I prayed more than one prayer in a direction other than the qiblah, and I did not realize this until a long time later. Is it obligatory for me to repeat them?
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The questioner : He says: I prayed more than one prayer in a direction other than the qiblah, and I did not realize this until a long time later. Is it obligatory for me to repeat them? I was certain about the direction of the qiblah...
The Shaykh : I was certain?
The questioner : I was certain about the direction of the qiblah, but my certainty turned out to be wrong. I ask you for guidance?
The Shaykh : It is obligatory for a person, if he is in a town and does not know the qiblah, to ask the people of the town about it, or to go to the mosques there, if the town is an Islamic land, and to use their mihrabs to determine the qiblah. If he does not do this and prays in the town without asking, and it turns out that he prayed in a direction other than the qiblah, then it is obligatory for him to repeat the prayers he performed in a direction other than the qiblah. This is because the town is not a place for independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), especially since this man, as it appears, does not know the signs of the qiblah, but rather assumed in his own mind that this direction was toward the qiblah and prayed in that direction. Therefore, it is obligatory for him to count all the prayers that have passed and repeat them. If he does not know how many prayers he missed, he should estimate, for Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. Yes.
The Shaykh : I was certain?
The questioner : I was certain about the direction of the qiblah, but my certainty turned out to be wrong. I ask you for guidance?
The Shaykh : It is obligatory for a person, if he is in a town and does not know the qiblah, to ask the people of the town about it, or to go to the mosques there, if the town is an Islamic land, and to use their mihrabs to determine the qiblah. If he does not do this and prays in the town without asking, and it turns out that he prayed in a direction other than the qiblah, then it is obligatory for him to repeat the prayers he performed in a direction other than the qiblah. This is because the town is not a place for independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), especially since this man, as it appears, does not know the signs of the qiblah, but rather assumed in his own mind that this direction was toward the qiblah and prayed in that direction. Therefore, it is obligatory for him to count all the prayers that have passed and repeat them. If he does not know how many prayers he missed, he should estimate, for Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. Yes.