Qibla Direction from My Location

The qibla in my location is the direction toward the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia — the direction every Muslim faces during the five daily prayers (Salah). It is not a fixed compass point like "west" or "northeast."

Because the Earth is a sphere, the qibla changes depending on exactly where you stand. A Muslim in New York faces roughly northeast; one in Jakarta faces west-northwest; one in Cape Town faces nearly due north.

This is why "qibla direction from my location" matters. A generalized answer is not enough.

Here are approximate qibla bearings for major cities. These figures use the Great Circle method — the shortest path across the Earth's surface — which is the standard in Islamic jurisprudence.

• New York, USA — 58° (NE) — 9,100 km

• London, UK — 119° (SE) — 5,200 km

• Istanbul, Turkey — 155° (SSE) — 2,800 km

• Karachi, Pakistan — 271° (W) — 2,600 km

• Jakarta, Indonesia — 295° (WNW) — 7,900 km

• Nairobi, Kenya — 2° (N) — 4,200 km

• Toronto, Canada — 54° (NE) — 9,500 km

• Sydney, Australia — 277° (W) — 13,400 km

• Buenos Aires, Argentina — 73° (ENE) — 14,400 km

• Lagos, Nigeria — 72° (ENE) — 5,000 km

The most accurate method is GPS-based — no manual city lookup required. Here is how it works:

Open the qibla tool on your device and allow location access when prompted. The tool reads your GPS coordinates automatically, then calculates the exact bearing to the Kaaba at 21.4225°N, 39.8262°E. Point your device in the direction shown by the qibla direction arrow from my location.

The key advantage over searching by city is precision. If you are in a suburb, on a road trip, or abroad, GPS gives you the correct bearing for where you actually are right now — not an approximation based on a city center.

If you have ever prayed in a mosque, you faced a niche in the wall called the mihrab. This alcove is the architect's permanent qibla marker, built into the structure itself.

Historically, scholars used astronomical observation — the sun's position at noon, the North Star, and compiled star tables — to determine the qibla bearing before construction. The method is conceptually identical to how GPS software works today: both establish a precise bearing from a known location toward a fixed point.

The tradition of careful qibla determination is more than a thousand years old. The mihrab is its physical expression.

GPS accuracy on modern smartphones is typically within 5 meters. At distances from Mecca ranging from 2,000 to 15,000 km, a 5-meter positional error produces a directional deviation of less than a fraction of a degree — entirely negligible.

Islamic jurisprudence addresses unavoidable uncertainty through the principle of ijtihad al-qibla: a Muslim who makes a sincere effort to determine the correct direction and prays accordingly fulfills the obligation.

Modern GPS tools exceed any standard the principle requires. A deviation of even a few degrees falls within the accepted tolerances of all major schools of thought.