Surah Al-Baqarah (The Cow — البقرة) (Ayah 150)

When the Ka‘bah in Makkah was appointed as the prayer direction, or qiblah, the People of the Book started discussing whether the East was God’s direction or the West. They saw the matter as one of direction alone, but this was nothing other than sheer ignorance on their part. The selection of the House of God as the qiblah was not merely the specification of a certain direction for prayer; it was a sign that the time had come for God to reveal His greatest favour to man. It had been decided a long time ago, that, in answer to the prayer of Abraham and Ishmael (see 2:129), God would send a final Prophet to the world. The path to life everlasting was now being thrown open to all: God was showing His ultimate favour to mankind. The bringing of religion to its final stage of perfection in Islam does not mean that previous religions were incomplete. They too were complete in themselves, but none of them was preserved in its original and authentic form. God had revealed true religion time and time again, but on each occasion mankind had rebelled against it and either distorted it or allowed it to fall into oblivion. Now it was revealed in its ultimate and indelible form. Divine religion that had deteriorated into a set of mythological tales was now incorporated into history in the form of solid facts. Up till then, no pattern of true religion had been preserved for posterity; now, it was placed before mankind in a permanent, living and practical form. The change of qiblah, rather than denoting a change from one direction of worship to another, more sacred one, showed the completion of God’s guidance to mankind.