Salaam Minara Family,

A few days ago, we noticed someone praying - in a public place, tucked off to the side, quietly absorbed in his salah.

But he was facing the wrong way.

Definitely not toward the Qiblah.

We hesitated. We didn’t know him. There was no easy opening to interrupt without making it awkward, and in the end, we said nothing.

And yet, we’ve thought about it often since.

In Islam, we begin every prayer by turning towards the Qiblah, aligning our bodies to a single point on the map that every Muslim shares. It’s the ritual embodiment of orientation, of choosing where to face, and more profoundly who we’re turning to.

So when we saw that man, facing slightly off course, it struck as a kind of metaphor.

What if the physical direction of prayer is also a symbol for something internal?

In Islam, prayer isn’t just about what we do, but also how we orient ourselves.
We face the Qiblah every time because quite simply, direction matters.

We can be engaged in something meaningful - even something spiritual - and still be just slightly off in our orientation. We might be moving, working, praying, striving… but without a clear sense of where we’re headed, it’s easy to end up feeling lost, uncertain, or misaligned.

Just like our bodies need direction in prayer, our lives need direction too.

Not because it guarantees success, but because it gives purpose to our effort. It gives structure to our striving. It gives coherence to what might otherwise just be motion without meaning.

When we lose our Qiblah [or our internal compass], even the most sincere efforts can feel misaligned.

📍movement without progress

📍action without uncertainty

📍prayer without connection

These are the things we don’t want friends!

Direction matters.

At any given moment, all of us are turned toward something.
Even when we’re not conscious of it.

Ask yourself:

🎯What is your Qiblah in life?

🎯What are you turning toward when you make decisions?

🎯What are you orienting your heart around?

We may be orienting ourselves around the next achievement, the next escape, the next person’s approval, or even just the idea of stability. And sometimes, we drift without realizing it until we find ourselves feeling distant from who we were or who we hoped to become.

But just like a compass realigns to the magnetic north, our hearts have a fitrah - a pull toward truth, peace, and Allah.

We just need to check in now and then.
To reorient.
To face the right way.

Prayer begins with direction, because life does too.

So ask yourself:

And if the answer is no, hey, that’s not failure. That folks is guidance.

This week, consider taking a moment once a day - maybe before you sleep, maybe after prayer - to ask yourself a single question:

This small self-check can bring amazing clarity, especially in moments of confusion or indecision. You might even be surprised by how often the heart already knows the answer.

And the beauty of this deen is that Allah does not ask us for perfection in our aim.

Only sincerity in our turning.

Alhamdulillah.

That stranger praying slightly off reminded us of something we didn’t know we needed to remember that:

our direction matters, but so does the effort to face it, even when we’re still finding our way.

We cannot deny, there’s something quietly powerful about stopping, reorienting, and beginning again - even if it’s just by a few degrees.

Love and du’as,

The Minara Team