Is It Prohibited to Point Feet towards the Qiblah?

Question: 12871

Some people say that you are not allowed to point your feet at the Qiblah while sitting down in the mosque and that it is bad manners. Does this have any basis or is it a cultural thing or is an addition?

Summary of answer

There is nothing to say that pointing one’s feet in the direction of the Qiblah is not allowed, but some of the scholars regarded it as disliked to stretch the feet out towards the Ka`bah if one is close to it.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Shaykh `Abdullah ibn Humayd (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about pointing one’s feet in the direction of the Qiblah.

He replied:

“There is nothing to say that pointing one’s feet in the direction of the Qiblah is not allowed, but some of the scholars regarded it as disliked to stretch the feet out towards the Ka`bah if one is close to it; they regarded this as disliked but not emphatically so. But if there is a mosque somewhere else and there is a Muslim there who points his feet towards the Qiblah, there is no harm in that and he is not doing anything forbidden in sha Allah, as the scholars stated. And Allah knows best.” (Fatawa Ash-Shaykh Ibn Humayd, p. 144)

Shaykh Ibn `Uthaymin (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about pointing the feet towards the Qiblah whilst sleeping. He said:

“There is no blame on a person if he sleeps and his feet are pointing towards the Qiblah .” (Fatawa Ash-Shaykh Ibn `Uthaymin, 2/976)

For more details, please refer to the following answers: 66200 , and 69808 .

And Allah knows best.

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Source:

Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid