Qibla direction in Abbotsford British Columbia

How to face the Qibla in Abbotsford British Columbia

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 17.5° towards east: the result is the bearing of 17.5°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 18° off.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Abbotsford British Columbia, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Abbotsford British Columbia to Mecca points to 102.0° (east), a full 84.5° away from the true Qibla of 17.5° (north). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 2,774 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Abbotsford British Columbia first heads north, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 17.5° obtained? From the coordinates of Abbotsford British Columbia (49.0580° N, 122.2526° W) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Abbotsford British Columbia to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 11,979 km from Abbotsford British Columbia as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 11,643 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 14 h 36 min, although most pilgrims from Abbotsford British Columbia connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Abbotsford British Columbia run 10 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Abbotsford British Columbia rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Abbotsford British Columbia

From Abbotsford British Columbia the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 17.5°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 365 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 14:26.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Abbotsford British Columbia (02:18 and 02:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 14:29 and 28 November 2027 at 14:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Abbotsford British Columbia points straight to Mecca.

Abbotsford British Columbia compared with other cities

Compared with Ottawa, 3,482 km away, the Qibla in Abbotsford British Columbia is turned 39.7° further anticlockwise (17.5° against 57.2°), and Mecca is 1,835 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Chilliwack (25 km), prays towards 17.8°, a difference of 0.3°.

Across the 46 cities in Canada on this site, the Qibla ranges from 16.5° in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to 73.4° in St. John's, a spread of 56.9°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Canada.

Qibla in cities near Abbotsford British Columbia

• Chilliwack17.8° · 25 km
• Surrey16.9° · 42 km
• Coquitlam17.0° · 46 km
• Delta16.7° · 58 km
• Vancouver16.7° · 67 km
• Victoria, British Columbia, Canada16.5° · 106 km