Sun aligns with Kaaba at time of call for Friday prayer

MAKKAH – The holy city of Makkah on Friday witnessed a rare celestial phenomenon when the sun came directly overhead the Holy Kaaba at 12:27 p.m., coinciding with the time of adhan (call for prayer) for the Friday congregation. The sun came perpendicular over the Islam’s holiest place of worship during which shadows disappeared for a while. This was the second time this phenomenon happened this year. On Friday, May 27, the sun was directly over the Kaaba at 12:18 p.m., the Saudi Press Agency reported. Mulhim Bin Muhammad Al-Hindi, a researcher at the department of space science and astronomy at King Abdulaziz University, said a unique feature of this Friday’s phenomenon is that it happened at the time of adhan. “This celestial phenomenon will enable people all over the world who can see the sun at that moment to determine the direction of the Qibla through the simplest and easiest way. Anyone facing the sun at that moment will be facing the Kaaba with 100 percent accuracy,” he said. According to Al-Hindi, those living near the Kaaba, however, will find it more difficult than the rest of the world to locate the direction the sun is traveling and will have to rely on an ancient method to locate the sun. “They can determine the Qibla by looking at shadows of objects. If a pen is held vertically, the Qibla’s direction will be the exact opposite to the pen’s shadow,” he said, adding that relying on shadows to determine the direction of the Qibla dates back to the 12th century.