Qibla direction in Najafābād

How to face the Qibla in Najafābād

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 44.7° towards south: the result is the bearing of 225.3°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “west” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Najafābād.

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. The simplest check in Najafābād is a local mosque: its mihrab and prayer lines already point to the Qibla. See the mosques of Najafābād. 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Najafābād to Mecca points to 222.4° (south-west), 2.9° away from the correct 225.3°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is not the true shortest route. The Qibla follows the great circle, the shortest path on the curved Earth, which is why the bearing differs.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 32.6346° N, 51.3653° E 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 Najafābād to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 1,689 km from Najafābād as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 1,462 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 2 h 29 min, although most pilgrims from Najafābād connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Najafābād run 0.5 hours ahead of Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Najafābād rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Najafābād

On 365 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Najafābād while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in January (31 days); for example, on 1 January 2027 it happens at 15:16 local time.

The sun is never opposite the Qibla of Najafābād during daylight, so the shadow method does not apply here; the left-hand column is the one to use.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Najafābād: at 12:48 and 12:57 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Najafābād compared with other cities

Compared with Tehran, 340 km away, the Qibla in Najafābād is turned 6.8° further clockwise (225.3° against 218.5°), and Mecca is 257 km closer. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Isfahan (29 km), prays towards 226.1°, a difference of 0.8°.

Across the 90 cities in Iran on this site, the Qibla ranges from 195.9° in Khoy to 257.6° in Iranshahr, a spread of 61.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Iran.

Qibla in cities near Najafābād

• Isfahan226.1° · 29 km
• Shāhīn Shahr225.2° · 30 km
• Bahārestān226.8° · 42 km
• Shahr-e Kord224.7° · 59 km
• Shahreẕā228.3° · 84 km
• Kashan222.1° · 150 km