219. Can I Point My Feet Towards The Ka’bah When I Sleep?

By Asma bint Shameem 

*Can I point my feet towards the Ka’bah when I sleep?*

*Or when I’m just sitting down?*

That’s a very common *misconception* that we have especially the people from Pakistan and India. 

They think it’s ‘disrespect’ to point the feet towards the Ka’bah.  

But the CORRECT understanding is that, there’s NOTHING WRONG with sleeping with the feet pointing towards the qiblah. 

You can sleep in WHICHEVER direction your feet point to. 

Similarly, there’s *nothing wrong* with stretching your legs towards the Ka’bah when sitting down. 

As long as you’re not doing it purposely, Aa’oodhu Billaah, as a disrespect, (and who would do that really?!), then there’s nothing wrong with that. 

In fact if someone is so sick that they can’t pray standing up, they are SUPPOSED to pray with their feet *TOWARDS* the qiblah. 

Shaykh ibn Uthaymeen said: 

“There is no sin on a person if he sleeps with his feet towards the Ka’bah, rather 
the fuqaha’ said: 

“If a sick person cannot stand or sit, he should pray lying on his side with his face towards the qiblah, and if he cannot then he should pray on his back *with his feet towards the qiblah*.” 

(Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 2/976)

Another Important Point

The sad part is that we are SO worried about “disrespecting the Ka’bah” by pointing our feet towards it. 

But we DON’T THINK TWICE about disrespecting the LORD of the Ka’bah by disobeying Him.

Something we all need to think about!