edip note-2:142

Qibla is a point to which we are supposed to turn while observing our daily prayers. Kaba played an important role in the Arabian Peninsula, and besides its historic importance, it provided economic and political benefits to the Arabs. Kaba is not a holy temple or shrine, but an annual gathering place for monotheists to commemorate God, to remember the struggles of monotheists throughout history, to get to know each other, to exchange information, to promote charity, to remember their commonalities regardless of their differences in color, culture and language, to discuss their political and economical issues amicably, and to improve their trade.

The Quran informs us that those who associate other authorities with God continued the tradition of Abraham, only in form. Before the verses ordering muslims to turn to Kaba as qibla were revealed, muslims, like mushriks were turning towards Kaba. Muslims suffering from the repression, oppression and torture of Meccan polytheists finally decided to emigrate to Yathrib and there they established a city-state. However, the Meccan theocratic oligarchy did not leave them alone. They organized several major war campaigns. The aggression of the Meccan oligarchy and the improving economic, politic and social relations between muslims and the people of the book, that is Christians and Jews, led muslims to turn to another uniting point. They picked Jerusalem. Nevertheless, God wanted muslims to turn back to their original qibla, al-Masjid al-Haram (the restricted place of prostration). We understand this from verses 2:142. These verses asking muslims to turn back to their former qibla in Mecca created a difficult test for some muslims living in Yathrib.

Those who preferred the advantages of personal, social and economic relations with the Christian and Jewish community in Yathrib and those who could not get over their emotional grievances against the Meccan community could not accept this change and reverted back from islam (2:142).

In brief, the verses ordering the change of qibla did not abrogate another verse, since there is not a single verse ordering muslims to turn to another qibla. If there is an abrogation, the decision of Muhammed and his companions to turn away from Kaba was abrogated.

Here are some relevant verses from the Bible: "In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten" (Jeremiah 50:4-5 ). "My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also fills the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in thee" (Psalms 84:2)