Qibla

The command, and the count

Quran 2:144 directs Muhammad and the believers to turn toward the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, replacing their former direction of prayer. Traditions attributed to al-Bara ibn Azib say he had prayed toward Jerusalem for sixteen or seventeen months after reaching Medina.

Most historical sources place the change at mid-Sha‘ban 2 AH, conventionally about 11 February 624. That Common Era figure is a reconstructed correlation, not a contemporaneously recorded date.

Congregations turning mid-prayer

News moved fast. One report says an Ansar congregation turned toward the Kaaba while already bowing during the afternoon prayer.

A separate report says worshippers at Quba learned of the command during the following morning prayer and turned from the direction of Syria toward the Kaaba — beginning the prayer facing one way and finishing it facing another.

What the Quran does not supply

The familiar scene in which Muhammad himself receives the revelation and turns mid-prayer at the Mosque of the Two Qiblas is a later historical tradition. Quran 2:142–150 does not name Masjid al-Qiblatayn, and the strongest al-Bukhari reports describe other congregations receiving the news rather than locating the revelation there.

Al-Tabari records disagreement among early authorities: most placed the change halfway through Sha‘ban 2 AH, while other reports put it roughly two months earlier or counted sixteen rather than eighteen months after the Hijra.

The annotated SUNY translation gives “about 11 February 624” and cautions that the change may have followed a period of hesitation rather than one cleanly documented moment.