossible and you will be off by a wide angle facing somewhere in southern Africa. The equivalent to the line of sight here would be a direct tunnel approach. You can easily see this by imagining there is no barrier between the two locations, or a see-through globe. Without going in the mathematical analysis, you can see that the correct direction from north America is north by imagining yourself on a globe or placing a statuette or an arrow on a globe. You will then see that by facing south you have put your back towards the Sacred Mosque.

In various discussions, I have noted that there are two major sources of error and confusion. One, of course is the use of flat map approach which will results in the wrong Qiblah, although it appears most are aware of this by now. The second error is that people do use a globe and place a statuette on it, for example, and do see that the correct direction is north, but then confuse the eastern (or western) adjustment, depending on a particular location, with southern direction. In a way it may be said, they use a globe but then revert to a flat map approach. Remember, once you have determined the north south direction; north in this case, you can turn toward the east or west by up to 90 degrees and you are still facing north. The only way you face south would be if you DO FACE south to begin with, and in this situation that would have been the case, for example, if Mecca was below the equator relative to your location or if you were in locations in south America. By turning more toward the east, for example, (in SF about 19 degrees, in NY about 59 degrees, etc....) you are not turning you face away from north. You are still facing north, in the absolute sense, as this is the absolute direction; you are either facing north or south and not by 5 or 10 degrees etc!

54:17 "We made this Quran easy to learn, does any one wish to learn?" 19:97 "We thus made this (Quran) easy in your own tongue.." 6:114 ...He has revealed to you this book fully detailed....."

The word Qiblah is mentioned 7 times in Quran; in 2:143-145 and 10:87. The precise direction to face while praying is specifically discussed in 2:144, 149, 150.

2:144 "...Henceforth, turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque, and wherever you all may be, turn your faces towards it (during contact prayer)." 2:149 "From wherever you come forth, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque (during contact prayer).." 2:150 " From wherever you come forth turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque; and wherever you all may be turn your faces towards it (during contact prayers)..."

There are two things very interesting about these verses (in connection with our present discussion and as far as I know): God simply does not say, turn your faces etc.... He repeats it and repeats it in two distinct ways. In the first part of 149, 150 the same expression is repeated; "from wherever you COME FORTH (set of. exit...) Towards, the Sacred Mosque....", then in 144 and the last part of 150; "wherever you all MAY BE.... towards it..."

The word that is usually translated as 'towards' is in itself is a clue that GOD is telling us something special regarding the direction of Qiblah since this word is rarely used and is not normally used in the Quran. The word that is almost always used in Quran to indicate 'towards, to, in the direction of ... is . The verbal root of the word used in this particular passage is which means (E.W. Lane Arabic English Lexicon, Vol 1, page 1550) "to halve, to divide it into halves" and the word as used in the verse means "the half of the thing" and only secondarily is used in the meaning of 'towards'.

The way the expression is used in the first part of 149, 150 with the Sacred Mosque specifically mentioned, can only have the meaning of: towards whereas the other two may also have the possessive implication, as it is literally read "its..." It is possible the first two refers to persons who are not only within the vicinity of the Sacred Mosque and Mecca but who are within its hemisphere and thus one simply turns his face towards it, repeated twice, possibly because one may come out from the north of it or the south of it.

As mentioned, the other expression may have possessive meaning, implication being; turn your faces towards it by turning towards "its half, (hemisphere...)", applicable to those and those locations outside the hemisphere that Mecca is located, where as we explained, line of sight approach, flat map approach, etc. simples does not work and will give the wrong qiblah.

Thus with this particular and deliberate choice of word God appears to indicate the correct qiblah direction in the simplest, easy to understand way without the need for any elaborate mathematical analysis, although, of course one should endeavor to learn as much as one can. Some may object that the verses seem only concerned with north south direction, what about east-west direction. First, GOD says "east and west belongs to God" so one should not be overly concerned with matter of degrees, whether it is 15 degrees east or 16 degrees. Secondly and probably more importantly, confusion and controversy is and has always been the direction of Qiblah, whether it is north or south. It is very easy and straightforward matter to determine whether Mecca, or any location for that matter, is to the east or west of another location and by how many degrees. Nearly spherical shape of the earth and whether one is below the equator, in the northern hemisphere etc. is not particularly relevant to determining the east and west direction. The confusion has always been in determining the direction of Qiblah, in cases and situations where the place of observation is on the other side of earth from Mecca, outside the Mecca's hemisphere. It must also be emphasized, confusion has been on the part of the masses, as Abali has also pointed out in his article, the Moslem scientists, for the most part have always had correct understanding of the Qiblah and determined it correctly and analyzed it correctly.

41:3 "A Scripture whose verses have been precisely designed in an Arabic Quran." 43:3 "We have rendered it an Arabic Quran, that you may understand."

Praise indeed belongs to God, the Only Teacher of Quran who has clarified and explained to us, with special choice of one single word, what has taken many articles and debates. Responsibility comes after knowledge comes to you, after GOD explains more of His Book as He sees fit. Whether you say "We heard and we obey..." or whether you make excuses and more objections, the choice is yours and the consequences is inevitable as it is GOD's Law and Mercy.

We humbly request that if you have a change of address, please drop us a note and let us know. Also if you are on INTERNET or COMPUSERVE or have an e-mail address, please let us know so you can receive this journal at the speed of light, InshaAllah.

A Farsi translation of the Quran by Behruz Mofidi is available. Interested parties should contact him directly in order to obtain more information. His address/phone number is:

P.O. Box 251902 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Tel: (310) 262-7838

By GOD's Grace, we now have the Journal of Submission in PostScript format. If you have a postscript printer, please let us know and we will send it to you in this format, InshaAllah.

We would like to announce a meeting here in Baton Rouge, LA on the 18th and 19th of July 1997, InshaAllah. The purpose of this meeting is for everyone to witness the latest findings of Ultimate Mathematics as revealed by GOD and to commemorate and glorify GOD with those who worship GOD Alone.

References

[1] Quran, 35:32

[2] Quran, 74:31

[3] Quran, 18:39

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