The foolish among the people will say, “”What has turned them from their Qiblah {13} (Direction in which Muslims are required to face during Worship – salat) towards which they used to (face)?”” say “”The east and the west are Allahs, He guides whom He wills, towards the straight path.””
A glance at the world map shows that Kaaba is located centrally with respect to all the continents of the world. Muslims all over the world face towards the Kaaba while offering Salat, so that with Kaaba as the center, parallel or concentric circles of praying Muslims are formed all over the world resembling the circles of praying Muslims formed in the premises of the Sacred Mosque itself. There were idols in Kaaba till the conquest of Mecca in 8 H. This fact clearly indicates that we do not worship the Kaaba, we worship only Allah (SWT) “So let them serve (worship) the Fosterer of this house (i.e. Kaaba) 106:3. We face towards the Kaaba probably for uniformity and display of unity. In the absence of a common direction during Salat, Muslims from different parts of the world would have turned in different directions causing confusion especially during occasion like the Hajj. All directions belong to Allah (SWT) and the change of Qibla was to distinguish true Muslims from others because Jews and Christians too considered Baitul Muqaddas sacred, besides, it was the desire of Prophet Muhammed (PBH) to have the sacred Mosque (Kaaba) as Qibla. The Owners of the book recognised Prophet Muhammed (PBH) as easily as they recognize their sons and also knew that the order to change the Qibla was a truth from Allah (SWT) even then they foolishly did not follow the new Qibla of Muslims. Everyone follows his own Qibla and no one will follow the Qibla of others. The orders are to face the Kaaba during Salat wherever and whenever we offer Salat and to whichever place we may belong. The word ‘Wasata’ 2:143 conveys the sense of middle, average, normal etc. the Muslim community can be considered normal in the sense that they did not elevate the messenger of Allah to the position of God or His son like the Christians nor did they trouble him like the Jews. The Kaaba is located at the center or middle of all continents, consequently the founder community following Prophet Muhammed (PBH) was also geographically central and probably historically too, considering Adam’s (PBH) period as the starting time and the end of the universe as the end of history of man. This central position of the Muslim community in time and space and the fact that prophet Muhammed (PBH) was the last messenger of Allah and the Quran, the final Divine revelation require that this community should keep an eye on the whole of mankind (3:104 and 110) as Prophet Muhammed (PBH) kept an eye on them and for this purpose they should be models implementing the Quran as Prophet Muhammed (PBH) was a model practically implementing the Quran 33:21. This might be the sense conveyed through the statement “………. that you may be a witness on mankind and the messenger may be a witness on you ….” 2:143.”
A glance at the world map shows that Kaaba is centrally located with respect to all the continents of the world. Muslims all over the world are required to face the Kaaba while offering salat, so that with Kaaba as the center, parallel circles of praying Muslims are formed all over the earth. It may be noted that we do not worship the Kaaba, we worship only Allah. We only face towards the Kaaba probably for uniformity, because in the absence of a common direction during salat, Muslims from different parts of the world would have turned in different directions causing confusion especially at occasions like Hajj.