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Is it permissible to face the Qiblah or turn one's back to it when relieving oneself, and what is the ruling on one who built his house's bathrooms on this basis?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The Kaaba is the most honored direction, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade facing it or having one's back towards it while defecating or urinating. It is permissible to face the Qiblah while relieving oneself inside a building, but not in an open space, based on the hadith of Ibn Umar, who saw the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, relieving himself facing Syria and with his back to the Kaaba. Latrines should not be built in a way that violates this ruling, and whoever enters a restroom facing or with his back to the Qiblah should turn away from it.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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