INDONESIAN MUSLIMS have been praying in the wrong direction for months, facing Somalia when they should have been facing Saudi Arabia, the country’s highest religious authority said yesterday.
A cleric from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) admitted the body made a mistake last March when calculating which direction Muslims should turn to when praying. He said new instructions had been issued on the correct alignment.
According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was born in Mecca, and it is said to be the place where Allah’s message was first revealed to him. Each day, Muslims around the world turn to Mecca to pray.
Ma’ruf Amin of the MUI said a “thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts” revealed that Indonesian Muslims had been facing Somalia and Kenya instead of Mecca, another 1,600km to the north.
The error did not mean their prayers would be ignored, he added. “God understands that humans make mistakes. Allah always hears their prayers.”
The MUI website advises Muslims to make use of a website, Qibla Locator, to locate Mecca without a compass.
It is not the first time the MUI has played down the significance of misdirection. In January it took steps to reassure worshippers they need not be concerned by reports that thousands of Indonesian mosques displayed the incorrect kiblat, or direction toward Mecca.
Mutoha Arkanuddin, an Islamic scholar, claimed more than half the country’s mosques pointed the wrong way. A government minister described Arkanuddin’s work as invalid and dangerous.
Rohadi Abdul Fatah, director of sharia law and Islamic affairs at the ministry of religious affairs, said the state frequently checked the accuracy of kiblats across the country. He told the Jakarta Globe newspaper that off-kilter kiblats were often an issue in quake-hit areas and that government funding was available for theodolites – surveying instruments which would help correctly identify kiblats. – ( Guardianservice)