Summary

The claim that “the sky is the qiblah of duʿa” was used by those who denied Allah’s ʿuluww. When the common people would raise their hands, hearts, and faces upward in duʿa as proof that Allah is above His creation, they replied by saying that this upward direction only means the sky is a qiblah for duʿa, just as the Kaʿbah is the qiblah for salah.

Ibn al Qayyim refuted this through the hadith reports. He brought the report of the slave girl, where the Prophet ﷺ accepted her statement that Allah is in the heaven and testified to her iman (Sahih Muslim 537).

He also brought the report from the Farewell Pilgrimage, where the Prophet ﷺ pointed to the heaven and said: “O Allah, bear witness.” (Sahih Muslim 1218a)

Ibn al Qayyim’s point is that the Prophet ﷺ was not making duʿa here. He was calling Allah as witness. So the upward pointing or looking up when calling upon him cannot be called “the qiblah of duʿa,” because he wasn’t making duʿa yet still pointed up.

Ibn Abi al ʿIzz said that no one from the Salaf ever said, “the sky is the qiblah of duʿa.” Since qiblah is a matter of worship, it needs proof from the Sharia.

If the sky were truly a qiblah for duʿa, the Prophet ﷺ, the Sahabah, and the imams would have taught it.

He also explained that the qiblah of duʿa is already known. It is the same qiblah as salah, meaning the Kaʿbah.

The Prophet ﷺ faced the qiblah when making duʿa in many places, including when asking for rain. So claiming that duʿa has another qiblah, or two qiblahs, is an invented claim.

The Prophet ﷺ went towards the Musalla and invoked Allah for rain. He faced the Qibla and wore his cloak inside out, and offered 2 rakʿat.” (Sahih al Bukhari 1025)

Also on the day of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ turned his face towards the Qibla. Then he stretched his hands and began his supplication to his Lord.” (Sahih Muslim 1763)

The fitrah also refutes the claim. People naturally turn their hearts upward when calling upon Allah, especially in hardship. This is not a learned qiblah, nor a legal direction that can change. It is something Allah placed in the hearts of His servants.

Passages Translated from Ibn Al Qayyim & Ibn Abi Al Izz

Established Reports About Pointing to the Heaven

It has been established from the Prophet ﷺ that he testified that the slave girl had iman (faith) when she affirmed that Allah is in the heaven, and her hadith is in Sahih Muslim. (Reported as number 537, from the hadith of Muʿawiyah ibn al Hakam al Sulami. See its expanded takhrij (verification) and the reply to those who criticise its authenticity in: Takheel al ʿAyn bi Jawaz al Suʿal ʿan Allah bi Ayna, by al Sadiq ibn Salim ibn Sadiq.)

It has been established from him in the Sahih that the prophet ﷺ kept pointing with his finger to the heaven in his sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage, and he would point it towards the people and say: “O Allah, bear witness.”

He was calling Allah as a witness at that time. He was not making duʿa, so it cannot be said: the heaven is the qiblah of duʿa. (In Sahih Muslim 1218a, within Jabir’s long hadith describing the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ.

Ibn Al Qayyim is referring to the saying of those who deny al ʿuluww (highness), from the Jahmiyyah and those like them, who, when it is used as evidence against them that people, despite their different religions and ways, turn their hearts, faces, and hands to the heaven when making duʿa, reply by saying: the heaven is the qiblah of duʿa.

See their wording in: al Iqtisad fi al Iʿtiqad by al Ghazali, p 44, and Asas al Taqdis by al Razi, p 97 to 98, and for the detailed refutation: Bayan Talbis al Jahmiyyah by Shaykh al Islam, 4/529 to 560.)

Tahdhib Sunan Abi Dawud by Ibn Al Qayyim (3/240–241)

Its Establishment Through al Fitrah

Imam Ibn Abi Al Izz says: As for its establishment through the fitrah, then all creation, by their dispositions and sound hearts, raise their hands when making duʿa (supplication), and they intend the direction of highness with their hearts when humbling themselves to Allah Most High.

Muhammad ibn Tahir al Maqdisi (d. 507 AH) mentioned that Shaykh Abu Jaʿfar al Hamadani (d. 531 AH) attended the gathering of Abu al Maʿali al Juwayni (d. 478 AH), while he was speaking about negating the attribute of al ʿuluww (highness), and saying: “Allah was, and there was no Throne, and He is now as He was.”

So Shaykh Abu Jaʿfar said: “Tell us, O Ustadh, about this necessity that we find in our hearts. For no knower has ever said: ‘O Allah’, except that he finds in his heart a necessity to seek (229) highness.

He does not turn to the right nor to the left. So how do we remove this necessity from ourselves?”

He said: So Abu al Maʿali struck his head, and came down, and I think he said, and he wept, and said: “The Hamadani has confused me, the Hamadani has confused me.”

The Shaykh meant: this is a matter that Allah created His servants upon, without them taking it from the messengers. They find in their hearts a necessary seeking that turns to Allah and seeks Him in highness.

A Brief Reply to the Objection Against the Rational Proof

The rational proof was objected to by denying that it is self evident, because the majority of rational people denied it. If it were self evident, it would not be differed over among rational people. Rather, it is a matter of delusion and thought. The answer to this objection is explained fully in its place, but a brief indication is given here.

It is said: if the intellect accepts your claim, then it is more accepting of our claim. If the intellect rejects our claim, then it rejects your claim even more. If our claim is false in the intellect, then your claim is more false. If your claim is true and accepted in the intellect, then our claim is more worthy of being accepted in the intellect.

The claim of necessity is shared. We say: we know by necessity the falseness of your claim, and you say the same. If you say: that necessity which rules the falseness of our claim is from the ruling of delusion, not from the ruling of the intellect, then we answer you with the same as your claim. The general fitrah of people, not from you and not from us, agrees with us. (Aqifi said: see 2/51 from: Mukhtasar al Mawsili of al Sawaʿiq al Mursalah, Ibn al Qayyim.)

If the ruling of the fitrah of the children of Adam is accepted, then we outweigh you. If it is rejected and not accepted, then your claim is invalid entirely, because you only built your claim upon what you claim are premises known by the Adamic fitrah.

Our rational proofs would also be invalid, and the samʿ (revealed texts) that the prophets came with would be with us, not with you. So we would be singled out with the revealed texts without you, and the intellect would be shared between us and you.

If you say: “Most rational people say our claim.” It is said: the matter is not like that. Those who openly state that the Maker of the universe is something existing that is not above the universe, and that He is neither separate from the universe nor within the universe, are a group from the people of speculation, and the first known for that in Islam was Jahm ibn Safwan (d. 128 AH) and his followers.

Reply to the Objection Against the Fitrah Proof

The fitrah proof was objected to by saying: that is only because the sky is the qiblah of duʿa, just as the Kaʿbah is the qiblah of salah. Then it is refuted by placing the forehead on the earth, even though He is not in the direction of the earth. This objection was answered in several ways.

1. Your statement, “the sky is the qiblah of duʿa”, was not said by anyone from the Salaf of the Ummah, and Allah did not send down any authority for it. This is from the religious matters of the Sharia, so it is not permissible for it to be hidden from all the Salaf of the Ummah and its ulama.
2. The qiblah of duʿa is the qiblah of salah. It is recommended for the one making duʿa to face the qiblah. The Prophet ﷺ would face the qiblah in his duʿa in many places. (It is sahih, and the hadiths about this are many. Among them is the hadith of ʿAbd Allah ibn Zayd. He said: “The Prophet ﷺ went out to this prayer place to ask for rain. He made duʿa and asked for rain, then he faced the qiblah.” It is agreed upon. Al Bukhari gave it a chapter title in “al Daʿawat”, “Chapter: Supplication while facing the qiblah”.) So whoever says that duʿa has a qiblah other than the qiblah of salah (prayer), or that it has two qiblahs, one of them the Kaʿbah and the other the sky, has innovated in the religion and opposed the body of the Muslims.
3. The qiblah is what the worshipper faces with his face, just as the Kaʿbah is faced in salah, duʿa, dhikr (remembrance), and slaughtering, and just as the one close to death and the one buried is directed. That is why it is called a direction. Facing is the opposite of turning one’s back. Facing is with the face, and turning one’s back is with the back. As for what a person aligns with using his head, hands, or side, that is not called a qiblah, neither in its real meaning nor as a figure of speech.If the sky were the qiblah of duʿa, then what is legislated would be that the one making duʿa (supplication) directs his face to it. This was not legislated. The place that the hands are raised towards is not called a qiblah, neither in its real meaning nor as a figure of speech. Also, the qiblah in duʿa is a Sharia matter, the Sharias differ in it.The messengers did not command that the one making duʿa faces the sky with his face. Rather, they forbade that. It is known that turning with the heart, seeking refuge, and the request that the one making duʿa finds from himself is a matter of fitrah. The Muslim and the kafir, the learned and the ignorant, do it. The one in desperate need and the one seeking rescue from Allah does it the most, just as it is decided that when harm touches him, he calls upon Allah.Yet the matter of the qiblah is something that accepts abrogation and change, just as the qiblah changed from the rock to the Kaʿbah. The matter of turning in duʿa to the high direction is fixed in the fitrah. The one facing the Kaʿbah knows that Allah Most High is not there, unlike the one making duʿa, for he turns to his Lord and his Creator, and hopes for mercy to descend from Him.

As for the claim of refutation by placing the forehead, then how corrupt a refutation it is. The one who places his forehead only intends humility to the One above him, by lowering himself to Him. He does not intend to incline towards the earth, because this does not come to the heart of any one making sujud (prostration).

But it is related about Bishr al Marisi (d. 218 AH) that he was heard saying in his sujud (prostration): Subḥāna rabbī al asfal “Glory be to my Lord, the lowest.”

Allah Most High is far above what the unjust and deniers say, with great highness. Whoever is taken by negation to this state is worthy to become a zindiq, if Allah does not cover him with His mercy. Righteousness is far from one like him. Allah Most High said:

وَنُقَلِّبُ أَفْئِدَتَهُمْ وَأَبْصَارَهُمْ كَمَا لَمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهِ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ

“And We turn their hearts and their eyes, as they did not believe in it the first time.” (Al Anʿam: 110)

Allah Most High said:

فَلَمَّا زَاغُوا أَزَاغَ اللَّهُ قُلُوبَهُمْ

“So when they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate.” (Al Saff: 5)

Whoever does not seek guidance from its sources is punished with deprivation. We ask Allah for pardon and well being.

Sharḥ al ʿAqīdah al Ṭaḥāwiyyah by Imam Ibn Abī al ʿIzz pg 291–293