What is required of one who prayed for two and a half years in a direction other than the qiblah, being ignorant of this?

Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This is a woman asking, and she says: We are a group of teachers at one of the schools in Riyadh. For a period of two and a half years, we prayed in the prayer room in a direction other than the qiblah, meaning deviating from the qiblah toward the west to the south, without knowing until we were alerted to it. The question is: Do we have any obligation regarding our prayers during this period?

Answer:
There is a distinction here. If the deviation is slight, there is no harm; a slight deviation does not harm. However, if the deviation is significant, such that the qiblah is behind your back or on your side, this is not correct and the prayer is not valid. You are in a country where you could have asked, seen the mosques, and seen the mihrabs. You are in a country, so if the deviation from the qiblah is significant, such that the qiblah is on your side or behind your back, you must repeat the prayer because you were negligent, as you were in a country, among mosques and among people, and you did not ask and did not look at the mosques. As for the slight deviation, this does not harm. Yes.