Some researchers concluded that Makkah is located at the centre of the earth, among whom is Dr. Farouq Abdul Badee’, after carrying out many consecutive researches that lasted for more than 10 years. Al-Ahraam Egyptian newspaper mentioned in its issue no. 41445 that this conclusion was based on historic and geographical reference books and on the results of the atomic watch. The researcher recommended that Makkah should be taken as the basis for calculating the time instead of Greenwich because Greenwich was chosen on the basis of political agreement and not on the basis of scientific and astronomical phenomena.

Also, among these researchers was Dr. Husain Kamaal Ad-Deen, as he wrote in the Islamic Research Magazine which is published by the Presidency of Ifta’a and Scientific Research Department in Saudi Arabia, in its issue no. 2, a long research, in which he proved with evidence, studies, statistics and researches that Makkah is the centre of the earth.

Shaykh Salmaan Ibn Fahd Al-Ouda, while commenting on this, said: “It is for this reason that the earliest jurists of the Shaafi’i and Hanafi School among others mentioned that there is a day in the year in which there is no shade for things (at midday) in Makkah, there is one day in the year in which all the things at midday have no shade; why is that? It is because the sun is totally perpendicular on Makkah, so there is no shade for things.”

This matter does not contradict what is mentioned about the equator being the centre of the earth, this is because those who said that Makkah is the centre of the earth, have explained that they meant the land with the exclusion of its surface which is covered with water. Indeed, Dr. Husain said in his research which we referred to above: “We noticed when we drew a circle whose centre is the city of Makkah, and its boundaries outside the seven continents, that the circumference of this circle goes around the limits of the outside continents. This means that the location of the city of Makkah is the centre of the earth’s land surface.”

As regards the equator, it divides the whole surface of the earth including water and land. The Arabic International Encyclopedia defines the equator as follows: “It is the great circle of the earth that is equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole. This imaginary line divides the earth into two congruent parts which are the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Also, it is the basis from which latitude lines are measured.”

Allaah Knows best.