Jews, the change of Qibla

and the role of Ka’ab ul Ahbaar

The change of Qibla from Bait ul Muqaddas to Kabah was something that infuriated the Jews. As the Jews held great respect for the Bait ul Muqaddas and were not ready to give equal status to any other land, the change of Qibla was highly crucial and infuriating for them.

          They were so deeply hurt by this incident that even after the passage of centuries, they did not fail to show their hatred regarding this openly.

          As a result, some of the illegal Umayyad Caliphs who had the intention of pleasing the Jews and humiliating Islam and Muslims, tried to return the lost glory of Bait ul Muqaddas and give it the same spiritual status as the Masjid ul Haraam or even greater than it.   

          One of the unlawful Umayyad Caliphs who tried to implement this idea more than others was Abdul Malik.

          One of the factors that compelled Abdul Malik to put effort in this direction was that Abdullah Bin Zubair had revolted at the time of his government and had taken away Mecca from the hands of the Umayyad Caliph. In order to prohibit people from visiting the House of God, Abdul Malik tried to revive the glory of Bait ul Muqaddas for them, so that people get inclined towards Bait ul Muqaddas and quit their journeys towards the Holy Kabah.

          This incident clearly depicts that the Umayyad Caliphs were ready to alter the religious facts for their political motives and exhibit them in a different form. Therefore, if they ever claimed a government in the name of Islam or religion, it was not for their religious beliefs but for their political benefits and for acquiring power by this means.

          It is stated in the book ‘Payambar (s.a.w.s.) wa Yahood e Hejaz’:

‘The change of Qibla was an incident that provided independence to the Muslims from the Jews and became a platform for the Bedouins to accept Islam. This was because the Holy Kabah was extremely significant for them, although, the Muslims held immense respect for the Kabah even before the change of Qibla and this honour was evident form the verses of the Holy Quran. This incident marked the first step of the separation between the Muslims and the Jews and naturally, it increased the hatred of this nation further; a nation that had confessed to the superiority of Islam and its Prophet.

          In the Islamic history, those who had converted from Judaism to Islam and their Israelite narrations are found in large numbers in the Islamic sources, were always seeking an opportunity to declare the supremacy of Bait ul Muqaddas over the Holy Kabah. Ka’ab ul Ahbar concocted a narration in which it is stated that: Kabah prostrates every morning before the Bait ul Muqaddas. Imam Baqir (a.s.) declared this narration as a falsified one and said: In the courtyard of Allah, no point on earth is more beloved than the Holy Kabah.’’[1]

          The unlawful Umayyad Caliphs used such narrations to for the sake of their political motives. When Mecca was in the hands of Abdullah Bin Zubair, Abdul Malik, with the intention of forbidding the people from going for pilgrimage, propagated a narration quoted from Zahri regarding the Prophet which stated: ‘People should not go for pilgrimage to any other place except for the three mosques; Masjid ul Haraam, Masjid un Nabi and Masjid of Bait ul Muqaddas, which holds the same status as the Kabah[2]’.[3]