Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad (1980)
And, verily, those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime know well that this [commandment] comes in truth from their Sustainer; and God is not unaware of what they do.
(145) And yet, even if thou wert to place all evidence 121 before those who have been vouchsafed earlier revelation, they would not follow thy direction of prayer; and neither mayest thou follow their direction of prayer, nor even do they follow one another’s direction. And if thou shouldst follow their errant views after all the knowledge that has come unto thee, thou wouldst surely be among the evildoers.
(146) They unto whom We have vouchsafed revelation aforetime know it as they know their own children: but, behold, some of them knowingly suppress the truth – (147) the truth from thy Sustainer!122
Be not, then, among the doubters: (148) for, every community faces a direction of its own, of which He is the focal point.123 Vie, therefore, with one another in doing good works. Wherever you may be, God will gather you all unto Himself: for, verily, God has the power to will anything.
(149) Thus, from wherever thou mayest come forth, turn thy face [in prayer] towards the Inviolable House of Worship – for, behold, this [commandment] comes in truth from thy Sustainer; and God is not unaware of what you do. (150) Hence, from wherever thou mayest come forth, turn thy face [in prayer] towards the
121 Lit., “every sign (āyah)", i.e., of its being a revealed commandment.
122 This refers, in the first instance, to the fact that the Kaʿbah was Abraham’s qiblah, as well as to the Biblical prophecies relating to Ishmael as the progenitor of a "great nation” (Genesis xxi, 13 and 18) from whom a prophet “like unto Moses” would one day arise: for it was through Ishamel's descendant, the Arabian Prophet, that the commandment relating to the qiblah was revealed. (Regarding the still more explicit predictions of the future advent of the Prophet Muḥxammad, forthcoming from the canonical Gospels, see 61:6 and the corresponding note.)
123 Lit., “everyone has a direction…”, etc. Almost all of the classical commentators, from the Companions of the Prophet downwards, interpret this as a reference to the various religious communities and their different modes of “turning towards God in worship. Ibn Kathīr, in his commentary on this verse, stresses its inner resemblance to the phrase occurring in 5:48. unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of life . The statement that every community faces a direction of its own” in its endeavour to express its submission to God implies, firstly, that at various times and in various circumstances man’s desire to approach God in prayer has taken different forms (e.g., Abraham’s choice of the Kaʿbah as his qiblah, the Jewish concentration on Jerusalem, the eastward orientation of the early Christian churches, and the Qurʾanic commandment relating to the Kaʿbah); and, secondly, that the direction of prayer – however important its symbolic significance may be – does not represent the essence of faith as such: for, as the Qurʾān says, “true piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west” (2:177), and, “God’s is the east and the west” (2:115 and 142). Consequently, the revelation which established the Kaʿbah as the qiblah of the Muslims should not be a matter of contention for people of other faiths, nor a cause of their disbelief in the truth of the Qurʾanic revelation as such (Manār II, 21 f.).
