asma halai's blog

readers!

Welcome back. At school today, I went to the prayer room to pray Asr. While there, I remembered that I didn’t know the direction of the Qibla, so I took out my handy dandy phone to open up qibla finder to locate it.

But something wasn’t right. Three prayer mats were already on the ground, all facing one direction, and the app was telling me a significantly different direction. This had happened to me a little while ago, back at home as well, and I thought I’ve been praying wrong my whole life due to this app. So naturally, I changed my direction at home and resumed prayer in a new direction. However, I wasn’t settled, and I was feeling really weird, specifically in this moment. Why is the prayer app consistently showing me incorrect kibla directions everywhere I go? Something isnt right.

So I took to Google.

According to Reddit, older iPhones have a weakened calibration model, and that’s why they don’t tell directional differences that well. So I blamed it on my phone and proceeded on. But still, something wasn’t right, how does my Google Maps work fine? How does my phone work fine in calibrating my exact location wherever I let it? No, there’s something deeper here, and I have to investigate.

As I began my investigation, I came across some methods to solve this error,

1. using a kaaba compass that you can buy from a islamic store
2. Looking at the sun and calculating where it sets relative to the direction of the kaaba
3. Getting a new phone.

Something still didn’t feel completely right. And then a miracle happened. Another girl came into the room and was about to start praying. It was an aha! moment. Odds are she had a newer phone than I, and her phone would signal the right direction, and all would be well. I could blame it on my phone and move forward. So I asked her. I told her my qualms and shared with her that I felt something was wrong with my phone. Immediately, she kindly pulled out her phone and opened up a Qibla app to distinguish the truth. I was ready, tinged with anticipation that I would be proven wrong and everything would be okay.

But I wasn’t proven wrong. She had a newer phone than me and her app showed the same thing.

Alright, I was officially freaked. What does this mean? I don’t understand. All this time, I thought I was doing the right thing, but it was wrong. I felt scared and confused, wondering if my prayers still counted and what I should do next. I realized in that moment that something isn’t right. The phones are guiding us in the wrong direction. How many meanings can one sentence have? Read it again. The phones are guiding us in the wrong direction.

Call me dramatic, I don’t care. Something isnt right. But when something isn’t right, what do we do?

Take a deep breath and recalibrate the programming.

We put our trust back in Allah SWT. When life feels all jumbled up and confusing, it’s really important to remember that Allah is always with us and He is constantly guiding us. Every misstep, broken glass, or wrong action all fall within Allah’s guidance. My failing a class showed me I need realign. My shoe not fitting showed me I need to realign. My frustration showed me I need to realign. My resistance showed me I need to realign. And I need to always remember that even when I am aligned, it’s normal for me to become unaligned again, but I must always try to come back to alignment. Literally, everything that feels like it’s not working out is a guide, showing you and guiding you to come back to alignment.

Sitting with that girl in the prayer room and talking to her about my concern felt right. We were both two concerned Muslims hoping to find an answer, and we did. Our answer lies within Allah, as everything does. Trust in Allah was our answer, and we found exactly what we were looking for. We found the right direction.