Have Muslims Been Praying In The Wrong Direction For Over 1000 Years? | Sacred City | Timeline

The Sacred City presents compelling evidence that suggests the holy city of Mecca is in the wrong location and that the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims are praying in the direction of the wrong city. Compiling evidence from both historic sources and new technologies point to the correct location in this seismic, revelatory new film.

In this startling and original documentary, writer and historian, Dan Gibson, shows that descriptions of Mohamed’s original holy city – as detailed in the Qur’an and Islamic histories, do not match that of the Mecca we know today. If true this could shake Islam to it’s roots, because every Muslim is required to pray towards the ‘forbidden gathering place’. If Dan Gibson is right, Muslims are praying in the wrong direction.

In the film ‘The Sacred City’ we set out his evidence from within Islamic and ancient histories – while also using modern technologies - to track down the biggest secret of the last fifteen hundred years. Gibson not only finds the location of the original Mecca but also provides a convincing argument as to how such a great misunderstanding in Islamic history came about.

While clearly controversial, The Sacred City is respectful of Islam’s prophet, and does not dispute the events of the Qur’an; but shows how a deliberate attempt was made to hide from Islam, secrets that impact every Muslim today. The evidence is compelling and fascinating.

In a time when the world agenda is being set by Islam, it is more important than ever for the origins and history of this world religion to be examined afresh. This is an important documentary with world-wide appeal for both religious and secular audiences.

Beautifully filmed in the ruins and deserts of the middle east, the film is a detective story that investigates the dawn of Islam and will become the most talked about film for years to come.

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[rasjumaide]

Always remember this "it is not the eyes that are blind but the heart".

[windbauram]

"The fools among the people will say, “What has turned them (Muslims) from their Qiblah [prayer direction (towards Jerusalem)] to which they were used to face in prayer.” Say, (O Muhammad SAW) “To Allah belong both, east and the west. He guides whom He wills to a Straight Way.” Surah Al-Baqarah - 142.

[MR-rhto]

The mosque of Madina is still alive and you haven’t mentioned it in this whole documentary that where the mosque of Madina Qibla direction is?
The Qiblatain mosque is the first mosque and its Qibla direction is towards Mecca not Petra.

[ahmetosmanoglu]

subtitles of the Arab guy speaking 11:10 are deliberately translated wrong. He does not say the city had ancient ruins and city walls, rather he describes a large and well known city with markets. Weak and unreliable sources quoted from Bukhari are not sufficient evidence to back up this theory claimed by Dan Gibson. The argument that Mecca had a large population is also wrong. Large armies were not composed merely from the dwellers of Mecca, but were a collective army formed by bedouin tribes who inhabited all areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Mecca only had Qurash tribe who were lucky to own the Kaaba which held the idol gods and tribes of Arabia would visit for religous and trading purposes. Think of it as an ancient trade show with a pilgrimage twist...around the twelth minute the documentary talks about "approaching a town blessed with water and trees". Yes Mecca had Zam-Zam water wells for thousands of years, and yes there would have been Date Palms with "fruits", as dates are classified as a fruit, but certainly not grapes, they fail to show the actual hadith in Arabic text, they just quote it in English with supporting visuals of grapes to manipulate the audience. Why is the climate of Mecca at the time presented as such a suprise? Ancient records show that The Sabaean kingdom of Yemen had cities such as Sanaa with lush gardens and flora. Even Anatolia and Mesopotamia had lions, cheetah and asian elephants but are no longer present. In short, climatic shifts happen and there is no evidence to prove Mecca did not ever have any vegetation during that period. Last point is about the Masjids built in the first century of Islam. Qibla walls could have easily been slightly off target considering the examples given these structures were hundreds or thousands of km's distance and with good reason people did not have Google Earth and modern GPS coordinates at the time, moreover, documentary does not even mention the first masjid built at the time of prophet Mohammed in which he had helped build himself called Masjid Kuba.

[farsinroshan]

Qur'an mentions makka to be the place where prophet ibrahim(a.s) left his wife hajar(a.s) and son ismail (a.s) according to Allah(s)'s command.
And it mentions about the zamzam water and various hadiths mentions about it. And Ibrahim (a.s) and Ismail (a.s) built the Ka'aba there. Today you could find the zamzam well near Ka'aba. As per this theory that should be fake and there should be the original zamzam in Petra. Where exactly is it?
What about the other cities and places which were mentioned in islamic texts in relations to makka? Did you find the alternatives close to Petra aa well?
The documentary talks about lack of archeological evidence in makkah. What are you expecting? Pieces of ancient mosaic etc like you'd find in Rome or jerusalem? Makkah was a desert city with hardly any long durable structures. It was a small city with economy primarily consisting of agriculture, trade and the pilgrims who'd visit the Ka'aba. It was never an advanced city like Rome or jerusalem before islam and during the time of the prophet(s). Hadiths mentions houses and even mosques built with palm tree leaves and planks etc. It was later after the islamic empire's expansion the city improved.
This video is just a massive conspiracy theory with full of holes that the creator can use as food strainer at home.

[aaru_zui]

The confusion here stems from the way Arabic text is written in English. The word "Haram" in Majid-a-Haram is a different Arabic word (that is spelled differently in Arabic) than the word meaning forbidden: Haram. This word means sanctuary or holy shrine. For example Mecca and Madina are commonly referred to as the "Harameen Sharifine" meaning the two holy shrines.
These two words are also pronounced differently. The word forbidden is pronounced with a more extended second "a" (Haraam), while the word for shrine is a quick two syllables (ha-ram)

[XxxMaxxX]

“Our Lord! I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley, near Your Sacred House, our Lord, so that they may establish prayer. So make the hearts of ˹believing˺ people incline towards them and provide them with fruits, so perhaps they will be thankful” Quran 14:37
Thank you for confirming that!

[CtTraptoofrmct]

Fell asleep at 2 and woke up to this and some other documentaries in my watch history

[sulèimthedream]

Beautiful answer from another commenter:

"Let me start by the end of the video to give an answer to Timeline’s question why no scholar give damn about answering the theory depicted in the video: no need for a Muslim scholar to debunk it. It’s too wild theory to be taken seriously by a Muslim scholar.
Do you need a history scholar to debunk a theory of moving Jerusalem from a place to another without leaving a several traces in nations history records? Such an event will be stored in the countries records for which this city (Mekka or Jerusalem) matters, whether from the communities for which these cities are holy or from their enemies or from their allies. Don’t you find it more than obvious?
- “Makka was not mentioned before in history till the 6 or 7th century” quote like this one is just outrageous et non-sense : Mekka was known as Mekoba by the ancient Greek at least from the time of Ptolemy in the 2nd Century.
- Makka is known in the history of Arabs as city within an entourage where each place got a name till now (mountains, caves Hiraa’e, cave of Thawr, Safaa, Marwa, roads, entries, ...). All these names are the same from ancient arab poetry to the written record of islamic history to the popular knowledge of people inhabiting Makk, the Hijaz region and the Arabic peninsula. Changing from Petra to Makka is not that easy. Moreover, this would have been a historical event which can be compared in terms of importance to the first revelation of Quran to the Prophet. It’s too holy to be changed like this without tough reaction from Muslims from all around the world. Remember the size of the Arabs empire at this time. No county was able to record such profanation.
- Moroccan Mosques that were built more than 20 years ago give a prayer direction with a small angle of error like the ones shown in the documentary. All the new mosques with the arrival of the adoption and democratization of Mekka-direction compass, are directed toward Mekka with much more precision. It’s the same in other countries I travelled too. So it’s not a new discovery. Ask any muslim about this and they’ll confirm you that.
- Did any historian talk about the Abyssinian invasion of Petra to destroy the Ka’ba? Never ever. For 2 reasons, there was no Ka’ba in Petra. Secondo, The Abyssinian invasion of the Arabic peninsula in the mid of the 6th century AD was targeting Mekka to destroy the holy city of Arabs and force them to adopt the Christian religion (a major church was built by Abyssinian in Yemen meant to replace the holiness of Ka’ba). This historical event is very known by the Arabs who were questioned in Quran about the intervention of God to safeguard the holy city of Mekka (to tell them that the God sending revelation to Muhammed is the same God of the Holy city, the same God of Abraham…).
- The destruction of Quran copies by Othman : the guy tells what suits his theory but let me tell you what he omits: After the death of the Prophet, the 1st Calif Abu Bakr decided to compile the Quran in the order learnt by the Companions from the Prophet. With Omar, the future 2nd Calif, they assigned the mission to a Companion known for his mastering of the Quran in the life of the Prophet (and he was not alone, thousands of those who lived and supported the Prophet knows at least good parts of it by heart). The methodology was strict: they gathered first from the Revelation copyists the supports and materials on which they wrote the verses from the Prophet mouth, then they gathered the best companions who had learnt the Quran by heart and double check what they can recite with what is written in the support and cross-checked the recitations and the quran written supports. The revelation Copyists were Prophet companions in charge of writing down what was revealed to the Prophet each time it happened, they were called together by the Prophet to record it, each-one should write it down on any support he was able to afford – leather, wood, flat rock…Then these materials were stored in the houses of theses Copyists (blockchain principle : to have several distributed copies). We should underline here that the order of verses was taught by the Prophet to the Companions and Quran was given the utmost importance to be learnt by heart with the recitation rules taught by the Prophet. At the end of this process, Abu Bakr and Omar made a complete Quran checked and approved by the closest Companions to the Prophet, this Quran was considered as the Reference and was stored in the house of Hafsa one of the wives of the Prophet (daughter of the 2nd Calif Omar). It’s been stored till Othman the 3rd Calif would need it and then comes what he narrated. Othman did the best solution to make all the Quran copies used by the countries of the large Islamic empire identical to the one stored in the Medina as the Reference : he destroyed the old copies gathered from countries and gave them copies from the Reference. Is there any other solution better than this one to preserve the integrity of the Quran copies? The guy in the video tries through omissions to shade doubts on the Quran authenticity. But why doesn’t he tell the whole story? The Quran is the only religious book known by heart by tens of millions of people on earth since 14th centuries no other book got this preservation control from tampering. I my self know the third of the Quran (20+ Hizb). The Birmingham Quran manuscript, the oldest Quran pages found ever, dated to almost the time of the Prophet proved 100% that the Quran was not tampered : 0 difference between this manuscript and the Quran copies I have home.
- He said that grapes were fruit not common in Mekka but common in Petra : don’t he know that Taif which is 40 miles from Mekka provide such fruit to the holy city? That some wealthy from Mekka at the time of the Prophet got agricultural lands there. There’s in Bukhari book (that he used a lot to choose what to tell to defend his theory) a story about the Prophet going there to ask for the support of Taif’s population leaders, they refused and chased him with stones till his legs got bloody. He hid in a garden where a slave brought him a bunch of grapes the very fruit that the guy used as proof it does not exist in Mekka. Moreover, thanks to its flourishing trade Mekka was wealthy and God in Quran remind the non-believers of Mekka in a chapter of Quran of that gift He bestowed on them. Moreover, “A city in a valley without plantations or agriculture” this is the description of Mekka by Abraham in a verse of the Quran narrating the story of him leaving his 2nd wife and her baby Ishmael in this Valley on the order of God/ALLAH. You can read in the Old Testament that God promised Abraham to make from this baby descendants a great nation. This nation, Arabs, knows the greatness once: thanks to Mohammed the Prophet and the Quran. Big Empire, one of the biggest, big civilization, proof for Atheists of God intervention in Human history.
- Last but not least: The destruction by Arabs of the Alexandria library!? First, the library suffered several fires since it was founded in the 3rd century BC, when the Arabs came the library had suffered long centuries of negligence by the newly Christian roman empire who was no more interested in the pagan philosophy. Papyrus was the main material used for the books of this library and it made them fragile and can’t survive long years if they are not copied regularly. The books were already ruined and useless. Fire was better than throwing them in the Nile, the same Arabs helped promote the sciences from the Greek, Persian and Indian heritage the years after. Secondly Egypt was conquered with minimum battles because the small Muslim army managed to sign peace or submission treaty that protected the rights and the privileges of the Egyptian Copt and Christians. For these last, the library and its books were worthless because no Christian care about it and it's no more financed to me maintained in good condition.
I would cite more proves than that...."

[Abu-Alhassan]

If the real Mecca 🕋 is in the north west of Arabia then why is the standing place of Abraham where it is now and why is The miraculous well of Zamzam In Mecca 🕋 where all Muslims believe.
I lost count of the lies in this documentary

[daveanaru]

Great documentary. The more I learn about Islam, the happier I am to be a Christian.

[travelubs]

I appreciate your research and your perspective about the qibla. But, I must say that is too little to prove your theory of the abundant of Islam history. Why?:
1. It's not clear about the Prophet Muhammad life in his birthplace of Mecca not Becca (Petra). Where he was actually resided and growing up with so many moments in his life and with all of the revelations. Why all the shirah (the life story of Muhammad) and the revelations took place near Mecca and Medina not in Petra? How can you prove all of that? If you say the Abbasid changed that story by burning all of the manuscripts, do you think that million people at that time that already converted to Islam and spread all over the world got amnesia too? So, there must be other version to challenge that?
2. Why and How the cemetery of Muhammad in Medina not near Petra? Did the Abbasid brought his dead body to Medina? What is the evidence? Or is that too weird if the qibla thousand miles away from where Muhammad resided as the order of the revelation? Or you say the Abbasid had changed it too?
3. How about the history of the four companions that ruled near Mecca and Medina not Petra? Do you have the evidence that they ruled near Petra?
4. There are a lot of wars happened at the beginning of Islam, like Khandaq near Medina (Moslem vs the Jews in Medina), Badar, Uhud, etc. All of them plotted closed to Mecca and Medina not Petra. Do you have the evidence of the wars? Or perhaps you say it never happened because of the burning manuscripts?
5. About the Hajj rituals: How about the obligation to spend the night at Jabal Arafah for Pilgrimage, how can you explain that? How about the area of the Jumroh of Ula, Wusta, Aqabah? How can you explain about Zamzam water?
6. Aqsa Masjid in Palestine was the first qibla than changed to Mecca. If you demand for the precised direction of the qibla, it's impossible. As moslems, we just do our best to manage the best precision towards the Ka'aba, it's impossible be a 100% precise.
7. There're almost a million mosques in my country, Indonesia. I'm not saying that these mosques were built at the first century of Islam but I just wannna say that if we find it at the wrong direction towards the qibla, then we just adjust our prayer posistion without reconstruct the foundation of the mosque. So, you Dan Gibson must know about this. I think this is one of your misleading on your video.

**There are so many questions that you need to prove to say the moslem qibla is wrong. It's not wise to summary the misleading qibla by jumping from one to another moment without knowing the long history of Islam. You must study about Islam holistically not partially. For instance, you need to study about Muhammad story, birthplace, his activities, the rituals of pilgrimage (because the pilgrimage is not only about Shafa and Marwah but there're a few others). In conlclusion, I must say that your theory is only a PSEUDOSCIENCE.

[craigtetens]

Why is Mecca not on any of the early maps after the starting period of Islam?

[islamalamrikee]

What a joke...there are generations of Qur'an memorizers that lived in Mecca all the way back to the Prophet...Archeology? How about the well of Zamzam that is there and has been there for thousands of years. It's provided water the city and is bottled for sale to everyone in the world. So clearly, there was resources sufficient for people and trees. 🌳 🌲 🌴. Archeology has not been well established in the city so why is it such a surprise that there's little in the Archeological record!? The ka'bah, is another well known Archeological proof. It's been there and rebuilt upon its original foundation established be Abraham. It wasn't well known to Europeans because it was small and insignificant to them. The proofs are clear to anyone with a logical mind and just a little bit of knowledge. This so called scholar twisted the facts.

[williamhisham]

did you consider about well of zam zam....if u move the kaabah you cannot move the well of zam zam some more kaabah and well of zam zam is already here in today mecca long before muhamad

[watchman]

Archeological evidences show the true Mecca 🕋 location was at Washington DC, Capitol Hill.
Who would have known!?

[maherabdelhamid]

So, Ibn Zubeir changed a whole holy city from its place, and changed the Qibla direction which represents a pillar in the Islamic faith but no Muslim protested at that time, and no historian or theologist spoke or wrote about this spectacular and grandiose event in all the Islamic history, even the victorious rivals of Ibn Zubair who were in Damascus didn't say anything about that?!!
That means that this relocation of the sacred city of Mecca was one of the most successful conspiracies in human history because all Muslims and non-Muslims of that time and all the rival clans (Ibn Zubeir in Mecca, the Umayyad in Damascus, The shiites in Iraq and the anarchist and extremist Kharijites who were everywhere) liked and participated in the relocation of the city and in the changement of the Qibla, and they collaborated to keep that secret and succeeded in that task for more than a thousand years !!

[balqeesbhatti]

Although I accept all the evidence, I still have questions. What will happen to the well of Zamzam if Abbasia turns the holy city of Petra into Mecca? How would it be possible to remove the well from Petra and bring it to Mecca?

[bambed]

I’ve watched the whole video by Dan Gibson.
To me he has made a gross error in his research & assumptions.
1. During Prophet’s Muhammad (PBUH) lifetime when he entered to retake Mecca, he came along with 10, 000 Muslims. How could all of them couldn’t differentiate the location between Petra and Mecca which is so far away in distance? There were thousands of eye witnesses and how could this historian be so confused. The Muslims who earlier emigrated from Mecca to Medina still had their own houses, properties & relatives there. Even the Prophet’s birthplace, his wife’s house and others are still there in Mecca for the records. Caliphate Osman who was one of the richest man at his time had lands that he donated for public use to his name in Mecca & Medina until to-date. How could the location of Mecca be wrong? But no thanks to the Saud tribe who conspired with the British to betray, rebel & overthrow the Ottoman Caliphate & they later being installed as the rulers of Saudi Arabia until to-date and It was not a surprise that they had demolished most of the historical structures & remnants of the Prophet & HIs Companions in Mecca & Medina using the excuse that Islam prohibits shirk & idolatry. Was it?
2. Mecca was always known since its existence as a pilgrimage place instead of a trading destination
3. Islam spread to Indonesia & Malaysia which the former is the largest Islamic country of over 200 million Muslims through trading with the Arab countries, India & China through trade and never war. In fact China has about 50 millions Muslims today. How could Dan Gibson insinuated that Islam generally spread through war?
4. At the end of the video Dan Gibson showed the word Becca (Petra) and Mecca written in Arabic. That is a joke because Becca based in the Old Testament is spelled without ‘H’ at the end of it but Mecca in Arabic is with ‘H’ and pronounced as MEKAH.
5. Long time ago the early Muslims didn’t know much about astronomy and there was no compass, complete map or modern apps to determine locations. The best that they could assume was to follow the movement of the sun to guess the direction of Jerusalem and Mecca to determine the point for prayer. But as time goes by when Muslims had advanced into scientific & mathematical research during the Abbasid caliphate, astronomical studies was conveniently used to determine the accurate location of the Ka’aba in Mecca. Even at this moment in time if a Muslim is somewhere in a remote location and he has no means to know the direction of the Ka’aba, he can always refer to the direction of the sun wherever he is in the world to make his best assumption of the direction of Mecca. If things become complicated, a Muslim can also pray on the aeroplane to whatever direction as long as he carries out his daily obligation to God.
6. As far as I know you can find date trees in Mecca. Grapes, pomegranate & figs were planted in Taif about 100km from Mecca. So what’s the big deal about finding grapes in Mecca during those times? With the current climate change, it’s not surprising if grapes can grow there too.
7. Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) mission on Islam was completed during His lifetime. He gave His last sermon in Mecca about a year before His passing.
8. Caliphate Osman was Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) son-in-law. They had lived most parts of their lives together. After the Prophet, Abu Bakar became the first Caliphate in Islam, then Umar and later Osman. During Abu Bakar’s time Umar had proposed to compile the Quran which were written on pieces of tree bark, leather & paper but Abu Bakar reluctantly agreed as there were still many Muslims who could memorise the whole Quran (Hafiz) then. The task was entrusted to Zaid Ibn Thabit to compile a complete Quran. However as Islam expanded to other regions which transcended continents, races, languages & dialects during Caliphate Osman’s time, there were many Hafiz(s) who died in wars too. Osman then finalised the compilation by Zaid Ibn Thabit after being authenticated by other respected Hafiz(s). Osman himself was a Hafiz too. He used only the Quraish Arabic language Script that is the language of the Prophet and CODED to standardise the spellings, pronunciations & vowels of all the verses in the Quran. It’s just like certain words in English like COLOUR in the UK but COLOR in the US although it sounded the same. Osman then destroyed the rest of the other Scripts. The compilation of the Quran in a book form was completed during Osman’s time & copies of the authentic Quran script were distributed to the other regions under the Islamic Caliphate and until to this day all Muslims in the world are using the compilation currently known as the Osmanic Script. The Muslim world has never used the Abassid Script as alleged by Dan Gibson.

So far that’s all that I could comment on the 1 hour 25 minutes video from Dan Gibson. If I find out more later, I’ll add on to this reply.

[edkhan]

This is all ridiculous—- let’s start with Zamzam well in Mecca that is supposed to be since time of Abraham can it not be carbon dated, what about details of Hijra to Medina by Prophet Muhammad I think Gibson research is missing these great points.
What about attack of Abraha the Yemeni king attacking Mecca ?
Too many historical facts goes against his arguments.