Using Google Location or GPS to Identify Qiblah?

Answered by our Shaykh, the ‘Allāmah, the Trustworthy Advisor, Abu ‘Abdirrahmān Yahya bin ‘Ali Al-Hajūri – may Allāh preserve him – on the 25th, Dhūl-Hijjah, 1441H

Question:

Conflict between Google location and the GPS device in identifying the direction of the Qiblah, with what is well known from observation is that there is a difference between them and what is relied upon at stoppages to identify the qiblah is the GPS device, so which of them do we take?

Answer:

They take what their ijtihād has led them to and what they saw to be closer to the accurate direction, if they know that this is closer to the direction they take it, and those that came before them used to take the star which is in the direction of the qiblah, so they directed their masjids upon that, and perhaps you find those that came after them began directing according to the old masājids which some of the elderly directed upon the star of the qiblah, and they say this star is in the direction of the qiblah, so they say make the direction of the masjid upon that, and indeed there comes a slight deviation, either by a little bit or… in most cases it occurs, but a few degrees deviation does not harm, so if they do that and they have experience with it then what a blessing, and if they did ijtihād and found this is more closer to the direction, then the matter is flexible in that regard.

Translated by: Abū ‘Abdillāh ‘Omar bin Yahya Al-‘Akawi

Click on the link to listen to the Audio: https://t.me/sh_yahia_duroos/7608