"And[mentioned] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and[with him] Ismael,[saying], "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed, You are the most Hearing and most Knowing". --- Qur'an chapter 2 verse 127
Last Friday our sixth in the weekly Islamic History series was about the miraculous escape from the fire that prophet Ibrahim experienced and another servant of Allah in later centuries, as well as the incident of the escape from a volcanic lava in Madinah.
We will however devote this week's series on how Ibrahim and his son, Ismael built Ka'abah. Prophet Ibrahim and his people who embraced Islam decided to leave their unbelieving people and migrate to Egypt. Prophet Loot and Ibrahim's wife-to-be, Sarah also left with him. Ibrahim married her on his way to Bahran in Syria. And when they reached Egypt, one of the royal pharos[kings] sent one of his servant to ask for Sarah, after getting informed about her exceptional and extra-ordinary beauty.
According a hadith narrated on the authority of Aba Hurairah, the messenger of Allah[PBUH] said: "Ibrahim once entered a village where there is a king among noble kings and it was said: Ibrahim entered the village with his wife, who was one of the most beautiful women. And the king upon hearing about the woman sent for Ibrahim and asked him: Who is this woman with you? And Ibrahim answered: She is my sister[instead of saying his wife]. And he asked him to go and bring her. Ibrahim hinted his wife: Do not falsify my answer to him, because I told him that you are my sister. And there is no believer in God here apart from me and you. So when she entered the chief's palace, he approached her and she began to pray saying: "Allahuma! In kunta ta'alamu anni aamantu bika wabi rasulika, wa ahsantu farji illa alaa zawji, fala tussalid alayya haazal kafir...!" that: "O Allah! If you know that I believe in you and your messenger, and I protect my private[organ] only for my husband do not let this kafir[non-believer]overpower me[have intimacy with me] … finally, he saw something scary and ran away with his legs."
According to Ibn Ishaq, a renowned Muslim historian: Sara had a pretty slave girl, Hajar and since she was not blessed with a child with Ibrahim, she voluntarily gave her in marriage to Ibrahim and she said: I see her as an humble person, so take her with you, perhaps Allah will bless you with a baby boy. So after Ibrahim married Hajar and consummated her, she conceived and delivered a baby boy and named him Ismael [Ishmael].
History has it that, Sara began to be envious of Hajar whenever she plays with her baby…and finally, Sara advised Ibrahim to move far from her with Hajar and Ismael. And then Allah inspired him to move to Makkah and he took her and her son with him. He finally settled them closer to Ka'abah or black cube.
According to Ibn Abbass, Hajar, the mother of Ismael was the first among women to ever migrate with her son as she was still nursing him and she placed him at the premises of today's zam zam. And by then there was nobody in Makkah and she had no water. Ibrahim left her there with Ismael with a small sack of date and a small gallon of water. Then he left on his way to Syria. She took a few steps behind him and asked: O Ibrahim! Where are you going, while leaving us in this valley that has no one to keep us company and there is nothing useful? She said that repeatedly and he would not turn and look at her. And she asked: Was it Allah who commended you to do this? He said: Yes! And she said: Then[Allah] will not forsake us!
She then returned back to the valley. And Ibrahim covered a far distance on his way and turned towards the house of Allah[Ka'abah] and prayed[as it was narrated in Qur'an chapter [Ibrahim] 14 verse 37, that: "Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendents in an uncultivated valley near Your scared House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful."
Then Hajar and her son Ismael were drinking that water he left them with, until it finished and she and her son began to feel thirsty. Ismael then began to cry out load. Being so tenderhearted a mother, she left him and was running from one hill[safa] to the other[marwah]. She did this for seven times with the hope of seeing a caravan of tradesmen from behind the hills to request water from them. But she never seen anyone.
So when she made the seventh round on the top of the hill of marwa, she heard a voice repeatedly and she said; perhaps there is some rescue. So she suddenly saw an angel digging a hole beneath the right toe of her son Ismael with her wing until water begins to gash out.
Hajar then started saying: "zami zami ya Mubarak!" that: "gather at one place, gather at one place, O the blessed water!". Ibn Abbass commented that: "May Allah have mercy on the mother of Ismael, if she had not tried blocking the water from overflowing, by saying "zami zami", the water will have over flooded and become a huge water body". So the phrase she repeatedly said, appealing to the water to gather at one place was later named after the water - zam zam.
She drank from it and fed her son and the angel told her, do not fear that the water would be exhausted, because in this spot would be a House of Allah that child and his father would build. Hence Allah would not fail its household. And during that time, Ka'abah was raised high like[rabiyah] a hill or hillock. And flood would attack and erode it from time to time, left and right until a caravan of traders from the tribe of Jurhum pitched a camp at the southern part of Makkah. They saw a bird wandering back and forth at one particular direction and concluded that, there is a possibility of water source from where the bird goes.
They then sent two slave girls to check and confirm. Lo and behold, they found water. They requested from Hajar if she could allow them to dwell closer to her, by virtue of this source of water. She agreed but on condition that none of them would claim ownership of it.
They came and begin to live with her. Her son, Ismael grew up with them and he learnt Arabic language from them until he became an adult and they gave him one of their daughters in marriage. So later when Hajar died, Ibrahim came and met Ismael's wife and asked her of his where about and she said: He went to work to provide for us. And he asked about their livelihood and she lamented: We are in a severe economic hardship. Then Ibrahim told her: If your husband comes extend my greetings to him and tell him to change his['utbatil baab] the sill or threshold of his door.
Upon arrival, as if he felt something, he asked his wife: Did someone come here? She said: Yes! an old man came, with so and so outlook. He asked me about you and I told him you are well. He then asked about our livelihood and I said: I am in hardship. Ismael asked: Did he tell you something to tell me? She said: Yes! He asked me to send his regards to you and tell you to change your door sill or threshold.
That was my father, he asked me to divorce you, so pack your things and go to your parents. He then married a new wife…His father Ibrahim later came back and Ismael was not available. He asked his new wife of his where about and she said: He went out to look for means of sustenance for us. And he asked her about their livelihood and she said: We are in good condition by the grace of Allah! And he further asked. What kind of food you eat? And she said: Meat. And what do you drink, she said: water. And he prayed: "Allahumah! barik lahum fil lahmi walmaa", that: "O Allah! Blessed them in their food[meant and water]"…Then he told her to inform her husband Ismael that, when he comes back: Tell him to keep his door sill or threshold.
When he came back, he asked her if anyone came for a visit and she said: An old man came in a pretty outlook, he asked how we are doing and I said, we are in good condition. He said: Did he tell you me something to tell me? She said: Yes, he told me extend his greetings to you and that you keep the sill or threshold of your door. Ismael then told her: That was my father, and you are the sill/threshold he was referring to, he commanded me to keep you as my wife.
The two scenarios is telling us about how the first wife was not patient of hardship and informed her father-in-law about their plight, while the second wife was patient and gave her father-in-law a good account of their livelihood.
How they constructed Ka'abah
Few years later, Ibrahim came and met his son Ismael around zam zam premises. When he saw his father he stood up, welcomed him and honored him. And then said: O Ismael, Allah has asked me to undertake a project. He told his father: Do what Allah has commanded you. Ibrahim was at that time about 100 years of age, while his son Ismael was about 30 years old. He has asked me to build a house here. He pointed at a pretty hilly. And it is at this spot that I was ordered to raised the foundation of the house. They started the construction project and as they build, Ismael would fetch his father with bricks and stones, while his father was building, until the structure was raised, and they were both saying as Allah narrated the story to prophet Muhammad[PBUH] in Qur'an chapter 2 verse 127: "Our Lord accept it from us, for you are the Most Hearing and the Most Knowing".
According to a hadith which was narrated by Seed bun Jubair on the authority of Ibn Abbass: Long before Ibrahim came into being, Allah sent down angel Gabriel with a house-shaped Ruby from Paradise to serve as a future foundation of this House. It was so glittering and sparkling that, its lighted all what is between the eastern and western expanse of the earth. After which he[Allah] commanded Adam to go and commence the rituals of Hajj, when he descended or 'deported' him and his wife on earth. And it was narrated from other sources that, Adam himself was the first to build the house and then later his children also raised after it was disintegrated by erosion and degradation over the years, until when Allah ordered Ibrahim to raise and build it finally.
So Ibrahim and his son Ismael completed the construction of the House, Allah commanded him to invite people for Hajj[pilgrimage to the house]. This was stipulated in Qur'an chapter 22 verse 27-28 that: "And proclaim to the people the Hajj[pilgrimage]: They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every distant pass…"
When Allah gave this command to Ibrahim, he said who will hear my call, since it is only me and my son, Ismael. Then Allah said to him: "Azzin wa allayal balag!", that: "Proclaim and I will carry [the news] to the ummah, the entire Muslims".
He rose up on a rock and proclaimed: O people your Lord had established a House and had commanded you to make a pilgrimage to it. And he was heard all over-between the heaven and the earth as well progeny of men and women before they were born.
And all those who Allah ordained they would make Hajj heard him and responded and will continue to respond till the day of Judgment. "Laibaika Lahumah Labaik!", that: "Here I come, responding to your [Allah]call!". And[creatures] such as stone, tree, hill or sand also responded: "Labaika Lahuma Labaik!"
And Abdullah bun Umar revealed that: Ibrahim faced Yamen and proclaimed to people to come to Allah and to Hajj, and they responded: Labaika! Labaika! And then he faced Sham or Syria and proclaimed and they also responded: Labaika! Labaika!
In another account, Hisham narrated from his father that: Ibrahim left Makkah three times and called people to Hajj and all those who heard him responded to his call…so the first tribe that performed Hajj was Jurhum.
Imam Hafiz Ibn Kathir narrated in his analysis on the methodology of creation of the heaven that: Ka'abah is situated on earth exactly under "Baitil Ma'moor", or "celestial ka'abah". And some salafi scholars are with the view that, in all levels of the heaven there is a house of worship like Ka'abah on earth. Hence Allah authorized Ibrahim to build a house of worship for him so that people on earth would use it for worship as the angels also use theirs in different layers of the heaven.
Allah’s Signs in Ka’abah [Black Cube] --- Mysteries of the Black Rock
Allah says in Qur’an chapter 3 verses 96-97, that: “The first House (for worship) appointed for men was at Bakka (Makkah), full of blessings, and of guidance for the worlds. In it is manifesting Signs, (for example,) the place of Ibrahim; who so ever enters it, he attains security…”
According to this verse, Ka’abah contains many evident Signs of Allah, the Exalted. A believer can feel the spiritual signs the moment he/she enters the premises. For so many years, some people in the western world have been disputing the claim of the Muslims and the Arabs that the Black Stone attached to Ka’abah was sent down by God and not from this earth nor others planets. So in order to substantiate their argument, in the early nineteen century, Carnell, a British citizen was sent to Morocco to learn Arabic and Islamic studies for ten years. After his studies he followed the entourage of the pilgrims who went on foot to Makkah to perform Hajj. He was instructed to try and secure a small piece of the black stone in order to use that for experiment. This was disclosed by Dr. Tamimi, a Saudi scholar in his series of Quranic and Sunnatic(hadith) analysis through the lens of modern science on Iqraa channel dubbed, Tafakaru, “Contemplate (deep)”, Carnell took with him three pieces of the black rock(which was already cut from the big chunk, being used as souvenirs), and went back to Britain. After the British scientists at the British Museum of Natural Science placed a piece of this stone on a special microscope, it appeared to them that it is not from any of this part of the world or the solar system. This man actually converted to Islam after this discovery. NASA, the American organization of the scientists that sent astronauts to the moon, secured a piece of this stone from the British Natural Science Museum and also analyzed it in their laboratory, with their cutting edge technology microscope and concluded that, the black rock was not from our solar system or this universe. One of the shocking and seemingly incredible discoveries they made was that, the black rock has the electromagnetic strength of a million telephone lines. As I started above, the prophet[PBUH] was asked by one of his companions about the nature of this black rock and he said, “Hiya min Kasrul Jannah.”, that: “It is from a mansion or one of the castles in Paradise”. Karen Armstrong, whom I considered one of the most generous and magnificent authors on Islam, whose contemporaries in the west gave her the title; ‘The Fifth Khalif’, or successor in Islam, after Abubakar, Umar, Usman & Ali,(by virtue of a good public relations image she is creating for Islam in her writings) testified to this assertion when she wrote in her book, Islam-A Short History, that; “….the Black Stone embedded in the wall of the Ka’abah....was probably a meteorite that had once hurtled to the ground, linking the site to heavenly world.” And a hadith was attributed to him saying that, “This black rock will come on the Day of Judgment with a tongue, bearing witness to all those who embrace or kiss or even point (from far distance) at it, confirming their monotheistic believe in God.” One could really observe the wisdom behind the phrase of the prophet[PBUH] above; or even point at it, Having been inspired by God over 1400 years ago that, it will come to a time when not all the pilgrims would be able to embrace or kiss the black rock, by virtue of the huge and mammoth crowd of pilgrims, descending from all walks of life, where everyone is huddling or bumping against each other. The current annual average figure is 3 million plus pilgrims. In a DVD documentary, “Inside Mecca”, the minister for Hajj, a member of the Saudi royal family likened Hajj with the most popular sport in America, the “Supterball”; this is also like the world cup tournament.
How the Black rock then came down
According to renowned Egyptian earth scientist, Dr. Zaglulu Najjar, history has it that when God inspired Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ishmael to build the cube or Ka’abah, Ibrahim asked his son Ismail (Ishmael) to go round and look for a different color of a rock or stone, to place at where God inspired him to demarcate as the starting point of tawaf, or circumambulation. Ismail looked all around the vicinity of the valley, where the cube is located and could not find any color of a rock different from the ones they were using to build the cube. So he came back later around sunset and told his father that, he could not find any different color of rock. His father, Ibrahim then told him to look right behind him and upon turning his eyes, he saw a special rock. He told Ismail that, while he was looking around for a rock, God sent down angel Gabriel with this rock from Paradise for them to be used as a starting point of [tawaf ], or circumambulation. prophet Muhammad[PBUH] was reported as saying that, the rock used to be as white as milk, but was stain (spiritually) by the sinful acts of the progeny prophet Adam(mankind in general).
What Neil Armstrong saw when he first landed on the Moon
In 1969, when Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to ever land on the moon came back from the space mission, according an Egyptian Scientist and chairman of the Center for Scientific Research in Egypt, Dr. Abdul Basid Sayyid, he organized a press conference to give an account of what he saw. Neil Armstrong revealed a very amazing phenomenon that he saw regarding the earth. He was quoted as saying that, “When I was on the moon, I was taking pictures of the earth, I saw it spherical, hanging and dark, and then who was hanging it?”
This is a rhetoric question that Armstrong posed as if he was saying that, it was God who was hanging it. He further stated that, “the entire earth appeared dark with the exception of one spot and when I zoomed in with my camera, I found this particular spot, with light rays without an end in space to be Makkah in Saudi Arabia, and upon zooming in further, I realized the rays emerges on top of the black cube, Ka’abah”.
According to Dr. Sayyid, who disclosed this in an Arabic television interview, when this information was published on the internet, it was deleted after ten days, because some anti-God or atheists, who wield influence in the western media do not want people to see the incredible manifestation o Allah in the celestial universe and thereby believe in Him. I happened to be teaching some high school students Quranic recitation lesson in Arabic (upstate New York), and whenever we come across verses with scientific connotations, I would pause and render some commentary and analysis. Already I told them about this story, but never thought that the rhetoric question (…who was hanging it?) that Neil Armstrong asked has a direct, straight forward answer in the Qur’an. I got to discover this when we reached chapter 13(Al-Ra’d or Thunder) verse 2, where Allah says,: “Allah is He who raised the heavens(and earth) without any pillars that you can see( hanging); is established on the Throne (of Authority); He has subjected the sun and the moon (to His Law)! Each one runs (its course) for a term appointed. He regulates all affairs, explaining the Signs in detail that you may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord.” Regarding the endless light rays that Armstrong saw emerging atop the black cube, any Muslim scholar or student of Islamic knowledge knows the spiritual connection attached to Ka’abah and what is referred to in Arabic as Baitil-Ma’moor, or celestial Ka’abah[as I stated above], which was mentioned in the Qur’an. It is the place in space, located directly under the throne of God, where seventy thousand angels do circumambulate or go round it, praising and glorifying the name of the lord, in the same manner that Muslims do in their annual Hajj event[which is coincidentally in session now], praising and glorifying the name of Allah. And each day, different group of angels would emerge and would not come back till the Last Day. Scholars are with the view that, Baitil-Ma’moor is so geographically linked to the Ka’abah to an extent that, if it is brought down and placed on it, it will land on the Ka’abah vertically, and accurately, as a goldsmith like how a cover of a sauce pan stays attached on it.
Husseini Yushau BabalWaiz, is the Research & Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives Inc. New York, Author of three books, including "Islam Promotes Tolerance & Prohibits Terrorism-Reviving the Islamic Advocacy of Mercy and Magnanimity to Mankind" & Tutor in Arabic & Islamic Studies in New York, babalwaiz71@gmail.com
NB: Folks, this is the seventh in the new series entitled: "Delving Deep Inside the Islamic Historic Memory Lane", which will be running for months, even years, aimed at showcasing the amazing historical phenomena that happened in the pre and post Islamic world. On Friday, this column will focus on the near slaughter of Ismael and the Hajj rituals, which is currently on-going in Makkah. Please remember to read on both Ghanaweb & modernghana.
References:
Al-Bidayah Wal-Nihayah, [The Beginning & The End] by Abil Fadah, Imam Hafiz Ibn Kathir. vol. [1] of [18] vols.
Al-Muntazam-Fii Tareekhil Umam Wal-Mulook, [Periodicals on the History of [medieval] Societies & Kingdoms] by, Abil Faraj, Abdul Rahman Bun Aliyi Bun Muhammad Ibnil Jawzi. vol. [1] of [10] vols.
Qisasil Anbiyah,[Tales of the Prophets] by Abil Fadah, Imam Hafiz Ibn Kathir
