Is it Sunnah or Good Adab to Face the Qiblah When Making Wudu?

Question: Is it sunnah or adab to perform ablution while facing the qibla? I have read many shafi fiqh books and in some books it is adab and in some books it is sunnah (if it is sunnah please reply with a proof)

Answer:

Facing the direction of prayer in ablution is recommended in the Shafi’i school (al-Majmu‘:1:189, Mughni al-Muhtaj: 1:107) Some of our jurist, such as al-Shirbini, classified this act as a sunnah, while others, such as Ibn Naqib al-Misri (‘Umdat al-Salik) and Ahmad ibn Rislan (Zubad. 77), considered it to be an adab (proper etiquette).

Adab, commonly translated as etiquette, simply refers to a recommended act. Adab can also mean any act that is legally prescribed, regardless if it is obligatory or recommended. (Shabramillisi,1:92, Futuhat al-Wahhab, 1:83) Some of the commentators of Qazwini’s Hawi held that adab and mandub are the same with respect to the recommended nature but differ regarding the emphasis. This distinction was transmitted by Shihab al-Din al-Ramli in his commentary of Safwat al-Zubad (Fath al-Rahman, 180). For those who hold this view, a mandub action is emphatically recommended while an etiquette is merely recommended.

Regarding the legal basis for facing the qibla in wudhu, our fuqaha state that the reason rests in the fact that the qibla is the most noble direction. (ibid)