All of us are familiar with the word “Meeqat” in connection with the Hajj pilgrimage. As you know, the Meeqat is a fixed place or a station at which the pilgrims don the ‘Ihram’, that is the pilgrim’s garment.
Now I am trying to explain about another Meeqat, which is very important for the Muslims, that is “The Meeqatul Kiblah”. The former Meeqat which we already know is connected with a place and this ‘Meeqat’ is connected with a place as well as time, where a traveler going round the Earth has to change his Kiblah (the direction to turn during prayer) from east to west or vice versa, his day and his date and the time when the world has to change her day, – for example from Thursday to Friday.
We must have a universal date line, for the Islamic world to calculate the dates of the Islamic calendar, which is based on the movement of the Moon. (Qur’aan 2:189). The date line of the Islamic calendar should be marked in the light of the Holy Qur’aan and the Sunnah, and this will be with reference to the Ka’aba, which is situated in the Ummul Qura, the mother of towns, that is Makkah al Mukarramah. The Ka’aba is the Kiblah of the Muslim prayer, the direction to which a Muslim must turn during his prayer.
I like to name this date line, which would be established, as ‘The Meeqatul Kiblah’.