5 or 7, what do you say Alah?
Ground Control to My Imam
Posted on Thursday, December 7, 2006. From “The Determination of Prayer Times and Direction of the Qiblah in Space,” by Dr. Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid, a member of the engineering faculty of National University of Malaysia. The paper was delivered at the Islam and Life in Space conference last spring in Kuala Lumpur. Translated from the Malay by Jessica Ramakrishnan. Originally from Harper's Magazine, November 2006.
Sources
As trips to space become commonplace, human civilization will no longer be tied to the surface of the Earth. But Muslims, wherever they are—whether on Earth or in space—are bound by duty to perform the obligations of worship.
A Muslim who wants to travel must study the techniques of determining prayer times and the direction of the Qiblah ahead of travel in order to achieve complete worship. I will elaborate the method of determining prayer times and Qiblah direction in space, primarily on the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is more than 200 miles from the Earth’s surface and orbits the earth every ninety-two minutes, or roughly sixteen times a day. Do we have to worship eighty times a day (sixteen orbits a day multiplied by five prayer times)? This seems unlikely, since it is compulsory for a Muslim to pray five times a day according to an Earth day, as determined by Allah during the creation of Heaven and Earth—no matter where in space the Muslim is located. As for the Qiblah, for Muslims there is only one, the Kaaba, located in Mecca. A Qiblah that changes in reference to a specific system is not in order! It must be remembered that Allah’s creation is ordered.
A user-friendly, portable Muslims in Space calculator could determine the direction of the Qiblah and prayer times on the ISS. Its essential feature would be the use of the Projected Earth and Qiblah Pole concepts. These are based on the interpretation of the holy house of angels in the sky above Mecca. The place is always rich with angels worshiping. As many as 70,000 angels circumambulate it every day. Thus, one virtual Qiblah Pole can be taken as a universal reference to determine the direction of the Qiblah. When the Earth is projected to the height of the ISS, every point on its surface will be projected also, including the Qiblah point, which can be projected upward and downward along the Qiblah Pole. This allows the direction of the Qiblah to be determined in space and in the bowels of the Earth.
Posted on Thursday, December 7, 2006. From “The Determination of Prayer Times and Direction of the Qiblah in Space,” by Dr. Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid, a member of the engineering faculty of National University of Malaysia. The paper was delivered at the Islam and Life in Space conference last spring in Kuala Lumpur. Translated from the Malay by Jessica Ramakrishnan. Originally from Harper's Magazine, November 2006.
Sources
As trips to space become commonplace, human civilization will no longer be tied to the surface of the Earth. But Muslims, wherever they are—whether on Earth or in space—are bound by duty to perform the obligations of worship.
A Muslim who wants to travel must study the techniques of determining prayer times and the direction of the Qiblah ahead of travel in order to achieve complete worship. I will elaborate the method of determining prayer times and Qiblah direction in space, primarily on the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is more than 200 miles from the Earth’s surface and orbits the earth every ninety-two minutes, or roughly sixteen times a day. Do we have to worship eighty times a day (sixteen orbits a day multiplied by five prayer times)? This seems unlikely, since it is compulsory for a Muslim to pray five times a day according to an Earth day, as determined by Allah during the creation of Heaven and Earth—no matter where in space the Muslim is located. As for the Qiblah, for Muslims there is only one, the Kaaba, located in Mecca. A Qiblah that changes in reference to a specific system is not in order! It must be remembered that Allah’s creation is ordered.
A user-friendly, portable Muslims in Space calculator could determine the direction of the Qiblah and prayer times on the ISS. Its essential feature would be the use of the Projected Earth and Qiblah Pole concepts. These are based on the interpretation of the holy house of angels in the sky above Mecca. The place is always rich with angels worshiping. As many as 70,000 angels circumambulate it every day. Thus, one virtual Qiblah Pole can be taken as a universal reference to determine the direction of the Qiblah. When the Earth is projected to the height of the ISS, every point on its surface will be projected also, including the Qiblah point, which can be projected upward and downward along the Qiblah Pole. This allows the direction of the Qiblah to be determined in space and in the bowels of the Earth.
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