Qibla direction in Muar town

How to face the Qibla in Muar town

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards west and move a further 22.9° towards north: the result is the bearing of 292.9°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at west would leave you about 23° 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 Muar town, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. Any of the mosques of Muar town is a handy reference, because the 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

A straight line drawn on a flat (Mercator) map from Muar town to Mecca points to 287.6° (west), 5.3° away from the correct 292.9°. That map line is a rhumb line: it keeps the same compass heading all the way, but it is 18 km longer than the true shortest route. The Qibla follows the great circle, the shortest path on the curved Earth, which is why the bearing differs.

How is the figure of 292.9° obtained? From the coordinates of Muar town (2.0442° N, 102.5689° E) 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 Muar town to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 7,111 km from Muar town as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 7,187 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 8 h 52 min, although most pilgrims from Muar town connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Muar town run 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 Muar town rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Muar town

On 152 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Muar town while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in May (31 days); for example, on 1 April 2027 it happens at 13:37 local time.

On 160 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 October (31 days), for instance on 15 January 2027 at 08:36.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both moments are in daylight in Muar town: at 17:18 and 17:27 local time, face the sun and you face the Qibla exactly, anywhere in the city.

Muar town compared with other cities

The Qibla here is practically the same as in Kuala Lumpur (292.5°), and Mecca is 138 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Malacca (40 km), prays towards 292.9°, the same bearing to the tenth of a degree.

Across the 40 cities in Malaysia on this site, the Qibla ranges from 290.6° in Kota Kinabalu to 293.0° in Iskandar Puteri, a spread of 2.4°. The difference is small, yet each city should still use its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Malaysia.

Qibla in cities near Muar town

• Malacca292.9° · 40 km
• Batu Pahat292.9° · 46 km
• Kluang292.8° · 83 km
• Port Dickson292.8° · 101 km
• Seremban292.7° · 104 km
• Sepang292.7° · 116 km