The QiblaLocator blog

That’s right. What you’re seeing is the new qiblalocator blog. I’ve had almost no time in recent months to work on the site. But the response I’ve seen from you all is phenomenal. So I’ve decided that I will dedicate more of my free time towards this site. Insha’Allah.

One of the first things I plan to add to the site is a FAQ section. I simply can’t go through all the comments especially when a lot of them have the same questions. Hopefully this will help. More features will follow insha’Allah.

Qibla Direction using the Sun

The most reliable method to determine the direction of the Qibla is by looking at the Sun. Every year, because of the revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the inclination of the axis of rotation to the Ecliptic, the Sun is directly ABOVE THE KABAH only two times.

  1. May 28 at 9:18 am (GMT) [12:18 pm local Makkah time], and
  2. Jul 15 at 9:27 am (GMT) [12:27 pm local Makkah time].

Similarly, the Sun is BELOW THE KABAH (in Makkah) only two times.

  1. Jan 13 at 9:29 pm (GMT) [00:29 am local Makkah time], and
  2. Nov 28 at 9:09 pm (GMT) [00:09 am local Makkah time].

The direction toward the Kabah can be easily determined by finding the direction towards (or away from) the Sun at the instants when the Sun is ABOVE (or BELOW) the KABAH.

The Qibla direction would be TOWARDS THE SUN, at the instant WHEN THE SUN IS ABOVE THE KABAH. The Qibla direction would be AWAY FROM THE SUN, (in the direction of the SHADOW of a vertical rod) at the instant WHEN THE SUN IS BELOW THE KABAH.

The only obvious requirement is that the Sun should be visible at that instant. Nearly half of the world would be able to see the Sun at these times. The other countries would not be able to see the Sun, because the Sun would be below their local horizon, at those times.
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Qibla Locator has a new home

The Qibla Locator has a new home today. www.qiblalocator.com. It will also be available from its previous location at ibnmasud.com/map.htm till it is fully indexed by google and others.

The new domain was bought from Yahoo but the site itself is hosted on Dreamhost which also hosts ibnmasud.com.

Qibla Locator layout in IE fixed

Several major display issues appearing on the Qibla Locator in Internet Explorer due to CSS have been fixed. One minor issue relating to the overview pane remains but I dont consider it much of a problem and will look to fix it sometimes in the future.

It must be noted that the Qibla Locator works best in Firefox. Although IE is supported, the experience you may have may not match that with Firefox.