The form of prayer ought not to become a matter of dispute. Which side you turn your face is certainly not essential to the spirit of prayer. The Quran is clearly on thus point.
“The east and west is God’s: therefore whichever way you turn, there is the face of God.’ (2:29)
Yet we cannot ignore the important consideration that the posture of the body is a real factor in determining the attitude of the mind. The choice of one particular direction in Islamic worship is meant to secure the unity of feeling in the congregation, and its form in general creates and fosters the sense of social equality inasmuch as it tends to tends to destroy the feeling of rank or race-superiority in the worshippers. What tremendous spiritual revolution will take place, practically in no time, if the proud aristocratic Brahmin of South Indian made daily to stand shoulder to shoulder with the untouchable!
The division of mankind into races is for purposes of identification only. The Islamic form of association in prayer, besides its cognitive value, is further indicative of the aspiration to realize this essential unity of mankind as a fact in life by demolishing all barriers which stand between man and man.
(Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam)
