Transliteration:( Sayaqoolus sufahaaa'u minan naasi maa wallaahum 'an Qiblatihimul latee kaanoo 'alaihaa; qul lillaahil mashriqu walmaghrib; yahdee mai yashaaa'u ilaa Siraatim Mustaqeem )
"The foolish [285] among the people will say [286]: 'What has turned them (Muslims) away from their Qibla [287] which they used to face?' Say (O Muhammad): 'To Allah belongs [288] the east and the west; He guides whom He wills to the Straight Path.'"
This verse refers to the Yahud, idolaters, and hypocrites, who mocked the Prophet ﷺ and objected to the change of Qibla.
They were not ready to accept this divinely ordained change
The Torah and other previous scriptures had already prophesied that the final Prophet would be the Prophet of Two Qiblas
📌 So the change in Qibla from Jerusalem to Makkah was proof of Prophethood, not a reason for doubt
Yet these malicious objectors tried to undermine the Prophet’s mission
Important historical points:
The Ka'bah was the original Qibla from the time of Hazrat Adam (AS) to Hazrat Musa (AS)
Baitul Maqdis (Jerusalem) became the Qibla from Musa (AS) to Isa (AS)
In early Islam, Muslims faced Jerusalem, but the divine command to change Qibla to the Ka'bah came:
📆 On the 25th of Ramadaan, 2 AH, during Zuhr Salah at Masjid Qiblatain, about 17 months after Hijrah
Allah mentioned this objection to:
Expose the pettiness of the objectors
And show how such arguments are foolish, despite the apparent cleverness of the objectors
The Yahud objected to this directional change, questioning the legitimacy of the Prophet ﷺ and Islam.
📌 From this, we learn that:
Unnecessary objections, especially without understanding the divine wisdom, reflect ignorance
Even those who may be intelligent in worldly matters, but raise baseless objections in deen, are termed “foolish” by Allah
The Muslim response is dignified and full of Tawheed:
“We do not worship the East or West. We follow the command of Allah.”
Key point:
Direction in prayer (Qibla) is not about geography, but about obedience
Allah, to Whom both East and West belong, has the full authority to set the Qibla wherever He wills
📌 The real Straight Path is to follow Allah’s guidance, wherever He commands us to face or go
The tafsir of Surah Baqarah verse 141 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Baqarah ayat 139 which provides the complete commentary from verse 139 through 141.
(2:142) The block-headed will say: “What has turned them away from the direction they formerly observed in Prayer?”[142] Say: “To Allah belong the East and the West; He guides whomsoever He wills onto a Straight Way.”[143]
142. After his migration to Madina the Prophet continued to pray in the direction of Jerusalem for between sixteen and seventeen months. Subsequently, he received the order to pray in the direction of the Ka’bah. See (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 144).
143. This is the first answer to the objections of these ignorant people. Their narrow minds and limited vision led them to undue attachment to such formalities as the direction and locale of Prayer. They presumably conceived God to be confined to a particular direction. In reply to their absurd objection the first thing which was explained was that all directions belong to God. Fixing any particular direction for Prayer does not mean that God is confined to that direction. All those who have been favoured with God’s true guidance rise above such limitations of outlook so that it is easy for them to grasp the universal verities of religion. See also (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 115) note 115, 116.
[50]- The direction faced in prayer. [51]- Prior to the command (in verse 144) that the Prophet (ﷺ) and his followers turn toward the Kaʿbah in Makkah for prayer, they had been facing Jerusalem to the north. The implications of this change are mentioned in succeeding verses.
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