The building of multistory residential towers adjacent to the Grand Mosque has led to the discovery that the direction of the Qibla in some 200 old mosques in the proximity of the Holy Mosque is wrongly positioned. Qibla is the Arabic word for the direction a Muslim should face when offering prayers. Most mosques contain a niche in a wall that indicates the Qibla which faces in the direction of the Holy Ka'aba. These high residential towers around the Grand Mosque have enabled some worshippers to discover slight discrepancies in the direction of the Qibla of an estimated 200 mosques, especially the ones in Al-Mansour and Al-Tandbawi districts and Al-Sitteen. The direction of the Qibla in some of these mosques is set to the western wing of the Holy Mosque while others are inclined toward Al-Misfala District. It is believed some of these mosques were built 50 years ago. Muslims consider the direction of the Qibla very important because of the fact that all Muslims pray facing the Holy Ka'aba. It is traditionally considered to be a symbol of the unity of all Muslims worldwide. Thus, the Qibla, anywhere on Earth, is the direction of the Ka'aba. Anwar Damaj, Muhammed Assiri and Ibrahim Hawsawi who pray in one of the mosques at Al-Mansour District said worshippers had discovered the wrong position of the Qibla in these mosques after people visiting the high rise towers noticed it. Residents in these districts have called upon the authorities concerned at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to correct the direction of the Qibla in these mosques or adjust the direction of the carpets on which the worshippers pray facing the Ka'aba. They suggested that laser beams be installed on the minarets of the Holy Haram in order to show the direction of the Qibla. Muhammed Ibrahim, a muezzin in one of the mosques in Al-Mansoura District, said most of the mosques in the district were built a long time ago and the direction of the Qibla was randomly estimated. Hassan Bukhari, a muezzin in another mosque in the same district, said many worshippers were perplexed by the location of the Qibla. This made them have doubts about the prayers they have already offered. Talal Nouh, a former mosques supervisor in Makkah, said the old mosques in the city were not directly set towards the eye of the Ka'aba though they face it, pointing out that this stems from the lack of accurate instruments for determining the real direction of the Ka'aba. Dr. Saad Mousa Al-Mousa, a member of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Shariah at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, said the Endowment Administration is responsible for determining the location of the Qibla since they have experts trained specifically for the purpose.
