What is the meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah” (Surat al-Baqarah 115)?
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Question:
He asks: What is the meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Wherever you turn”[Al-Baqarah 2:115].
Answer:
This verse was revealed on account of a group of people who were traveling and became confused about the direction of the qiblah. They exerted their effort and prayed the Fajr prayer. When morning came, they found that they had prayed in a direction other than the qiblah. They came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked him about the ruling on their prayer, so Allah revealed this verse:[Al-Baqarah 2:115] Therefore, if a Muslim exerts his effort to find the qiblah while he is in the open country and no one is there to inform him, and he exerts his effort and prays, and it later turns out that he was mistaken, his prayer is valid, because he did what he was able to. Allah the Exalted says: [At-Taghabun 64:16] [Al-Baqarah 2:286] This is one opinion. The second opinion is that this applies to voluntary prayers while traveling. So if a traveler wants to pray one of the night prayers while he is on the road, he prays wherever he faces during his journey, wherever he faces during his journey, and he prays even if he is not facing the qiblah. This is for voluntary prayers while traveling. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to pray while traveling on his mount, wherever it faced him, meaning the night prayer and voluntary prayers. He used to pray the night prayer (peace and blessings be upon him) on his mount, wherever it faced him. Yes.
He asks: What is the meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Wherever you turn”
So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah
فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِAnswer:
This verse was revealed on account of a group of people who were traveling and became confused about the direction of the qiblah. They exerted their effort and prayed the Fajr prayer. When morning came, they found that they had prayed in a direction other than the qiblah. They came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked him about the ruling on their prayer, so Allah revealed this verse:
And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah
وَلِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِSo fear Allah as much as you are able
فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْAllah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما معنى قول الله تعالى ﴿فأينما تولوا فثم وجه الله﴾البقرة115؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.