With the Hajj season approaching, we present this Khutbah from the late Ustadh Sulaiman Dunya that will give insight into some of the history and background of this important pillar of Islam.
THE ARABS AND THE KA’ABA
“Ancient Arabia did not have a
centralized government of any form. That is, there was no national governing
body, or no one man, such as a king ruling the people. The Arabs were organized
into tribes, with each tribe having its own chief, who was responsible for his
own tribe in both war and peace. The members of a tribe were friendly with each
other, and if one was in need of something the others tried to help him as much
as they could.
As the Arabs were divided into
different tribes, so were they divided by religion. Some Arabs were Christian,
others were Jews, but the majority were idol worshipers-Pagans. These pagans prayed to the sun, the moon and the stars, but
most of them prayed to idols fashioned by their own hands, whether out of
stones, wood and any other material they could gather together. They even had
special temples in which they offered sacrifices to these idols.
The Ka’aba, which was built by the Prophet Ibrahim (als) and his son Is’mail (als),
as a place in which to worship one God was taken over by these pagans, and it
became the main temple for their idols. The Ka’aba
held over 360 idols, and nearly every family had its own idol, its own home
made God. During certain months of the year, people from all parts of Arabia
would come to visit these idols and to enjoy the sacrifices and the fairs (bazaars) which lasted for weeks. At
these fairs, people made new friends and cleared up any misunderstandings among
themselves. Poets sang their songs and orators read their rhetorical speeches.
Poems and speeches the audiences liked were memorized and repeated by these
people when they returned to their homes. In addition, the best speeches and
poems were written in golden letters on scrolls, that were hung on the door of
the Ka’aba until the following year,
giving the people ample opportunity to memorize them.
These fairs also served as an
important source of income for the Meccan merchants. Members of the Qurayish
tribe who were the merchants of the city sold their wares at very high prices.
As I said before, most of the Arabs prayed to idols, they prayed to these gods
which they could touch and see, because they thought they could give them help.
In reality they were not very religious because the most important thing in
life for them was to make money.
The city dwellers, especially,
desired money and sought their own pleasures no matter what the consequences.
Wine was drunk in the streets like water. People had no pity for their enemies,
torturing and even burning them at the stake with no mercy. Those considered
weak and those traveling the country were robbed. Married men had many wives,
and women were treated very badly and were considered as part of her husband’s
property. As such, boys could inherit their father’s wives along with the rest
of their holdings. The people were also very sad when a girl was born, and some
even buried a newborn female infant alive.
On the other hand, the Arabs were
brave and very generous. If a stranger went to their home or tent he was
greeted and made to feel at home. He was given the best to eat and drink, and
was protected, if need be by his enemies. They were and are very hospitable
people. In the midst of these people, and these customs (both good and bad) our
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born and raised....”
COMMENTARY
The above Khutbah gives some
background information on the character and conditions of the pre-Islamic Arabs
and the first house of worship for mankind-the
Ka’aba. Although most Arabs trace their lineage and religious traditions to
Ibrahim (Abraham), in both religious beliefs and social norms, the Arabs
particularly the Qurayish, (in the
time of our Prophet) strayed from the ways of the great Patriarch. Over the
course of time, idolatry replaced monotheism just as oppression and materialism
replaced justice and benevolence among the children of Is’mail (alhs). Yet, despite their flaws, as one scholar explains, “...their
virtues and natural potentialities were much more in comparison. They held in
themselves possibilities of rising into a power that could change the course of
history...They had not been corrupted by the traditional traits of culture and
intellectualism; that is why Banu Is’mail
were called ‘Ummi’, that is
unaffected by external cultural influences. The simplicity, the natural
facilities, and the social traditions of the Arabs were the basic factors that
invited the Mercy of Allah to choose them as the first people where a worldwide
revolution could be launched. This thesis has been aptly elaborated by Shah Waliyullah in the first part of his ‘Hujjat-Allah[SS1] -al-Baligahah’ as well
as by Khudri in his ‘History of
Jurisprudence’.1
The late Shaykh also mentioned in
the khutbah the pre-Islamic fairs held in Mecca and their showcasing Arab
poetry and rhetorical speech. This is due in part to the Arabs love of the
spoken word, for scholars tell us that the Arabic spoken by the Arabs of the
seventh century...“was also the most archaic of all the Semitic languages, closer to the mother-Semitic than the rest.”2
Simply put, the type of speech among the people of this time contained much of
the older/earlier characteristics of the Semitic
languages amounting to pure, almost uncorrupted dialects. This phenomenon is
also related to Ibrahim and the Ka’aba as the Arabs “...could not have
preserved intact their archaic language over the centuries while forgetting
their attachment to the Ka’aba. The memory of the Arabs which served
them as the repository of their oral literature and tribal histories, was not
about to forget such decisive figures as Abraham and Ishmael, who play cyclical
roles in the existence of the Arab nomads. If
this is so then the Ka’aba is the most ancient sanctuary still in use at the
present day, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca is the most ancient ritual still in
operation. The Qur’an says, “LO! THE
FIRST SANCTUARY APPOINTED FOR MANKIND WAS THAT AT MECCA, A BLESSED PLACE, A
GUIDANCE TO THE PEOPLES; WHEREIN ARE PLAIN MEMORIALS (OF ALLAH’S GUIDANCE); THE
PLACE WHERE ABRAHAM STOOD UP TO PRAY; AND WHOSOEVER ENTERETH IT IS SAFE.” AND
PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOUSE IS A DUTY UNTO ALLAH FOR MANKIND, FOR HIM WHO CAN A WAY
THITHER.” (3:96) 2
“The Islamic tradition would have
it that the prototype Ka’aba is not earthly but celestial in nature. As
a matter of fact, there are a number of otherworldly Ka’abas, each one
the center of its place of existence, just as the Ka’aba at Mecca is the
center of the earth.”2 “The sacred nature of the Ka’aba
is clearly indicated by the attitudes prescribed by the Law towards the Black
Stone imbedded in the eastern corner of the edifice. While making his
circumambulation around the Ancient house, the pilgrim should kiss or at least
touch the Black Stone. This would have no meaning if the stone were devoid of
symbolism. Traditionally it is
looked on “as ‘the right hand of Allah in
the world”, so that the Pilgrim, in kissing or touching the stone, renews
his pact with the Lord of the Ka’aba more or less in the same fashion as
a man renews his pact with his fellowman through a handclasp”.2 Some
scholars believe touching or kissing the Black Stone is to renew one’s
allegiance to Allah in person (by visiting His Sacred precincts) as one renews
his pact with his king or commander in person after swearing loyalty to and
serving him for many years prior.
With regard to the Hajj and its history, “the actual
institution of the Pilgrimage goes back to Abraham’s time, the only things
introduced by the pre-Islamic Arab pagans being the idols, which were to be
found in the Ka’aba itself. Apart from destroying the idols—all 360 of
them—and prohibiting the circumambulation of the Ka’aba naked, the
Prophet merely purified the Pilgrimage of their paganistic veneer and restored
them to their Abrahamic state. There is no adequate reason why anyone would
doubt the antiquity of the rituals connected with the Pilgrimage nor their
relations to Abraham and Ishmael”.2
“The Pilgrimage to Mecca
celebrates in its multiple rituals a whole series of events connected with the
mission of Abraham his wife Hagar (Hajra) and their offspring Ishmael (Is’mail).
If we stop to examine the different elements in the Pilgrimage that have to do
with Abraham and his family, we realize more and more, that the claim of Islam
to be a reaffirmation of the Abrahamic way not only on the sacred words of the
Qur’an, which count for much already, but also on an ancient, sacred oral
tradition that the memories of the nomadic Arabs kept alive in pre-Islamic
times along with their observance of the rituals surrounding the Ka’aba
and the Pilgrimage to that ancient sanctuary. Let us remember, in passing, that
Judaism and Christianity are connected to Abraham through Issac, while Islam is
connected to him through Ishmael”.2
Indeed, the northern Arabs consider him their progenitor, and the
Prophet, like the other Arabs in his day had an ancestral line that took him
back to Ishmael. That linage was accompanied with a mass of traditions and
stories surrounding the Ka’aba and the pre-Islamic Arabs, the so-called
pagan Arabs, transmitted as part of their historical and religious connections
to that ancient edifice.”2
“The rituals of the Pilgrimage
proper last for only some five days, beginning on the eighth day of the month
of Dhu-al-Hijjah and ending on the 13th, though some pilgrims leave
before then. The main rituals have to do with the circumambulation of the Ka’aba,
the running two and fro between Safa’ and Marwah, the standing on the plain of
‘Araf`at, the lapidation of the emblems of Satan, the sacrifice of
animals at ‘Araf`at—all of this taking place between Makkah and ‘Araf`at,
with the intervening places of Muzdalifah and Min`a having their
own importance also.”2
“In the symbolism of the
Pilgrimage, there is a type of meeting with the Divinity that is in
anticipation of the Day of Judgment, and the fact that pilgrims tend to go on
the Pilgrimage toward the end of their lives and even consider dying in Makkah
as a benediction—all this points to a kind of judgmental nature to this pillar
of Islam. The unsewn pilgrims dress, consisting of two plain pieces of white
cloth, and the ascetical restrictions imposed upon all those who enter the
sacred precincts indicated a state of confrontation with the Divine Presence
that obliterates all the social hierarchies of the profane world; external
distinctions disappear, the equality of all the immortal souls face-to-face
with their Creator is what now appears. And since in that Divine Presence, the
taking of lives, through hunting or uprooting of plants that have also a life
of their own, and engaging in sensual pleasures would be out of the question,
the Law prohibits all of that by way of keeping the believers within a
framework of receptivity towards celestial graces.”2
1. Evolution of Social Institutions in Islam, by Dr.
Sayyid Matlub Husayn, pgs. 30-31
2. Islamic Thought and Culture, (Compilation of
Papers) Edited by Is’mail R. Al-Faruqi, pgs. 20-23
