Many people assume the qibla from Southeast Asia is simply "west". But measured properly, the qibla from most of Indonesia actually points a little to the north-west — not due west. The gap looks small on paper, yet over the 8,000-plus kilometres to Makkah, even a few degrees sends your direction well off. Here is how to get it right.
The qibla is a bearing, not just "westward"
The qibla is the shortest path along the earth's surface toward the Kaaba — what navigators call the great-circle direction. Because the earth is a sphere, that shortest path is not always the line that looks straight on a flat map.
From Jakarta, for example, the qibla is about 295° from north (north-west), not 270° (due west). That is why "just face west" isn't accurate enough: it can be off by around 25°.
The bearing is measured from north — but which north?
A qibla bearing is given in degrees from north, measured clockwise. But there are two different "norths", and this is where people go wrong:
- True (geographic) north — the direction toward the earth's North Pole. Qibla bearings are always calculated from this.
- Magnetic north — the direction a compass needle points. It sits a few degrees away from true north, and that offset (called magnetic declination) changes depending on where you are.
If you use a plain compass and turn to the qibla bearing without correcting for declination, you can end up several degrees off. A good qibla app corrects for this automatically.
The practical way, with your phone
- Find the qibla bearing for your city — for example, 295° from true north. This value is fixed; a place's qibla never changes.
- Use the app's qibla compass, not a raw compass. The app reads your phone's sensor and corrects for magnetic declination, so the needle you see already points to true north.
- Keep the phone away from metal and magnets (magnetic cases, steel desks, speakers). These disturb the compass sensor and make the reading wobble.
- Calibrate when needed — usually by moving the phone in a figure-eight until the reading settles.
Always check against the mosque's mihrab
The most reliable way to confirm the qibla at home is to line it up with the mihrab of a nearby mosque. A mosque's mihrab has been set by measurement, so it makes a good reference for the whole surrounding area. Treat the app as a tool — not a replacement — for aligning your direction indoors.
Finding your city's qibla
Five Prayers A Day computes the qibla for your city straight from its coordinates as a great-circle bearing from true north, along with the distance to the Kaaba. The app also has a live qibla compass that already corrects for magnetic declination, so you just follow the needle.
One important note: an app is a helper, not an authority. Where the app and your local mosque's mihrab disagree, follow your mosque.