God's Lunatics by Michael Largo

Author:Michael Largo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

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KAABA

SACRED METEORITE OF ISLAM

Muhammad was driven out of Mecca in 622 A.D. because he preached about believing in one god, which was considered a serious problem primarily because of the city’s thriving pilgrim business.

Long before Islam was established, a multitude came annually to worship a black stone and a cubic-shaped building in Mecca, a popular city in the central portion of what is now Saudi Arabia. The rock was revered as an object delivered by the gods. The cubic structure was on the exact spot where Adam, the first man, had built his house. Later, the Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael made a small shrine there, incorporating the black stone and following the foundation of Adam’s original floor plan. In Muhammad’s time pilgrims came to worship the stone, which was thought to be a portal between heaven and earth. Around the shrine there were temples that featured statues of 365 other gods from many religions, which pilgrims of all faiths came to make offerings to: even Christians did. When Muhammad returned eight years later and converted Mecca to his religion by conquest, he destroyed all other icons, but kept the stone, calling it and the houselike structure Kaaba. It was made even more hallowed when Muhammad kneeled to kiss it. The Kaaba has since become the most holy and sacred site of Islam. When Muslims pray five times a day, they do so in the direction of the stone. One of the Five Pillars of Islam—the rules left by Muhammad to guide his followers—recommends that if one is able to make a pilgrimage to the stone they should do so at least once in their lifetime. At the Kaaba, it’s best to walk around it counterclockwise three times. Currently, during the annual feast called Hajj, or the pilgrimage made to Mecca, as many as two million people at one time stroll about the rock chip from outer space, and hope to gain the Prophet’s blessing.

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