The Quran

150

وَمِن حَيثُ خَرَجتَ فَوَلِّ وَجهَكَ شَطرَ المَسجِدِ الحَرامِ ۚ وَحَيثُ ما كُنتُم فَوَلّوا وُجوهَكُم شَطرَهُ لِئَلّا يَكونَ لِلنّاسِ عَلَيكُم حُجَّةٌ إِلَّا الَّذينَ ظَلَموا مِنهُم فَلا تَخشَوهُم وَاخشَوني وَلِأُتِمَّ نِعمَتي عَلَيكُم وَلَعَلَّكُم تَهتَدونَ

Muhammad Asad

Hence, from wherever thou mayest come forth, turn thy face [in prayer] towards the Inviolable House of Worship; and wherever you all may be, turn your faces towards it, so that people should have no argument against you unless they are bent upon wrongdoing.¹ And hold not them in awe, but stand in awe of Me, and [obey Me,] so that I might bestow upon you the full measure of My blessings, and that you might follow the right path.

Lit., "except such among them as are bent upon wrongdoing" (regarding the intent implied in the use of the past tense in expressions like alladhrna zalama or alladhrna kafaru, see note 6 on verse 6 of this surah). The Qur'an stresses repeatedly that the Muslims are true followers of Abraham. This claim, however, might have been open to objection so long as they prayed in a direction other than Abraham's qiblah, the Ka'bah. The establishment of the latter as the qiblah of the followers of the Qur'an would invalidate any such argument and would leave it only to "those who are bent upon wrongdoing" (in this case, distorting the truth) to challenge the message of the Qur'an on these grounds.