As I read this article on Yahoo recently, a sense of resignation hit me.
Mecca’s hallowed skyline transformed: Excerpts
The building boom is in some cases destroying Mecca’s historic heritage, not just overshadowing it. In 2002, Saudi authorities tore down a 200-year-old fort built by the city’s then-rulers, the Ottomans, on a hill overlooking the Kaaba to build a multi-million-dollar housing complex for pilgrims.
The holy sites have also been targeted for decades by the clerics who give Saudi Arabia’s leadership religious legitimacy. In their puritanical Wahhabi view, worship at historic sites connected to mere mortals — such as Muhammad or his contemporaries — can easily become a form of idolatry. (Worship at the Kabaa, which is ordered in the Quran, is an exception.)“Obviously, this is an exaggerated interpretation. But unfortunately, it is favored among officials,” said Anwar Eshky, a Saudi analyst and head of a Jiddah-based research center.
The house where Muhammad is believed to have been born in 570 now lies under a rundown building overshadowed by a giant royal palace and hotel towers. The then king, Abdul-Aziz, ordered a library built on top of the site 70 years ago as a compromise after Wahhabi clerics called for it to be torn down.
Other sites disappeared long ago, as Saudi authorities expanded the Grand Mosque around the Kaaba in the 1980s. The house of Khadija, Muhammad’s first wife, where Muslims believe he received some of the first revelations of the Quran, was lost under the construction, as was the Dar al-Arqam, the first Islamic school, where Muhammad taught.
At Hira’a Cave, where Muhammad is believed to have received the first verses of the Quran in the mountains on the edge of Mecca, a warning posted by Wahhabi religious police warns pilgrims not to pray or “touch stones” to receive blessings.
Are the Saudi authorities so carried away by the wave of development that they are blindly wiping their past! It’s a pity that such revered historical places have been razed to the ground without a whimper from the Muslim world. Ironic indeed that the destruction of a few centuries old mosque in india created such a furore worldwide but the demolition of the Prophet’s [PBUH] 1400-year-old home not even a passing mention. What’s happening to us?
With the rate at which the Saud family is going I can only see the Masjid-e-Nabavi and Khan-e-Kaaba standing 10 years from now. And they too will be dwarfed by the new high rise buildings coming up. Not to mention McDonald’s Golden Arches.
As for me, you can’t flourish if you destroy your very roots.
- Surá Al-Hajj (22), Verse 40
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The Saudi authorities have no word as ‘heritage’ in their dicitionary. The damage that they have done to the historical sites is irreplaceable and that too for something which has been close to people all over the globe.
What more despicable could it be that Khadija’s house was replaced by (it seems) a urinal!
In their narrow and straightjacket interpretation of Islam just within a few decades they have destroyed things that were preserved over centuries.
Salam, the Holy city of Mecca has seen many changes, from Hadrat Ibrahim building of Kaaba, to the year of Elephant, to Yazid’s naphta fire balls, when Kaaba was burned. Change of Khilafat from Arabs to Turks, from King Saud to now “Wahabism”, but all shall pass, and what will remain is the faith in a Muslim’s heart.
Its highly condemnable but you should see the other side of the coin as well. Seen the sufi shrines in India? Bidat is rampant in almost all the dargahs across the country. It makes me feel nauseating to see the qadim bowing to the qabr in prayers and even more pathetic to see people asking the qabr for dua. BUT THIS DOESN’T MEAN WE BRING DOWN THOSE PLACES OF HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE.
Wahabi ideology is the biggest threat to the world and particularly to Muslims themselves. It has noble intention when it started but everything got diverted by few fanatics who bent the ideology to display their prowess.
The Muttawwa (religious police) say that it is to curb the ‘deviations’. What a logic? If that is the case and people start to worship Kaaba will they demolish it? If they start worshipping the Prophet’s grave will they demolish it?
They have no sense of history. In spite of all changes that happen there are some places which are preserved as heritage. Every people have that sense and they preserve it.
The Prophet’s birthplace, Khadija House, and numerous such places were important locations. To displace such places with shopping malls shows a complete insestivity.
The Saudi authorities are a blip on the scale of time but the damage that they do with their narrow understanding is lasting.
Ok, i also feel bad for loosing those historic structures but i question the significance of those buildings from Islamic point of view.Islam was sent to liberate humankind from the clutches of Idolatry and other forms of slavery, and the beauty of Islam is that it not only stops one from doing shirk but also cuts off all the paths that leads to it.According to the famous companion Hazrath Umar (RA) about the black stone in the corner of Holy Kabah:
[quote comment="25159"]“I know that you are a stone and can neither benefit nor harm. Had I not seen the Prophet (peace be upon him) touching (and kissing) you, I would never have touched (and kissed) you”.
[Sahih Bukhari, Volume 2, Chapter 56, Tradition No. 675[/quote]
So, bottom line is we Muslims follow what was practiced by Prophet Mohammed and/or his companions. They never made those demolished structures as sacred then why do we care ?
Also, comparing these demolished structures with masjid (read it as Babri Masjid)is perhaps like comparing oranges with apples. Masjid is considered as a place of worship while none of those places were deemed sacred.Infact there will be a risk of those places becoming some thing like our modern day dargas where different forms of exploitations are prevalent in the name of sacredness of the place.
Very true !!! [quote comment="25159"]As for me, you can’t flourish if you destroy your very roots.[/quote]and hence the roots of a Muslim lies not in mere building structures but in the tenets of Islam.
PisteyBadam:
Why do you feel bad if you think that there is no Islamic significance of these buildings? It seems, like many other Muslims you face the dilemma between losing your cultural heritage on one hand and inability to counter the Wahhabi spin machine on the other. If it were not so, you would have supported these Wahhabi actions unequivocally.
The Salafi/Wahhabi ideology that Muslims need to follow only what the Prophet (or the two generations after him) said or did is extreme and impractical. It would lead some of them shunning all things modern as there are a few who live Saudi Arabia in mud-houses, burn lamps and travel on camels and avoid all modern technology. Obviously, this literal interpretation of their ideology is inherently flawed.
As far as these places of historical importance are concerned, if there was so much concern about them turning into objects of shirk, the four Khalifaa-e-Rashideen would have demolished such structures longtime ago. The fact that they survived not only the first 200 years after Prophet but also 1000 years after that tells us a different story. Wahhabi onslaught on these structures is no more than 200 years old. And to add insult to injury, we get to hear about the virtues of puritanical Islam from none other than the Saudi royal family which is one of the most materialistic, and may I add, hedonistic family among contemporary Muslims.
The threat of shirk doesn’t cut much ice when you are yourself worshiping money.
I agree with Mirza Faisal. Wahhabism will not survive for long and certainly not with the initiatives they are undertaking now. All the right thinking Muslims should contribute to hasten the process.
Ah, i feel bad not because some thing of an Islamic significance has been lost, i feel bad because those structures had a cultural significance of my beloved teacher Mohammed(PBUH) and its my personal preference to keep it the way they were, just as physical example that they lived in poverty and led pious life etc.
[quote comment="25201"]
The Salafi/Wahhabi ideology that Muslims need to follow only what the Prophet (or the two generations after him) said or did is extreme and impractical. It would lead some of them shunning all things modern as there are a few who live Saudi Arabia in mud-houses, burn lamps and travel on camels and avoid all modern technology. Obviously, this literal interpretation of their ideology is inherently flawed.[/quote]
Actually not, the innovations of modern times, popularly called as “bidah” from Islamic point of view are of two types. Those innovations which helps in uniting ummah and bringing it closer to the creator are allowed. Other types which takes you away from the creator are discouraged. Praying namaz with the pre-calculated time table is a classic example of a bidah of the first category where as starting Ramadan/Eids according to the pre-calculated timetable rather than moon sighting, falls in the second category.
[quote comment="25201"]
The threat of shirk doesn’t cut much ice when you are yourself worshiping money.
I agree with Mirza Faisal. Wahhabism will not survive for long and certainly not with the initiatives they are undertaking now. All the right thinking Muslims should contribute to hasten the process.
[/quote]
Agreed !!! The wahabism is a very stringent approach to the interpretation of Islam in general and hence it might not last for long…
PisteyBadam,
There is a feeling of closeness that one gets when one looks at or touches something which would have belonged to the Prophet. Its a spiritual experience in itself. It generates emotions of love and awe. There were various relics of the Prophet that have been kept throughout the centuries.
The famous ones were his hair and his tooth of which the most famous place has been Hazrat Bal in Kashmir. I also saw the impression of his feet kept at the Jama Masjid in Delhi. It never meant people worshipped them.
If you go to Islamic significance of things then you would be knowing that almost EVERYONE visits Madina during Haj. Now visiting Madina is NOT a part of Haj. Still why do people go? You can say to visit Masjid Nabvi. But that is only part of the story. They visit because the Prophet spent 10 years of his life there. They just want to go there for that purpose to feel the place.
To say that these things are merely CULTURAL is ignoring the spiritual experience that one feels in the heart by feeling them with ones own senses.
Its not just about seeing that they lived in poverty. That is a secondary or a tertiary thing. The main point of looking at historical places is to get a perspective of things that you may not get otherwise.
The tragedy is that those who are destroying them have no idea about this. They are so much focussed on technicalities of the religion that they are ignoring the immense spiritual side of it.
Islamica Magazine devoted various pages of one of its issues to highlight this tragedy. Visit this link for various articles on the subject http://www.islamicamagazine.com/issue-15/contents-page-issue-15.html
Mirza Faisal Sahab puts it quite well.
Who would not like to visit apart from Makkah/Madinah places like Badr/Uhud/the caves of Thaur and Hira,Jannat ul Baqi ?
Reading the Sirah/biography of the Prophet(SAW) makes one long to visit these places of historical interest.We reconnect to the time of the Prophet (SAW) through these landmarks.
The Saudi authorities need to strike a balance between building infrastructure for catering to the ever increasing number of pilgrims for Hajj/Umrah and Islamic historical/cultural heritage.
For those interested,these blogs – http://q-rihla.blogspot.com and http://www.rihla-2006.blogspot.com
have good pictures and text of some sites in Madinah.
[quote comment="25187"]Also, comparing these demolished structures with masjid (read it as Babri Masjid)is perhaps like comparing oranges with apples. Masjid is considered as a place of worship while none of those places were deemed sacred.Infact there will be a risk of those places becoming some thing like our modern day dargas where different forms of exploitations are prevalent in the name of sacredness of the place.[/quote]
[quote comment="25159"]As for me, you can’t flourish if you destroy your very roots.and hence the roots of a Muslim lies not in mere building structures but in the tenets of Islam.[/quote]
Mr PisteBadam I respect your views but the house of Hazrat Khadija is believed to be the place where the Prophet [PBUH] received some of the first revelations of the Quran. And, the Dar al-Arqam was the first Islamic school where the Prophet [PBUH] taught.
Also, these are not mere buildings but a mirror of how the messenger of God lived his humble life. They stood the test of time as a guiding source (something in addition to the sacred text and the history books) to the Muslims worldover till the Wahabi thought otherwise.
What message will you propagate if you replace such sites with a huge five star building?
More than an objective study, this report is an attack on the so called rabid cult of wahhabism. there is no divide in Islam as far as the One-ness of Allah and His prophets and the Prophet. What is true about this article is that if the Saudi’s don’t do enough for the Hujjaj, they are castigated and if they do, they get it again. How could have the house of the Prophet survived for 14 centuries as it was originally ramshakle and did not survive the four Caliphs? Mere pointing a so called wrong and pinning it with Muslims is a fashion now and if I seek Muslim opinion objectively, I am sure 100% would say that they require accommodation and facilities at the Holy City for more than 10 million people as more and more seek to perform Haj as the world prospers.
Let it be clear to all my readers that I do not like the lethargy and inertia of the Saudi Political System but when it comes to the universal sites of Islam, I believe they are all symbolic and even Ka’ba had been reconstructed before the Prophet and after his departure. As far as the agitation on a really strong built Babri Masjid is concerned, the Criminals were not doing a construction but demolition. There is no logical connection between the events.
Naqqaad:
Providing for the amenities of Hajis is one thing. Crass commercialization is totally another. Don’t believe me? See the pictures at this link:
Massive Construction in Makkah
I want to state a few points:
- Millions of pilgrims travel Makkah every year and during Ramadan and Hajj there are approximately 3-4 million pilgrims. Do you think this number of people can be accommodated without making skyscrapers’?
- We human beings love symbols and especially people from sub-continent are number one in shirk. There are people that try to tear a thread for memory from the cover of Kaba or carry sand from Arafah to their homeland. What do you need these memories or symbols when Allah gave you His words to remember and follow? If you think seriously what benefit Mughals did by building palaces except giving a vain sense of pride that even their successors could not carry. Had they built universities and educational institutions for Muslims, we would have been in much better state.
- As many people who talk about Wahabism don’t have a clue what whabism is. Its not a sect nor a new theory, its just following religion as it should be. Saudi Arabia might have its weaknesses but there is no shirk on this land and you can find a mosque every one kilometer of populated area. They don’t make tombs of the graves of their scholars or kings. They follow One Book, One Prophet and One Message.
- Somebody said that wahabis recommend living life as there was in 7th centuries should know that these people have the best of infrastructure, technology, civil administration, and amenities which can be compared with the developed countries.
- I also read one comment that people in Saudi Arabia worship money. These are the people that say no to customers when there is time for prayer. How many Indian Muslim businessmen will say no to customers at the time of prayers? During the time of Hajj there is influx of millions of people, yet the prices of essential commodities remain the same. Had it been India, they would create false scarcity to increase the price. You have no clue how much charity do they give, in millions of dollars per person many times, without even stating one’s name because they want to please Allah.
- Kaba is not a symbol, its the first mosque built by Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) and a direction towards which we pray. We don’t worship Kaba, we worship Allah who is in heavens. As somebody wrote here, the blackstone itself doesn’t have any relevance except that the Prophet (pecae be upon him) kissed it once.
Anis,
Many of your points are valid and I dont want to be counted as criticizing Saudis on everything. I would commend on them spending billions of dollars every year for the Haj.
But then I would raise my voice where I think it is due. As I cant treat them in total as ‘bad guys’ similarly I cant consider as the ‘model guys’.
[quote comment="25562"]As somebody wrote here, the blackstone itself doesn’t have any relevance except that the Prophet (pecae be upon him) kissed it once.[/quote]
You answered what some of us have been trying to say. Sand is sand the same silica. But the love comes because the Prophet lived there. Whatever facilities you make, I can never understand how is it a problem to keep intact such small historical structures which would be no more than 50X50 feet in size.
Its the way of looking at things and its okay if we disagree on that. But here disagreement means destroying something which I believe is important (which you do not agree with). For me it is gone FOREVER. So a mere disagreement has a price to me.
I can see the need of preserving history and you dont see that. You have your arguments and I have mine. But dont destroy something which you may not grasp in this short congizant life of 50-60 years. Respect that and leave it there. Because what you dont get it today you may get it later.
Khadija’s house has been buried under rubble and the reports are that a urinal has been built above it! The same place where the Prophet received various revelations. Compare it with the below.
Imam Abu Hanifa, the great theologian and the founder of the Hanifi Maslaq would not stay in Mecca and Madina for long. When asked he would say that he does not know which are the places at which his beloved Messenger walked. He was afraid that he may relieve at places like those where the Prophet may have put his step!
Can you say that Imam Hanifa was doing shirk or any such useless claims that are placed?
Anis, its the same wahabi thought that was responsible for the bamian destruction even when Japanese offered to cover them up or even move them to japan. its extreme intolerance, nothing else. u can call it shirk or whatever, its everyone’s right to follow their religion the way they want. this is the right given by modern world and noone can have monopoly over it. if u believe in an afterlife and expect allah to judge, then why are u bothered abt how others fare? its their form of ibadat and let allah judge them.
i’ve seen videos of the public beheadings in SA. enuf already abt how gr8 they are.
I started by saying ‘Saudi Arabia has its weaknesses’ so in no way I am trying to prove a point that what they do is the best. Yet, you should see the context of certain thing. I don’t know the about the authenticity of the fact that Imam Abu Hanifa did not live in Madina as he did not want to relieve in any place where the Prophet (peace be upon him) walked, but I give a simple logical argument, how can millions of Muslims feel comfortable in relieving themselves in Makkah or Madina. What I know is that all the great scholars emphasized that if any of their fatwa or preaching is not sustantiated with Quran of Sunnah, you can simply ignore it. I don’t know any hadith on which the Prophet (peace be upon him) forbad relieving on the place where he walked or any of the sahaba took that factor in consideration while living in Madina. If any scholar does a thing due to personal preference, it doesn’t become a religious ruling or agument. You should know that because Madina had become a center of political feuds, many scholars preferred to settle down in Iraq and Syria so that they can do their religious work without any political intereference.
We should love the Prophet (peace be upon him) and no Muslim will have full faith unless he loves the Prophet (peace be upon him) more than anything, except Allah. But when that love goes beyond the boundaries of religion, its violations of the message that the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught. The Prophet (peace be upon him) had a ring and once he noticed that other people are also wearing similar ring, he disliked that and took off his ring. He did not want us to follow him blindly but reason out things, this is what he said in his last sermon: : “…O People, NO PROPHET OR APOSTLE WILL COME AFTER ME AND NO NEW FAITH WILL BE BORN. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the Qur’an and my example, the Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray…â€? He commanded us to use reason, not emotion. Emotion when running wild makes people do shirk, as some qawwals sing ‘Bhar de jholi meri ya muhammad’. This is the biggest damage you can do to the message of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who taught Oneness of Allah and no partner in whatsoever manner. You should know that even before Islam, Arabs believed in One Allah and they only considered various idols to be the powers of intercession, as many Muslims believe for great sufi saints. Umar bin Khattab who was second khalifa rashideen and about him the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that if there had been prophethood on anyone besides me it would be on Umar, the same Umar bin Khattab cut down a palm tree on which the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to recline so that people may not start seeking spiritual benefit in this tree. Not only this, there was also a temporary toilet built on that site, just to prove that the Only power is Allah and rest is just His creation which is going to perish and only Quran will stay till the Day of Judgment.
As far as persevering historical structures is concerned, I don’t see any problem with that but there is a strict need to guard them from the stupid people that start innovative religious practices on such structures. This is what saudis do by assigning volunteers around Kaba, near the grave of the prophet (peace be upon him) and house of Prophet (peace be upon him) in Makkah.
Triple: As far as destroying bamian structure is concerned, I do agree Taliban were a bit over zealous. I cannot comment on their act as it was their land their law. What I know is that Khalif Umar bin Khattab allowed churches in Jerusalam and keeping this in mind the places of worship for non-Muslims can be there if there are followers to the same. I don’t see there were many followers of that statue in Afghanistan. When Taliban were in power, they put a complete stop on the drugs trade and now the same trade is florishing again and Allah knows how many lives and homes will be destroyed with this.
You might hate public beheading but it’s the same killing if it’s done inside a chamber with a noose, electric shock, fatal injection or bullet. The people that are menace to the society should die so that the rest can live in peace and have fear while taking someone else life. If they fear their life, they should not take anyone else’s life either because it’s as sacrosanct. At the same time, there is excellent system of forgiveness. The family of the victim can forgive the guilty, if they want and the guilty can walk free. In one instance, a man who had killed his aunt, want forgiven by his uncle just before his beheading and he walked free. Allah gives right for revenge but commands forgiveness is better.
Let me tell you with the example of the black stone the differences of sunnah. There are certain things that the Prophet (peace be upon him)commanded or forbade and these things become halal and haram for us. For example he commanded taking bath on Friday, or not to wail over the dead or not to use music instruments, growing beard, not to fill stomach while eatching and so on. Such commands are not in Quran but we have to follow them because the Quran commands us to follow what the Prophet (peace be upon him) commands us.
There are other kind of sunnah, these are the things that the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to do as a personal choice but he did command doing so. For example he used to like while shirt, he once wore red garment, he once wore black turban, he used to smile only not laugh, he kissed the black stone, he drank milk and so on. We could do these things as an expression of love towards the Prophet (peace be upon him) as we want to do what he did. This also becomes sunnah.
Apart from any of these two categories, we cannot invent our own laws because they seem good. This is biddah or innovation in religion. We should know that satan loves biddah more than sin, because when we do sin, we may repent that and seek forgiveness but while doing biddah, we consider it a part of religion thus never repent that.
Anis,
When I put the anecdote of Iman Abu Hanifa it was just to point out something how seriously people feel. It does not mean it was religiously required or not.
I do not want to get into a theological debate here. Because you can argue and I can argue and it will not lead anywhere. I can bring the counter arguments to your arguments. There are differences of opinion. But if you say that your way is the ONLY right argument then I dont agree with it. There are various ways in which Islam has been interpreted and the various maslaqs are the result of that.
The problem arises when you start applying your interpretation in destroying things that I think are important. Just because a particular religious viewpoint has the support of the powers in Saudi Arabia it implements them as it wants without caring how the rest of the Muslim world thinks.
Faisal:
I don’t believe in arguement for the sake of it. When it comes to religious issues, your or my arguement or for that matter the personal arguement of any great scholar does not hold valid, the only valid arguement can be what is substantiated from Quran or Sunnah, as I will quote again the Prophet (peace be upon him) said during his last sermon:
“…O People, NO PROPHET OR APOSTLE WILL COME AFTER ME AND NO NEW FAITH WILL BE BORN. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the Qur’an and my example, the Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray…�
I am strictly against classifying Muslims whether be it wahabi, sufi, malaki, hanafi, hambali, shahafi and so on. I don’t believe in such ideological classification. These classifications did not exist during the times of Prophet (peace be upon him) and the times of rightly guided Khalifas so why should they exist now. I simply believe that whatever is substantiated from Quran and Sunnah applies to me as a Muslim. That’s it. As far as gaining knowledge is concerned regarding Quran and Sunnah, first they themselves are very simple and easy to understand and besides we can refer to any great scholar and we should not make any differentiation among them.