Qibla Finder

What Is the Qibla?

The Qibla (Arabic: قِبْلَة) is the direction Muslims face during the five daily prayers (Salah). It points toward the Kaaba — the cube-shaped stone structure at the centre of Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Kaaba is considered the first house of worship built for humanity, originally raised by the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (peace be upon them) by the command of Allah. The Quran says: "And from wherever you go out, turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Haram. And wherever you may be, turn your faces toward it." (2:150).

Why Do Muslims Face the Kaaba?

Facing the Qibla is a condition (shart) for the validity of Salah in Islamic jurisprudence — a prayer performed in the wrong direction must be repeated if the error was deliberate. The requirement creates a powerful symbol of unity: over a billion Muslims worldwide simultaneously turn to the same point on Earth five times a day. No matter where a Muslim stands — New York, London, Jakarta, or Lagos — their prayer is oriented toward the same physical and spiritual centre. This unified direction visually enacts the Quranic principle of the Muslim community as one Ummah.

The Fiqh Basis for Facing the Qibla

All four major Sunni schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali) agree that facing the Qibla (istiqbal al-Qibla) is obligatory for every prayer. However, they differ slightly on what is required: some scholars require facing the exact direction (ayn al-Qibla), while others permit facing the general direction (jihat al-Qibla) for those who cannot determine the exact bearing. For travellers, those praying in an unfamiliar location, or those physically unable to turn, Islamic jurisprudence provides accommodations — including estimating the direction and praying with sincere intention.

How Is the Qibla Bearing Calculated?

The Qibla bearing is the angle between True North and the great-circle arc connecting your location to the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8264° E). Modern Qibla finders use the spherical law of cosines or the Vincenty formula to compute this bearing precisely from latitude and longitude. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest path to Mecca is a great-circle route — which is why the Qibla bearing from New York is northeast (toward Europe), not east as a flat-map intuition might suggest.

This tool detects your location via your device's GPS and computes the bearing to the Kaaba using the spherical great-circle formula. The compass needle (green arrow) always points toward Mecca, and the bearing is given in degrees from True North. If your device supports the Device Orientation API, the compass ring rotates with your phone so the green arrow always shows the real-world direction of Mecca.