From: suhak-AT-canada.com
Date: 4 Mar 2002 07:43:36 -0800
Subject: Re:  holy cities


Hi,

Other than the short verse in the Quran, Sunni Muslims also depend on the Hadiths (speeches/conversations) and the Sunna (ways of behaving/living) of the Prophet Muhammad. Before he died, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, with the rest of the people who were new Muslims then. At the end of the pilgrimage, Muhammad delivered a speech known as "Khutbat al-Wada'", or farewell speech because he died afterwards. In this speech, he declared these areas as sacred and allowed to Muslims only.

It is difficult to assess why did Muhammad do this. It is well known that Mecca was a holy site, because of Kaaba, in Jahiliyya, in pre-Islam. The Kaaba in Mecca was one of the most well-known kaabas in Arabia (yes, they were several of them in pre-Islam). It is possible that he wanted to encourage everyone who did not welcome Islam, including the Christians/Jews who were living there, to accept the new religion. Would this have worked? Scholars have at first considered that the Christians/Jews living in Arabia had similar teachings to the major trends in Christianity/Judaism at that time, hence the allegation that the Quran is heavily dependant/influenced by these two religions, i.e. it is not original. However, closer recent research is assuming that the Christians/Jews living there were small sects that did not resemble mainstream Christianity/Judaism, as they were practiced in those days. Considering that visiting al-Kaaba a very important social/commercial activity, as is today, then it might have been one way of pressuring non-believers to join the new religion.  If Jews/Christians did not perform the pilgrimage around the Kaaba in those days, they probably took part in it for economical/social reasons. The pilgrimage was an important cultural event at that time for everyone.

The question now is: did Muhammad foresee that Islam would spread in many countries beyond Arabia at that time? Did he foresee to what extent many people would not be allowed into those two cities? Probably not. At that time, only people of Arabia performed the pilgrimage, the Romans/the Persians did not partake in this activity for religious reasons. I don't think he envisioned that Westerners/non Arabians, one day, would like to be there as tourists- just to visit and take photos. 

Did any prophet foresee what would happen to his (usually they are males) message? Did Moses foresee how Judaism would develop after his death? Or did Jesus know that his ideas would be directed/applied to everyone, as well as to Jews?

For a history of social life in pre-Islam, check: 'Ibadat al-Asnam' by al-Kalbi, or al-Kullabi (I read this a long time ago and forgot how his name is pronounced). Other sources can be al-Tha'labi, or any other well-known figure in Islamic exegesis. For studies re. Jews/Christians at that time, I do not remember one particular researcher but you'll find plenty of articles/books if you do a library search-probably many of them are in German.

P.S. Arabia refers here loosely to the areas in which Arabic tribes lived in the Arabian Peninsula, which were not under the direct control of Byzantium/the Persian Empire. So, basically it refers to the internal part of the peninsula.

THX
Suha Kudsieh


On Sun, 03 March 2002, Charrl-AT-aol.com wrote:

> 
> There were interesting responses to my query about prohibiting non-believers 
> from visiting Mecca and Medina.  It seems there is no theological reason, 
> only a line in the Koran about pagans or idol-worshipers or polytheistic 
> people not being allowed to approach the Ka'aba.  Several respondents cast 
> the prohibitions in strictly power terms, and there were suggestions of 
> earlier military threats from other religions and of "a group that is closed 
> - not open to interaction with or...examination by outsiders".
> 
> One of the most interesting posts discussed a "symbolic statement about the 
> power of the IN group" which included a reference to sharing of buildings for 
> worship among Moslems, Jews, and Christians in an earlier era.  (Just today, 
> I learned that a Jewish architect, Louis Kahn, worked in the Islamic Republic 
> of Pakistan in the 1960s and 1970s to design what became the National 
> Assembly building in Dacca, Bangladesh.)
> 
> The reason I asked about Mecca and Medina has to do with a recent "land for 
> peace" proposition made by the Saudi crown prince, which has been the subject 
> of widespread interest and of calls for more detail.  The proposition would 
> have the Israelis pulling back to pre-war borders which existed in early 
> 1967, when Jews were not allowed even to visit many of their holy places, 
> including the wailing wall of the second temple in Jersualem.
> 
> While getting to an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire is now a huge challenge, 
> resolving the status of Jerusalem is a much thornier impediment to a 
> comprehensive political agreement.  How can the Saudi leader, whose people 
> have long prohibited anyone not Moslem from even setting foot in Mecca and 
> Medina, reasonably expect the Jewish people to cede control of Jersualem?  
> How would he feel if Mecca were to be walled off to Moslems?  How would he 
> feel if Mecca were to be "despoiled" by the mere presence of non-believers?  
> How can Saudis and other Moslems expect Israel to take the proposal 
> seriously, as long as Mecca and Medina are off limits for seemingly no other 
> reasons than historical ones which no longer apply, or because of ingrained 
> intolerance or arrogance toward anyone whose beliefs are different from their 
> own?
> 
> Charles Orlowek  
> 
> 
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