Commentary Ponder on these verses and you will find them...

Commentary Ponder on these verses and you will find them well-con­nected with each other, a common context joining them together like a strand running through the beads. These verses together talk about the appointment of the Ka'bah as the qiblah (the direction of prayer etc.) for the Muslims. Therefore, no atten­tion should be paid to those who say that there was a change of sequence in the arrangement of these verses, or that some of them have abrogated the others.

Although they narrate some traditions to this effect, but they do not deserve any comment because all of them go against the clear meaning of these verses. Qur’an: The fools among the people will say: “What has turned them from their qiblah which they had?” : It is the second intro­ductory sentence for the soon-to-be-promulgated order to make the Ka'bah as the qiblah of the Muslims.

Also, it teaches the reply of the objection which the “fools among the people”, that is, the Jews and the pagans of Mecca, were expected to raise: The Jews because of their partisanship of their own qiblah, Baytu '1-Maqdis; and the pagan Arabs because they were always on the look out for any new thing which they could object to.

Allah prepared the minds for change of qiblah, first by revealing the story of Ibrahim (a.s.) and various honours be-stowed on him by Allah, as well as the honour accorded to his son, Isma'il; their prayers for the Ka'bah and Mecca, as well as for the Prophet and the Muslim group; their construction of the House and the order they received to cleanse it for the worship of Allah.

It is recognized that the change of qiblah from Baytu '1-Maqdis to the Ka'bah was an event of greatest religious signifi­cance, one of the most important commandments given to the Muslims after the hijrah of the Prophet to Medina, when the roots of Islam were firmly taking place and its knowledge and realities were being spread.

Understandably, the Jews were not going to remain silent in face of this legislation: According to their thinking this change negated one of their greatest religious prides, that is, qiblah; hitherto the Muslims were following them in their qiblah, and the Jews could claim a precedence over the Muslims in this religious symbol. Moreover, this new legislation was a manifest advancement in the Muslims' religion - it made all of them to face a single point in their worship and other religious rites.