The ruling on praying in a direction other than the qiblah while traveling
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: We were outside the city, and the time for the 'Isha' prayer entered, so we prayed 'Isha'. After finishing, it became clear to us that we had prayed in a direction other than the qiblah. What is the ruling on our prayer?
Answer:
If that happened due to ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), meaning that before you reached the city, you did not know, for example, the mihrabs of mosques, and you did not see the sun, moon, or stars to guide you, and you prayed based on your ijtihad, then your prayer is valid, if Allah wills. However, if you were lax, and the mihrabs were present and the signs were present, but you were lax, or if you were ignorant and prayed in a direction other than the qiblah, then it is not valid, because facing the qiblah is a condition of the prayer.
The questioner says: We were outside the city, and the time for the 'Isha' prayer entered, so we prayed 'Isha'. After finishing, it became clear to us that we had prayed in a direction other than the qiblah. What is the ruling on our prayer?
Answer:
If that happened due to ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), meaning that before you reached the city, you did not know, for example, the mihrabs of mosques, and you did not see the sun, moon, or stars to guide you, and you prayed based on your ijtihad, then your prayer is valid, if Allah wills. However, if you were lax, and the mihrabs were present and the signs were present, but you were lax, or if you were ignorant and prayed in a direction other than the qiblah, then it is not valid, because facing the qiblah is a condition of the prayer.
Source
شرح الدروس المهمة لعامة الأمة لابن باز [ مجموعة من المشايخ ]، فتاوى الشيخ عبد الرحمن آل فريان — islamhouse.com (16:00)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.