Recordings › A Reply to Dan Gibson: "Why The Early Qiblas Faced Petra?" | Mufti Abu Layth · 17 Dec 2019 › Segment 2 of 6
What is Dan Gibson's Petra theory and are his measurements trustworthy?
masjed masaajid masajid muftis dalil daleel adillah adilla proof jahannam jahanam jahannum makka mekkaDan Gibson's Early Islamic Qiblas: mosque foundations that point to Petra, and what he makes of the method
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This segment2:36 to 5:15 · 2 min 39 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenGibson measured around 160 early mosque foundations and found the earliest pointing to Petra rather than Makkah. Mufti Abu Layth says the data are transparent and not falsified, though Gibson is somewhat mischievous, and that his explanation of the south-pointing North African mosques is ridiculous.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says he is in some ways grateful to Dan Gibson, since people must be honoured for research even when its results are unwelcome, and that what the Islamic tradition lacks is critical review. He describes Gibson's book, which he calls Early Islamic Qiblas [?]: Gibson measured the foundations of around a hundred and sixty mosques, visiting several and using satellite imagery for the rest, and explains his methods transparently. Mufti says he does not believe Gibson is as innocent as some think and that he is being somewhat mischievous, but within bounds, and that he is not falsifying evidence, since he would be caught. He reports Gibson's finding that the earliest first-century foundations point towards Petra rather than Makkah, with diagrams of the degrees of deviation from each, a majority aligning more closely with Petra, some with Makkah, and some, such as the North African and Andalusi mosques, pointing south. He calls Gibson's explanation of the latter, that they copied the direction from Damascus, ridiculous, and then asks what he himself makes of it all.
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Kind: general teachingTranscript
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Gibson has done a lot of research which I um in some ways grateful to because you know we have two people we have to honor in even if it comes out with things that we don't like but at the end of the day this comes back to the point which I've been saying that what we lack in our tradition is a critical review so coming back to Dan Gibson's point he's gone around and he's got a book gibbler's in early Islam or early killers in Islam now he he measures I think is it a
hundred and sixty or something mustards around the world their foundations and things like this but what he tries to do several of them he visits them himself and some he can't so he uses certain satellite footage he does explain the exact method of which satellites he's used and how he's accessed that footage he explains all of these he's very transparent to be fair I think I don't believe he's as innocent necessarily as some people feel that he's very innocent I think you know this tongue-in-cheek he's definitely he is doing a bit of the naughty naughty is definitely I feel
that but that said I think it's all within bounds and limits I don't think he's falsifying evidence because to do that he would just get caught hell and it would ruin everything so he's measured the foundations of many messages and found them the much is found like those messages the ancient foundations dating from the first century of Islam seemed to be pointing not towards Mecca but to its petra now he's got in his book he's got diagrams and the standard deviation he's got like he's compared how many degrees are they off from Peck
how many degrees are they off from Mecca now they I think is it 60 odd or whatever is this a certain majority that he focuses on they seem to definitely be more always more closely aligned to Petra than they are to Mecca and there's some that are to McCann this some that are completely off like so they just pointing south so North Africa Masjid seem to be disappointing South the the andalusi mosques the Spanish mosques seem to be pointing south which makes no sense at all and then he comes up with a theory which i think is ridiculous that's theories ridiculous well they
were just replicating how they pointed from Damascus I thought that's just come on however what do I feel about all this these mustards pointing towards Petra is this a I mean is it just wrong I think that he may be right you know that these massive foundations may have pointed to it's Petra now was in more closer to Petra than to them to Makkah now why is the question now my theory people my
Paragraphs overlapping 2:36 to 5:15. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2019-12-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/-jytkj9z1cw/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, December 17). What is Dan Gibson's Petra theory and are his measurements trustworthy? [Video, segment 2019-12-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/-jytkj9z1cw/s/2/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "What is Dan Gibson's Petra theory and are his measurements trustworthy?" Video, segment 2019-12-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded December 17, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/-jytkj9z1cw/s/2/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2019-12-17-S02, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What is Dan Gibson's Petra theory and are his measurements trustworthy?}}, year = {2019}, month = {12}, date = {2019-12-17}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/-jytkj9z1cw/s/2/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/-jytkj9z1cw/s/2/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2019-12-17-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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