The Jordanian Department of General Iftaa answered a question about the ruling on deviating from the qiblah during prayer

The following is the question and answer that the Fatwa published on its website:

Question: We are a group of employees working in an excavator in the Dead Sea area, and the nature of our work is six days a week: two days from ten in the evening to six in the morning, two days from two in the afternoon to ten in the evening, and two days from six in the morning until two in the afternoon And this excavator cannot be stopped at the time of prayer, and it moves in a semi-circle to the right and left, and it changes from the direction of the qiblah (45) degrees right and (45) degrees north, and we cannot pray towards the qiblah; Because it is mobile, so how do we pray while we are on the excavator?

Answer: Praise be to God, and prayers and peace be upon our master, the Messenger of God

Receiving the Kaaba is a condition for the validity of prayer for the one who is able to perform it. For God Almighty says: {And from wherever you came out turn your face to the Sacred Mosque, and wherever you were turn your faces towards} [البقرة: 150]And for what he, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, did when he went to the Kaaba in his prayer sixteen months after the Hijrah, when he was facing Bayt al-Maqdis.

The issue of facing the direction of the qiblah or its exact direction is one of the issues on which the fuqaha’ differed. Imam al-Juwayni, may God have mercy on him, said: “The difference of our imams is that the mujtahid’s requirement is the point of the Kaaba or its direction, and this is problematic; If the mujtahid is at a great distance, how can he hit the eye of the Kaaba, and how can he assess what is required of a student? And the request is related to what can be reached, and my sheikh – meaning his father – used to say: The place for this difference is that the mujtahid links his thought in his request to the direction of the Kaaba or its eye. [نهاية المطلب في دراية المذهب 2/ 103].

Prayer is invalidated by a major deviation from the eye of the qiblah by making it to the right or to the left, but if the deviation is slight, then it remains in the direction of the qiblah, and the prayer is valid. For the name of the reception, which is a lot of it, and to turn the Kaaba to the right or left, and the second: the deviation that does not take away the name of the reception. [فتح العزيز 3/ 244].

and accordingly; The duty of the worker on the excavator is to turn towards the qiblah when he enters ihraam to pray, and to perform all the pillars of prayer from standing, kneeling and prostration. The deviation of his chest to the direction of the qiblah invalidated his prayer.

came in [مغني المحتاج 1/ 335] From the Shafi’i books: “It is not permissible for a person who performs an obligatory prayer in a ship to leave standing except for an excuse, such as a head turning and the like.

But if the worker is unable to keep his chest in the direction of the qiblah during his prayer due to the continuous movement of the excavator; At that time, he prays as he is, the sanctity of time, and repeats the prayer after that when the excavator stops, or he descends from it to the land. God only knows.