Shaykh (Mufti) A.S. Desai (HA)'s Fatwa on American Qiblah & Its critique

Concluding Comments on Mufti A.S.Desai (HA)'s Fatwa on American Qiblah:

Our dear respected Shaykh (Mufti) A. S. Desai (HA) is presuming Earth to be flat and this argument doesn't require refuted in this day and age. Yes if you hold the World map flat on your desk then you will agree with our dear respected Shaykh (Mufti) A. S. Desai (HA). Although Hazrat (HA) doesn't say it but that is the premise of this error!

They are using what is called a Mercator Projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569

Who has asked them to use Mercator Projection? Which Qur'aan, Hadeeth & Fiqh asked them to use this particular project?

1. Note the discussions below with Dr Burton F. Jones (Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics) about projections and maps and his acknowledgement
2. Issue is about direction and as soon as the person realises that they need to FACE Makkah, the issue is crystal clear that a person CANNOT turn to South-East and FACE Makkah from North-America

Assumption (Error) Number 2 (Old Masjids in America face South-East): 

Our dear respected Shaykh (Mufti) A. S. Desai (HA) is presuming that all old Masajid in USA faced South-East which is a massive presumption which our American brother is also suffering from. Islamic Centre of Washington DC was built in 1953, after a decade of being in plans and guess what?  The Washington Daily News , April 15, 1953 reported, see way below:

Warning:  Before reading further, please note that this is an account by a newspaper and doesn’t reflect the Fiqh discussions of Ahlus-Sunnah Wal-Jamaah it is being reproduced to give historical background.

The Mosque on Massachusetts Avenue [in Washington D.C.] faces 56 degrees, 33 minutes, and 15 seconds east of true north, and thereby hangs a minor tale.

The direction is toward Mecca, which all mosques must face with mathematical exactness. It was calculated for this mosque by the Egyptian Ministry of Works in Cairo. Egypt is one of the Moslem countries sponsoring the mosque. The Egyptian Ambassador is president of the organization building it.

Passersby - many of them Moslems - keep dropping in, and some of them have come up with a frightening thought. The direction 56-33-15, they pointed out, was slightly north of east. But Mecca, the Moslem holy city in Arabia, was south of Washington. (Washington - 38 degrees, 55 minutes. Mecca - 21 degrees, 25 minutes). Take any map, they said, and draw a straight line between the two cities and the line would go slightly south. But the mosque pointed slightly north.

The trouble was easily explained. The visiting Moslems had been thinking in terms of the standard Mercator projection map. On such a map the straight line would go slightly south, but it would not be the shortest distance to Mecca. The shortest distance, as an air age knows, would be a great circle route, easily seen on a globe or a special flat map called a ‘gnomic projection’, heading slightly north to start with, passing near New York, Halifax, and along the North Atlantic iceberg lanes on its way across the world. It was like the great circle route suddenly coming to the Moslem world - except, of course, that Moslems drawing circles in the sand centuries ago had known about it all along.

Then there was the disturbing day when Egyptian Ambassador Mohammed Kamil Abdue Rahim visited the mosque. He stood in the center of the great, half-completed structure with a pocket compass in his hand. He stared and shook his head and said: "It points so far north."

Architect Irwin S. Porter said he explained to the Ambassador that the compass pointed toward the false magnetic north and has - among other things - a seven-degree westerly variation error in it."

Even so, the Ambassador began telling the architect a little story. In Egypt when they build a mosque, the story went, they gave the builders a point to sight on. Then when the building was done, the royal engineers came out and surveyed. And if it wasn’t right, the builders had to tear the whole works down and build it again.

"I’ll tell you, it gave me a few nights of worry," Mr. Porter said.

Mr. Porter called up a cartographer, Wellman Chamberlin, of the National Geographic Society, and asked him "just for formality" to check the direction of Mecca.

"He called back in a few hours," Mr. Porter said, "and of course it was right - 56-33-15."

Mr. Porter asked the cartographer: "But how can I explain this to the Ambassador?"

"Tell him to take a globe," was the cartographer’s advice, "and two thumb tacks, one at Washington and one at Mecca, and to run a string between and he will see that that is the direction of Mecca."

Mr. Porter’s own office made up the globe with the tacks and string and sent it to the Ambassador.

"The Ambassador now is very happy," said Mr. Porter.

The Newscalled the embassy and brought up the general subject with the third secretary.

"Well, the direction is 56 degrees, 33 minutes, and 15 seconds," said the third secretary. "It was calculated by the Egyptian Ministry of Works in Cairo. There can be no dispute about it."

"It’s very simple," he went on, "Anyone can demonstrate it. Just take a globe and two thumb tacks and ...."

Assumption (Error) Number 3 (Can't use Maths/Calculations for Qiblah):

1. Take a look at Imam Razi (RA)'s Tafseer, Tafsir al-Kabir [20, vol. 4, p. 131]
   1. The qibla direction is the intersection point between the circle of horizon and the great circle passing in the direction of our zenith and Mecca’s zenith. The qibla angle is the arc on the circle of horizon between the qibla direction and the meridian of our city; and [the angle] between the qibla direction and the equinoctial sunset point [i.e., west] is the complement of the qibla angle. They say: And in finding the qibla direction, one needs to know the longitude and latitude of Mecca. If the longitude of the city equals the longitude of Mecca, and its latitude differs from the latitude of Mecca, then its qibla direction is along the meridian, to the south if the city is to the north [of Mecca], and to the north if the city is to the south. If the latitude of the city equals the latitude of Mecca, and its longitude differs from the longitude of Mecca, then it may be conjectured that its [i.e., the city’s] qibla direction is the east-west line; however, this is a wrong conjecture. And [in fact] it is also possible for some cities whose longitudes and latitudes differ from Mecca’s longitude and latitude that their qibla direction be the equinoctial sunrise or sunset point [i.e., east or west]. If this is the situation, then there is no choice but to derive [i.e., calculate] the qibla angle.
2. Shaykh (Mufti) Rasheed Ahmed Ludhyanwi (RA) in Ahsanul-Fatawa (Volume 2) page 314 about New York city. Look at the answer (North East) and look at the calculations in that chapter! Besides someone tell me how did Shaykh (Mufti) Rasheed Ahmed Ludhyanwi (RA) calculate Qiblah for New York while sitting in Pakistan without using Maths & Calculations?

Assumption (Error) Number 4 (Can't use Experts for Qiblah):

Hazrat (Mufti) A.S. Desai (HA) has partially quoted Jawahirul-Fiqh of Shaykh (Mufti) Shaf'i Usmani Saheb (HA) in his response and skipped the last page (summarisation) on page 474 which reads:

1. Allamah Shami (RA) states, "Where there are no old (existing) Masajid then it is permissable (by consensus) to use (Mathematical) calculations and equipment. In fact it is essential for a person (who has knowledge and skills) in this matter to use these (Mathematical) calculations and equipment instead of relying of (other) signs because surety is better than estimation (by looking at the signs). Where old Masajid exist then Ulamah differ as to whether (Mathematical) calculations and equipment should be used or not, some consider it permissible and some don’t."

وأفاد في النهر أن دلائل النجوم معتبرة عند قوم وعند آخرين ليست بمعتبرة قال : وعليه إطلاق عامة المتون . ا هـ . أقول : لم أر في المتون ما يدل على عدم اعتبارها ، ولنا تعلم ما نهتدي به على القبلة من النجوم . وقال تعالى [ ص:431 ] { لكم النجوم لتهتدوا بها } - على أن محاريب الدنيا كلها نصبت بالتحري حتى منى كما نقله في البحر ، ولا يخفى أن أقوى الأدلة النجوم . والظاهر أن الخلاف في عدم اعتبارها إنما هو عند وجود المحاريب القديمة ، إذ لا يجوز التحري معها كما قدمناه ، لئلا يلزم تخطئة السلف الصالح وجماهير المسلمين ، بخلاف ما إذا كان في المفازة فينبغي وجوب اعتبار النجوم ونحوها في المفازة لتصريح علمائنا وغيرهم بكونها علامة معتبرة ، فينبغي الاعتماد في أوقات الصلاة وفي القبلة ، على ما ذكره العلماء الثقات في كتب المواقيت ، وعلى ما وضعوه لها من الآلات كالربع والأسطرلاب فإنها إن لم تفد اليقين تفد غلبة الظن للعالم بها ، وغلبة الظن كافية في ذلك

Signed:

Shaykh (Mufti) Shafi Usmani (RA)

Checked and Approved by Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA)

1. The oldest and most established Mosque in USA DOES NOT face South-East but North-East and many other older ones don't either!
2. It is not only permissable but better to use (Mathematical) calculations and equipment as per Allmah Shami (RA), Shaykh (Mufti) Shafi Usmani (RA) & Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA) in cities where older Mosques don't exist (this has been the case in most American & European cities) in 1960's, 1970's & 1980's and may still be today in many cities
3. (Mathematical) calculations can be clearly used as shown by Shaykh (Mufti) Rasheed Ahmed Ludhyanwi (RA) in Ahsanul-Fatawa (Volume 2) page 314 where he gave a Fatwa (correctly) of Qiblah being North-East for New York while physically being in Pakistan!

Jazakullah Khairun

Qiblah from American North-East using a globe & measuring tape:

Qiblah from American North-East using Google Earth (Part1)

Qiblah from American North-East using Google Earth (Part2)

Qiblah from American North-East using Google Earth (Part3)