Qibla direction in Sherbrooke

How to face the Qibla in Sherbrooke

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 30.1° towards north: the result is the bearing of 59.9°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 30°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Sherbrooke.

Scholars agree that someone who can see the Kaaba must face it exactly, while someone far away faces its direction (jihat al-Ka‘bah) as precisely as reasonably possible. If a mosque is nearby, its mihrab and prayer lines are the easiest reference, since they were set when the building was laid out. At home, mark the direction once with tape or a small arrow so the whole family prays the same way.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Sherbrooke to Mecca points to 104.6° (east), a full 44.7° away from the true Qibla of 59.9° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 677 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Sherbrooke first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 45.4001° N, 71.8991° W to the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E). It is the method used by mosque architects and by every serious Qibla calculator, and it gives one exact answer for each point on Earth.

Distance from Sherbrooke to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 9,892 km from Sherbrooke as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 9,621 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 12 h 08 min, although most pilgrims from Sherbrooke connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Sherbrooke run 8 hours behind Mecca in winter and 7 hours behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Sherbrooke rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Sherbrooke

On 14 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Sherbrooke while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in June (14 days); for example, on 15 June 2027 it happens at 05:28 local time.

On 288 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 March (31 days), for instance on 1 February 2027 at 16:18.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Sherbrooke (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here.

Sherbrooke compared with other cities

Compared with Ottawa, 297 km away, the Qibla in Sherbrooke is turned 2.7° further clockwise (59.9° against 57.2°), and Mecca is 252 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Trois-Rivières (116 km), prays towards 59.4°, a difference of 0.4°.

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 Sherbrooke

• Trois-Rivières59.4° · 116 km
• Montreal58.7° · 132 km
• Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne58.5° · 151 km
• Québec60.4° · 166 km
• Orléans, Ontario, Canada57.3° · 281 km
• Ottawa57.2° · 297 km