Finding the Qibla Direction

QiblaGlobe

Download qglobe1.0 for Windows 95/NT now !

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
(With the Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful)


QiblaGlobe
V1.0

QiblaGlobe is a small utility that shows the Qibla direction for any location in the world graphicaly. It shows magnetic direction to Qaba, so you will need a compass.

Requirements:

• Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
• Pentium PC with VGA graphics.

This is a very basic software (especially in its 1.0 version). There is no wait cursor  implemented yet. So if you have a slow computer be patient until the screen gets updated upon your entry.

The software is an OpenGL application which tends to be slow on older computers, especially if an old graphic card is used. The slowest computers I tested the software on were a 450MHz PC (Win-NT 4.0) with a 16MB Matrox graphic card and a 150MHz Win-95 PC with a simple VGA card. The 150MHz was extremly slow.

Accuracy:

Since this is the first version, the software may contain errors. I applied the formulas and calculated the magnetic heading lines. The results were checked for a few locations. So you may encounter errors. I will highly appreciate error reports, please send them to:

tt224@yahoo.com">tt224@yahoo.com

Insrallation:

Make a new directory for QiblaGlobe. For example

C:>mkdir qglobe
C:>cd qglobe

Copy the ZIP file in this directory. For example copying from a floppy disk

C:>copy A:\qglobe10.zip .

Unpack the ZIP file with a tool like PKUNZIP. The following files are included in this distribution:

qglobe.exe
qglobe.dat
readme.txt
opengl32.dll
glut32.dll

How to use this Software?

Start QiblaGlobe from a DOS box by entering

qglobe

and hitting return on the command line. You may start it also from Explorer. Depending on the speed of your PC, the loading may take some time. If you have a slow computer, you may try to reduce the slices for representing a sphere by using less than the default 40 slices:

qglobe 20

In this case the globe will look rougher but will work faster. The maximum possible number of slices is 100.

After the program has loaded you will see a globe in the window. Meridian lines are shown in grey. There are no cities included yet, so look on an atlas to determine your location. You can navigate using the cursor keys. You can also klick the left mouse button on the globe and drag the cursor to another position while holding the left button to turn the globe. To zoom in hit +, to zoom out -. The window can be resized by dragging the border with the mouse.

The q key will toggle the direction lines to Mecca on or off. This lines show the shortest path to Mecca. You will want to turn to this direction during prayer. All you need is to know the compass heading that will turn you to the correct direction to face Qaba (in Mecca).

To find the magnetic heading, hit q again (just to declutter the image) and type m. After the globe cleares new curves will appear showing magnetic direction data. The red lines connect location points that face Qaba with the same magnetic heading. There is a red line every 5 degrees. Shaded areas enable you to increase precision to 2.5 degrees. The values already include magnetic variance (but no local magnetic  perturbations) so use them directly on the compas. Please note that the red lines are NOT the direction to Qaba but a line connecting locations with the same magnetic heading to Qaba! The magnetic heading you read on the red lines will turn you to Qaba on the shortest path (this should be the direction you see for your location when pressing q). Light blue lines depict magnetic longitudes.
If you like, you can switch on q and m simultaneously.

Example: Assume you live in Los Angeles. You are located aqpproximately on the red line for 20 deg maybe a little to the left. So use your compass and turn to 20 deg (North-North-East) for your prayer.

A special location lies in the Pacific Ocean from where any direction is the shortest path to Qaba.

Magnetic Direction:

Acknowledgements