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The Kitáb-i-Aqdas

  • Author:

  • Bahá’u’lláh

  • Source:
  • Bahá’í World Centre, 1992 edition
  • Pages:
  • 254
Go to printed page GO
Pages 168-169
 

7. When ye desire to perform this prayer, turn ye towards the Court of My Most Holy Presence, this Hallowed Spot that God hath … decreed to be the Point of Adoration for the denizens of the Cities of Eternity # 6
 
The “Point of Adoration”, that is, the point to which the worshipper should turn when offering obligatory prayer, is called the Qiblih. The concept of Qiblih has existed in previous religions. Jerusalem in the past had been fixed for this purpose. Muḥammad changed the Qiblih to Mecca. The Báb’s instructions in the Arabic Bayán were:
 
The Qiblih is indeed He Whom God will make manifest; whenever He moveth, it moveth, until He shall come to rest.
 
This passage is quoted by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas 169 (# 137) and confirmed by Him in the above-noted verse. He has also indicated that facing in the direction of the Qiblih is a “fixed requirement for the recitation of obligatory prayer” (Q and A 14 and 67). However, for other prayers and devotions the individual may face in any direction.