Masjid (Mosque of) Qiblatain

Bersambung dari Makam Saidina Hamzah dan para syuhada Uhud (Tomb of Saidina Hamzah and the martyrs of Uhud).

Continued from Makam Saidina Hamzah dan para syuhada Uhud (Tomb of Saidina Hamzah and the martyrs of Uhud).

Ini pula adalah Masjid Qiblatain.

This in turn is Masjid (mosque) Qiblatain.

Qiblatain bermaksud 2 kiblat.

Qiblatain means 2 qiblat (direction of prayers).

Ia dipanggil begitu kerana pernah terjadi Nabi Muhammad SAW memimpin solat menghadap ke satu arah  di barat-laut kemudian berpusing hampir 150 darjah bertukar arah menghadap ke selatan.

It is called thus because it happened once that the Prophet Muhammad SAW led a prayer facing a direction to the north-west and then turned almost 150 degrees changing direction facing to the south.

Pada awalnya umat Islam bersolat menghadap Baitul Maqdis di Jerusalem. Ketika bersolat itulah Nabi Muhammad SAW menerima wahyu yang memerintah agar mengubah kiblat menghadap ke Mekah.

At first the Muslim people prayed facing the Baitul Maqdis (the site where used to lie the temple of Solomon) in Jerusalem. While doing that prayer the Prophet Muhammad SAW received revelation commanding him to change the prayer direction to Mecca.

Inilah mihrab yang menandakan kiblat sekarang. Dahulu, mihrab lama menghadap Jerusalem turut wujud dalam masjid tetapi ia telah dibuang selepas satu kerja penambahbaikan.

This is it the mihrab (front-most section) which marks the current qiblat (direction of prayer). Before, the old mihrab facing Jerusalem also exists but it was removed after a renovation work.