How to find qibla direction is one of the first questions a Muslim asks in a new home, a hotel room, an office or an airport. The answer is easier today than at any time in history, but it still goes wrong for a surprising number of people: phones with an uncalibrated compass, a straight line drawn on a flat map, a sticker left by a previous tenant. This guide gives you five reliable ways to find the qibla, with or without a phone, and explains what the Quran and the classical tafsir say about facing the Kaaba and how precise you need to be.
Everything religious on this page is taken from the Quran and from al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, Ibn Kathir and al-Sa'di, and each is named where it is used. The practical parts, such as compass calibration and the geometry of the earth, are plain facts that any navigator would confirm. Where the scholars differ, we say so, and we do not pretend to give you a ruling that only a qualified scholar in your school of fiqh can give.
What the qibla is and why Muslims face it
The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba in al-Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, the direction every Muslim faces in the five daily prayers. The command comes directly from the Quran in Surah al-Baqarah:
﴿قَدْ نَرَىٰ تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ ۖ فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَىٰهَا ۚ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ ۚ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنتُمْ فَوَلُّوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُۥ ۗ وَإِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ لَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ ٱلْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ ۗ وَمَا ٱللَّهُ بِغَـٰفِلٍ عَمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ ١٤٤﴾(144) We have certainly seen the turning of your face, [O Muḥammad], toward the heaven, and We will surely turn you to a qiblah with which you will be pleased. So turn your face [i.e., yourself] toward al-Masjid al-Ḥarām. And wherever you [believers] are, turn your faces [i.e., yourselves] toward it [in prayer]. Indeed, those who have been given the Scripture [i.e., the Jews and the Christians] well know that it is the truth from their Lord. And Allāh is not unaware of what they do.
Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar explains the last part of the ayah in plain words: in whatever place you are, O Muslims, and you want to pray, turn toward the Sacred Mosque. The same command is repeated twice more in the same passage, so that nobody could think it was tied to one place or one moment:
﴿وَمِنْ حَيْثُ خَرَجْتَ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ ۖ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَلْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكَ ۗ وَمَا ٱللَّهُ بِغَـٰفِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ١٤٩ وَمِنْ حَيْثُ خَرَجْتَ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ ۚ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنتُمْ فَوَلُّوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُۥ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَيْكُمْ حُجَّةٌ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَٱخْشَوْنِى وَلِأُتِمَّ نِعْمَتِى عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ ١٥٠﴾(149) So from wherever you go out [for prayer, O Muḥammad], turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, and indeed, it is the truth from your Lord. And Allāh is not unaware of what you do. (150) And from wherever you go out [for prayer], turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Ḥarām. And wherever you [believers] may be, turn your faces toward it in order that the people will not have any argument against you, except for those of them who commit wrong; so fear them not but fear Me. And [it is] so I may complete My favor upon you and that you may be guided,
Ibn Kathir writes that Allah commanded facing the Kaaba from all the regions of the earth, east and west, north and south. Al-Sa'di adds that the ayah makes facing the Kaaba a condition of every prayer, the obligatory and the voluntary alike, and that among the wisdoms of turning us to it was to cut off any argument the opponents of Islam could raise, and to complete Allah's favour on this community.
The Kaaba itself is older than any city on earth as a house of worship. The Quran says it was “the first House [of worship] established for mankind”
(Quran 3:96), and it tells us who raised its walls:
﴿وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمُ ٱلْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ ٱلْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَـٰعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ١٢٧﴾(127) And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael, [saying], "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing.
Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and his son Isma'il built it on the site Allah showed them, as Surah al-Hajj 22:26 also records. So when you look for the qibla, you are looking toward the house of Ibrahim's du'a. If you want his story, the episodes "Ibrahim and the Fire" and "Ibrahim and the Idols" in QASAS tell it from the Quran.
Watch this story in QASASIbrahim and the FireThey threw him into the fire. It did not burn him.Open on Google Play →Do you have to face the Kaaba exactly?
No, if you are far from Makkah you face the direction of the Kaaba, and the exact building is required only of those who can see it. This is the explanation the classical tafsir gives for the word shatr in the ayah. Al-Sa'di writes that if a person is able to face the Kaaba itself he must, and otherwise facing its direction is enough. Ibn Kathir records that shatr means its direction and that this is the view of the early commentators he lists.
This matters in practice. A person praying in London or Jakarta cannot align with a building the size of a house four or five thousand kilometres away, and the Quran does not ask it. What is asked is a sincere effort to face the right direction. How many degrees of deviation are tolerated is a question of fiqh on which the schools differ: some scholars speak of the whole quarter of the sky between two cardinal points, others of a narrower margin. Our advice is simple: use the best tool you have, face the bearing it gives you as closely as you reasonably can, and ask a scholar you trust about the limits in your madhhab. Do not torment yourself over a degree or two.
Ibn Kathir also lists the cases the scholars exempt from facing the qibla: voluntary prayer while travelling, which a traveller may pray in whatever direction his mount faces while his heart is turned to the Kaaba; prayer in the thick of battle; and the person who cannot tell where the qibla is, who prays by his best judgement and is excused if he turns out to be wrong, because, as the Quran says, “Allāh does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity.”
(Quran 2:286)
Which way is the qibla from where you live?
The qibla is roughly east from Morocco, south-east from Europe and the Levant, north-east from North America, west from India and Pakistan, and north from southern Africa. The table below gives the general direction for the regions where most readers live. It is the direction along the shortest path over the curved earth, which is what every qibla calculator and every mosque in those regions uses.
| Where you are | General qibla direction | Typical bearing from true north |
|---|---|---|
| Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia | East, slightly south | about 90-110° |
| Egypt, Sudan | South-east | about 135° |
| Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine | South, slightly east | about 155-165° |
| Turkey | South-east | about 150° |
| United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany | South-east | about 100-135° |
| Saudi Arabia (Riyadh), Gulf states | South-west to west | about 245-260° |
| Iraq, Iran | South-west | about 195-220° |
| Pakistan, India, Bangladesh | West | about 260-280° |
| Malaysia, Indonesia | West, slightly north | about 290-295° |
| Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal | North-east to east | about 60-80° |
| Kenya, Tanzania | North | about 5-15° |
| South Africa | North, slightly east | about 10-25° |
| United States (east coast), Canada (east) | North-east | about 55-60° |
| United States (west coast) | North-east | about 20-25° |
| Australia | West, slightly north | about 275-290° |
Two things surprise people in this table. First, the qibla from most of North America is north-east, not south-east, even though Makkah is south of New York on a flat map. That is because the shortest path over a globe from New York to Makkah bends up over the North Atlantic, which is why flights take that route too. Second, the qibla from Riyadh is to the south-west, because Makkah lies west and a little south of the capital. If a method you are using contradicts this table by a wide margin, the method is wrong, not the table.
Method 1: a qibla compass app (the easiest)
The fastest way to find the qibla direction is a qibla compass app that reads your location, calculates the bearing to the Kaaba and shows it on a compass that turns with your phone. Here is how to do it well, using the qibla screen in QASAS as the example; other good apps work the same way.
- Allow location once. The app needs your latitude and longitude to calculate the bearing. QASAS calculates it on the phone and sends your location nowhere.
- Open the qibla screen. You will see the bearing in degrees from north, for example 119° in London, and a brass compass dial with a gold needle that ends in a small Kaaba.
- Calibrate the compass. Move the phone in a slow figure of eight a few times. Every phone compass needs this after a flight, a car journey or a day in a bag next to a magnet.
- Step away from metal. Steel desks, car bodies, radiators, laptops, speakers and magnetic phone cases pull a compass off by tens of degrees. Stand in the middle of the room.
- Hold the phone flat, at chest height, and turn your body slowly. Turn until the needle lines up with the mark at the top of the dial. In QASAS the dial glows gold and the phone gives a short pulse when you are within a few degrees.
- Check once with the table above. If the app says 119° in London and the table says south-east, you are done.
A detail worth knowing: a compass sensor points to magnetic north, which can differ from true north by anything from a degree to more than twenty depending on where you are. A proper qibla app corrects for this difference, called magnetic declination, using your location and the date. QASAS applies this correction on both Android and iPhone, so the bearing you see is from true north. A plain compass app that does not correct it will be off by that amount, which is one of the main reasons two apps on the same desk sometimes disagree.
The qibla compass works offline, on a plane or in a basement, because the only input it needs is the last known location and the phone's own sensors. The same app also shows prayer times calculated on your device and, when you need a place to pray, a "nearby mosques" button that hands the search to the maps app on your phone.
Method 2: a map or globe (no compass needed)
A map lets you find the qibla without any compass, as long as you remember that the earth is round. The Kaaba is at latitude 21.4225° north and longitude 39.8262° east. Open any map app, search "Kaaba" or type those coordinates, and find your own location.
On a globe, or in a map app that can show the earth as a sphere, stretch a string or a measuring line from your location to the Kaaba. The direction the string leaves your location is the qibla. This is the shortest path, the great circle, and it is what the app in Method 1 calculates.
On a flat map there is a trap. A straight line drawn on the usual flat world map is not the shortest path over the earth, and the further you are from Makkah, the more wrong it gets. From western Europe the error is small, perhaps ten degrees. From North America it is enormous: a straight line on a flat map points south-east, while the real qibla is north-east. If you use a flat map, use it only to confirm the general region (east, south-east, and so on) for places within a few thousand kilometres of Makkah, and use a globe view or a calculator for anywhere else.
Once you know the bearing and the map is oriented north-up, you still need to know which way north is in your room. The next two methods give you that.
Method 3: the sun (no phone at all)
The sun gives you the qibla with no equipment on two days a year, and gives you north and south on every other day. Here is how.
The two days the sun stands over the Kaaba. Because Makkah lies between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer, the sun passes directly overhead there twice a year, at solar noon on about 27 or 28 May and again on about 15 or 16 July. At those exact moments, roughly 12:18 Makkah time (09:18 UTC) in May and 12:27 Makkah time (09:27 UTC) in July, the sun is straight above the Kaaba. Anyone on the day side of the earth who faces the sun at that moment is facing the Kaaba, and the shadow of any upright pole points directly away from the qibla. The minute shifts slightly from year to year, so check the exact time for the current year in any astronomical table, then convert it to your time zone. Mark the shadow line on the floor or balcony, and you have a qibla line you can use all year. This works wherever the sun is up at that moment: Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In the Americas it is before sunrise, so the Americas cannot use it.
Sunrise and sunset on any day. The sun rises roughly in the east and sets roughly in the west, exactly so only around the equinoxes in March and September, and up to a few tens of degrees north or south of east in summer and winter. That is enough to find the four cardinal directions in a rough way, and then apply the bearing from the table: if you are in Cairo and the qibla is about 135°, face halfway between south and east.
The noon shadow. At local solar noon, the moment the sun is highest, the shadow of a vertical stick points due north in the northern hemisphere (north of the Tropic of Cancer) and due south in the southern hemisphere. Solar noon is not 12:00 on the clock; it is halfway between sunrise and sunset, which any prayer times app shows you. From a true north line and a known bearing, you can mark the qibla with a protractor.
Method 4: a hand compass and your bearing
A magnetic hand compass finds the qibla well if you know the bearing for your city and correct for magnetic declination. Get the bearing from the table above, from a qibla app, or from the imam of your local mosque. Then look up the magnetic declination for your area; it is printed on most topographic maps and is easy to find online. If declination is, say, 2° west, add 2° to your true bearing to get the compass bearing; if it is east, subtract it. In most of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe the correction is a few degrees and barely matters; in parts of North America it exceeds fifteen degrees and matters a lot.
Hold the compass flat, far from metal, let the needle settle, turn the dial so north lines up with the needle, and read your bearing on the dial. Then face it. The classic brass "qibla compass" sold near mosques works on the same principle: it has a list of cities with a number each, and you align the needle with that number.
Method 5: mosques, prayer rooms and asking
The nearest mosque is the most trustworthy qibla reference in any Muslim country, because its mihrab was set by people who checked. Walls of hotel rooms in Muslim countries usually carry a small arrow on the ceiling or in a drawer. In airports and hospitals, the prayer room is aligned. And the oldest method of all still works: ask someone who prays there. Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar's phrase for the command is "in whatever place you are", and in most places there is someone who already knows.
If you are new in a city, the "nearby mosques" screen in QASAS opens your phone's maps app around your location; from the mosque you can take the bearing of its mihrab and carry it home.
Six mistakes that send people the wrong way
- An uncalibrated compass. The phone's compass drifts. The figure-of-eight movement fixes it in ten seconds; skipping it is the number one cause of a wrong qibla from a phone.
- Metal and magnets nearby. A magnetic phone case, a steel table, a car, a fridge or a laptop will pull the needle. Two readings in two places in the room that agree are better than one.
- A straight line on a flat map. As explained above, this points south-east from North America when the qibla is north-east. Use the globe, not the flat map.
- Magnetic north instead of true north. A plain compass app with no declination correction can be off by the local declination. Use an app that corrects it, or correct it yourself.
- Trusting an old sticker. Arrows in rented flats and hotels are sometimes placed by guesswork. Confirm with one other method the first time.
- Worrying about perfection. The tafsir is clear that those far from Makkah face the direction, not the stone. A few degrees are not the difference between a valid and an invalid prayer.
A quick comparison of the five methods
| Method | What you need | Accuracy | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qibla compass app | Phone, location once, calibration | Within a few degrees | Every day, travel, new rooms |
| Map or globe | A map app with globe view | Good for the bearing, needs a north reference | Checking an app, planning a prayer room |
| The sun | A clear sky and a watch | Excellent on 27-28 May and 15-16 July; rough on other days | Marking a permanent line at home |
| Hand compass | Compass, city bearing, declination | Good if corrected | Camping, areas with no signal |
| Mosque or asking | A nearby mosque or a local | Excellent | Muslim countries, cities with mosques |
When you truly cannot find it
Sometimes none of this works: a windowless room, a dead phone, a cloudy night in an unfamiliar country. Then you do what Ibn Kathir describes: you make your best judgement from whatever clues you have, you pray in that direction, and your prayer is accepted, because Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. The scholars also explain that if you learn the correct direction during the prayer, you turn toward it and continue. The Quran reminds us, in the same passage that fixed the qibla, that “So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allāh.”
(Quran 2:115) Al-Muyassar explains that whichever direction you face in prayer by Allah's command, you are seeking His Face and you have not left His dominion.
This is also the answer to a question children often ask: "What if the people on the other side of the earth face the wrong way?" They do not. Every Muslim faces the same house along the shortest line from where they stand, and all those lines meet at the Kaaba.
Teaching children about the qibla
Children love the qibla because it is a treasure-hunt with a real answer. Give a child the phone with the qibla screen open and let them turn until the dial glows; then ask them to find the same direction with the sun at noon the next day. Explain that the Kaaba was built by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Isma'il, and that the whole world prays in circles around that one house. The episode "Ibrahim and the Fire" in QASAS is a good companion, and the article on patience in the stories of the prophets tells how Ibrahim and Isma'il obeyed Allah even when it was hard.
Prayer times, qibla and more in QASAS
QASAS is a free Islamic app with no ads, no account and no tracking. Its qibla compass corrects for true north, works offline and shows the bearing in degrees, and its prayer times are calculated on your device with the adhan and a choice of calculation methods. It also has a nearby mosques button, a 3D tasbih, morning and evening adhkar and reminders, including one to read Surah al-Kahf on Friday, which pairs well with our article on the People of the Cave. At its heart it is a Quran stories app: cinematic stories of the prophets that you can watch and read page by page, with the exact ayat, tafsir and a quiz, plus a full mushaf with tafsir. It is live on Google Play for Android; the iPhone version is coming soon. If you want a du'a to say before you stand to pray, read the du'a of Musa, "Rabbi ishrah li sadri".
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the qibla direction at home?
Open a qibla compass app, calibrate the phone's compass with a figure-of-eight movement, stand away from metal and turn until the needle points to the Kaaba. Confirm once with the general direction for your country (for example south-east in Europe, north-east in North America) and mark the spot on the floor so you never need to look again.
Can I find the qibla without a compass?
Yes. Use a globe or a map app in globe view and follow the shortest line from your location to the Kaaba, or use the sun: on about 27-28 May and 15-16 July at solar noon in Makkah, facing the sun means facing the qibla. The mihrab of the nearest mosque is also a reliable reference.
Which way is the qibla from my location?
It depends on where you are: roughly south-east from Europe, Egypt and Turkey, east from Morocco, west from India, Pakistan and south-east Asia, north from southern Africa and north-east from North America. The exact bearing in degrees comes from a qibla calculator that uses your coordinates.
Why do two qibla apps show different directions?
Usually because one corrects for magnetic declination (the gap between magnetic and true north) and the other does not, or because one phone's compass is not calibrated or is near metal. Calibrate, move away from metal, and prefer the app that states the bearing from true north.
Does the qibla have to be exact for the prayer to be valid?
Those who can see the Kaaba face it exactly; those far away face its direction. Al-Sa'di explains that if facing the Kaaba itself is possible it is required, and otherwise its direction suffices. A small deviation does not invalidate the prayer; how much is tolerated is a matter of fiqh on which the schools differ, so ask a scholar you trust.
What if I prayed in the wrong direction by mistake?
Ibn Kathir explains that a person who could not tell the qibla, prayed by his best judgement and later found he was wrong is excused, because Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. The scholars also say that if you discover the mistake during the prayer, you turn to the correct direction and continue. The schools differ on some details, especially when it was possible to ask, so check with a scholar if you are unsure.
Does the qibla compass in QASAS need internet?
No. It needs your location once, which is read on the phone, and the phone's own compass sensor. The bearing is calculated on the device, corrected to true north, and works offline. The app does not send your location anywhere.
Sources
Quran: Surah al-Baqarah 2:115, 2:127, 2:142-150 and 2:286; Surah Ali 'Imran 3:96; Surah al-Hajj 22:26. Tafsir: al-Tafsir al-Muyassar (King Fahd Complex), Tafsir Ibn Kathir and Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman by al-Sa'di on 2:144 and 2:150. The geographic facts (coordinates of the Kaaba, great-circle bearings, magnetic declination and the dates the sun stands over Makkah) are standard astronomy and navigation.
Updated: · By QASAS
