Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462913657
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Expansions to the Holy Mosque in Mecca

A postcard of Medina (date unknown) shows that the city had grown in comparison with the map on page 12.

The sa’y or rapid walk between Safa and Marwah, celebrating the rapid movement of Hagar and her son Ishmael (Ismail) in quest of water, which appeared miraculously in the form of the sacred spring of Zamzam, represents our quest in this world for the life-bestowing bounties of God and His Mercy which fulfills our quest. The spring of Zamzam itself is an earthly “tributary” flowing from the springs of Paradise. Its water heals body and soul and is brought back by pilgrims and distributed throughout the Islamic world as a blessing. It is one of the most precious gifts that a pilgrim can bring back to his family and friends.

The events outside of Mecca are intimately related to sacred history and eschato-logical realities. The great plain of Arafat, where all the pilgrims assemble in a vast congregation and where the deepest prayers are offered for the forgiveness of one’s sins as well as the welfare of others, symbolizes the plain of Mahshar or Resurrection when everyone will stand before God on the Day of Judgement denuded of all accessories and paraphernalia, with one’s only possession being one’s actions in this world and the effect they have had upon the soul. In the middle of Arafat stands Jabal al-Rahmah or the Mount of Mercy, where the last verses of the Noble Qur’an were revealed and where one of the famous farewell addresses of the Blessed Prophet was delivered. It is here that the alchemy of union between various aspects of human nature takes place and men and women regain their primordial wholeness, for it was in the plain of Arafat that Adam and Eve are said to have found each other again after their fall on earth from Paradise. All of us, whether male or female, contain the two poles of the human reality symbolized by Adam and Eve within ourselves. But these two poles, representing our active and passive natures and tendencies, are now in discord. The alchemical wedding, whose fruit is gold or the perfection of the soul, is none other than the harmonious wedding between the Adam and Eve of our soul, a wedding which can become actualized, for those aware of the profound significance of the rites of the Hajj, at the great plain of Arafat where in sacred history such a union took place on the objective plane at the dawn of our earthly existence.

It is at Mina, where the Prophet delivered his last eloquent words during his final pilgrimage, that pilgrims cast stones against pillars representing Satan (al-Shaytan). This rite is, however, not only an external act but also an external support for the inner battle with the demon within, a battle that must be carried out incessantly until final victory. Muslims usually begin ritual actions, including recitation of the Qur’an, by taking refuge in God from the accursed Satan

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