Ka'aba - the Holiest place on earth The Ka'aba is a small square building on the inner court of the Great Mosque in Mecca Saudi Arabia which is regarded by Muslims as the holiest place on earth. The structure is draped in a black (decorated with gold) drapery. Muslims believe that the Ka'aba was originally erected by Adam, the first prophet and later rebuilt by Abraham and is son Ishmael. Abraham allegedly instated regular pilgrimages to it for those people who wished to worship the One True God. ABOVE: The Ka aba in Mecca which Muslims believe was originally erected by Adam. By the time that the prophet Mohammed was born in 570 AD in Mecca, the Ka'aba played a very important role in the religion of the most Arabian tribes and peoples. However, unlike what Abraham intended according to Islam, the One God was not worshiped during the pilgrimage to it but at least 354 different idols (one for every day of the Lunar year). In one of the walls of the Ka'aba a black stone (presumably a meteorite) is built in. According to tradition it was given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel. The Black Stone is believed to have been white once and became black because of mankind's sin. The worship of stones was a common practice among the pagan Arabs before Mohammed's time, and in that time the Ka'aba was regarded as the dwelling of a god (not necessarily One Creator God) or gods. Pilgrims to the Ka'aba even today have the custom of kissing the Black Stone. However, Muslims do not venerate the stone or the Ka'aba as Allah or a depiction of him, but believe his presence is particularly strong there. Mosques all over the world are built in such a way that supplicants always bow in the direction of Ka'aba when they pray there.
======================================================================== The Name of God The Arabic word for God is Allah - and thus the One God is called by Muslims. This name for God, however, had been used for centuries before Mohammed by the Lihyanites and Thamudians - ancestors of the North Arabs. Before Mohammed received his first vision in 610 AD, the name Allah had already been connected with Kaäba in Mecca. Christian Arabs also use the name to refer to the Triune God of the Bible. It is interesting that Mohammed did not once use the name of Allah in the passages of the Quran which he recorded in the first five years of his public ministry in Mecca. In this time he referred to God as "Lord" or "Creator"(Rabb), Some observers think it was because he did not wish people to confuse the God he proclaimed with the Allah which was worshiped at Kaäba together with many other idols. The name Allah appears 2 688 times in those parts of the Quran which Mohammed recorded after his flight to Medina. The name Allah is not only holy to Muslims, but also has special meaning when they pray. When his name is mentioned in prayer, he is immediately present there. The Quran also refers to God as Al-Rahman (:the Charitable") - a name previously used by the Jews in the Babylonian Thalmud and also by Christians to refer to the One God. Muslims believe there are 99 "wonderful names" for God and sometimes repeat these name during prayer. ========================================================================= Prophets of Islam Muslims believe that prophets were ordinary people who, over centuries, were chosen by Allah to make his will known to mankind. The Quran does not give an indication of precisely how many prophets there were, but he names of at least 25 are mentioned in it. Old Testament Prophets There are nineteen persons from the Old Testament, who, according to the Quran were prophets of Allah. Adam was the first prophet. After he and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, Allah banished then from it, but he forgave them again afterwards. For this reason Muslims do not believe in original sin ( that all people are essentially sinners after the "fall of man" in the Garden of Eden) like Christians. Adam is one of the six "great prophets" and his honorary title is "Father of Man".
Other Old Testament prophets were Enoch, Noah ("The Preacher"), Abraham ("The Chose One") who rebuilt Kaäba, Lot, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses ("The Friend of God"), Aaron, David, Solomon. Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Job, Ezekiel and Zechariah. New Testament Prophets John ("The Baptist") and Jesus Christ (The Spirit of God" see Jesus - Allah's Prophet?) are both regarded as prophets by Muslims. However, unlike Christians, Muslims believe that Jesus was an ordinary man and may therefore not be worshiped as the Son of God. Other Islamic Prophets Other prophets mentioned in the Quran are the unknown Idrîs, Hud (prophet from a North Arabian tribe, Sâlih (prophet of the Arabian Talmudics) and Šuaib (prophet of a smaller Arabian tribe known as "the people of the bush"). The founder of Zoroastrism, Zoroaster, is also recognised by some Muslims as a prophet of God. In the Quran Mohammed is called "the seal of the prophets" and Muslims believe that he was Allah's final and last messenger to mankind. Hence, he did not cancel or replace the messages of prophets before him but rather summarised and systemised it in the religion which would be known as Islam. =========================================================================== The Qur'an The Qur'an is the sacred book of Islam and contains the revelation Muslims believe Muhammad had received from the angel Gabriel. After the death of Muhammad the revelations were collected and edited from notes and oral tradition. The Qur'an is divided into 114 chapters (suras) and subdivided into verses (ayat). The first sura (al-fatika) is short. Every sura mentions whether it was revealed in Mecca or Medina. The shorter pieces usually come from Mecca and contain the warning about the Last Judgment and relate of the Unity and Unanimity of Allah. The later suras come from Medina and discuss reward and punishment in the hereafter as well as legal instructions and polemics with Jews and Christians with whom Muhammad came into contact in Medina.
ABOVE: Muslims are encouraged to study the Qur an from a very young age. The Muslims consider the Qur'an to be a miracle by which the authenticity of Muhammad's mission is proven. They hold the view that the contents are eternal and 'not created', because it corresponds exactly with Allah's original text in heaven. The Qur'an contains the last and definitive revelation after Torah's Gospel Holy books, which also originated from an original heavenly text, but were falsified and mutilated by the owners (Jews and Christians). The Qur'an is the most authoritative source of Muslim theology (kalam) and duty doctrine (fikh), although later controversy arose regarding interpretation and legal schools. Large sections of the Qur'an were written in rhyming prose. The Qur'an is difficult to understand without consultation of commentaries. Beautiful and valuable handwritten texts can be viewed in some private and public libraries. - Source: SESA Strategy for expansion For centuries raids on their neighbours was part of the culture of the Arabic tribes united by Mohammed under Islam. He, and the caliphs who succeeded him, realised that the peace in the federation would only hold if the energy of the Arabic tribes were applied externally. For this purpose regular raids (razzias) on non-muslim regions like Syria and Iraq were undertaken, and conquered areas were gradually forced to become Muslim. Early Muslim leaders established base camps in the regions captured during their raids and used it to undertake further raids on new regions. The people of the captured regions were forced to make a deadly choice: they had to convert to Islam or they were killed.
ABOVE: For centuries, Islamic raiders conquered neigbouring states and gave the inhabitants the choice to convert to Islam or be killed. The religious justification for this action was found in the concept of jihad, or holy war. What it amounted to is that it was Allah's will that heathen should also subject themselves to his will and worship him alone, hence, Muslims are obliged to promote Islam. Violence against those who oppose Islam is allowable as part of the execution of this duty. This drastic action, however, was initially not applied in the case of the Jews, Christians and Zoroastrists because they also worshiped One God only. In the Quran Jews and Christian are referred to as the "people of the book". In most case they were declared "protected minorities" and were allowed to practice their religion provided they paid tax to the caliph. In practice, however, even the "people of the book" were not treated as the equals of Muslims, and gradually many Jews and Christians in Muslim countries converted to Islam for practical reasons. The founding of the state of Israel in 1948 succeeded to a certain extent to give new focus to Pan-Islamism, or the worldwide unity of Muslims. Thousands of Muslims From Egypt, Syria and other Islamic states resolved their differences and strung together their powers in, inter alia, 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 to conquer the Jews, but without success. Muslims not only support the aspiration of independence for the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, but the fact that Jerusalem, a Holy City for Muslims, also falls within Israeli territory, makes the struggle a justifiable jihad in every sense of the word. With the coming of the twenty-first century tension between Muslims and Jews over Israel is still one the focuses of world politics.
The Caliphates After the death of the prophet Mohammed in 632 the caliphate came into being as the highest authority in the Islamic Empire. The caliphate refers simultaneously to the office and empire of the caliph - supreme leader in Muslim community who is also regarded as the successor to Mohammed. Already in Mohammed's lifetime, all states and regions which were part of the Islamic Empire were governed according to a theocratic system of government. This meant that the Shari'a, the Islamic laws or judicial system, was in force as the laws of the country. Just like Mohammed, the caliphs were therefore the secular and spiritual leaders of the Islamic Empire. Schism over the office of caliph The first big schism within the Islamic community took place in the second half of the seventh century because of discord on who was the rightful caliph. The Shiites believed that the caliph should be a family member or direct descendant of Mohammed, and therefore supported his sonin-law, Ali, as fourth caliph. The Sunnites, however, believed that the caliph should be an Arab from the same tribe as Mohammed (Quraysh), that he should be chosen by the senior members of the Muslim community, and that he was responsible for the enforcement of the Islamic laws and the expansion of the Islamic Empire. They suspected that Ali had a hand in the assassination of his predecessor and did not accept him as caliph. This dispute resulted in battles between the two groups after which Ali decided to relinguish his office as caliph. Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya, a Syrian, was elected the fifth caliph in the place of Ali. He moved the caliphate to Damascus in Syria and governed as caliph from 661 to 680. Abbasidic caliphs The overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty in 750 was a joint attempt of Abbasid, an Arab tribe who claimed that they were descendants of al-abbas, an uncle of Mohammed, and the Shiites. Abu al- Abbas was the first caliph of this dynasty and moved the caliphate from Damascus to Bagdad (present-day Iraq). Then Abbasidic caliphs ruled the Islamic Empire for about five hundred years (750-1258). Where the Umyyads focused on the expansion of the territory, the Abbasid regarded development and the establishment of Islamic culture as a priority. Considerable emphasis was laid on learning and and intellectual development. Elements of the Persian culture and Greek philosophy became a part on Islamic philosophy in that time.
In 1258 Bagdad was captured by the Mongolians. Although two members of the Abbasid tribe managed to flee to Egypt and to continue the caliphate in Cairo, the Mongolian take-over effectively made an end to the Abbasid dynasty and then mighty Islamic Empire. Fatimad caliphs In the second half of the caliphs' reign, the Islamic Empire started to disintegrate with the coming into being of various independent Islamic kingdoms. In 1909 Abayd Allah declared himself the first caliph of the Fatimad dynasty in Tunisia. The fatimads were Shiites who claimed that were descendants of Mohamed's daughter, Fatima (who was married to the fourth caliph, Ali). The caliphates of the Fatimads was later moved to cairo in Egypt from where the caliphs ruled the greater part of North Africa, Siciliaand Syria in the golden age of this dynasty. The Fatimad dynasty was overthrown in 1171 by Saladin, sultan of Egypt. End of the caliphate After the final disintegration of the Islamic Empire at the end of the Abbasidic dynasty various individuals, among which some sultans of the Ottoman Empire, declared themselves caliphs. Some of these sultans used the office of caliph relatively successfully as political tool to raise Muslim's support for their domination. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War the last sultan was also dethroned. In 1924 the caliphate, which by this time existed almost in name only, was officially declared null and void by the Turkish National Assembly. In a last attempt to restore the caliphate, an international Islamic Congress was held in 1926 in Egypt. The delegates, however, could not reach agreement on the matter and adjourned with the vague undertaking to work together in the future to build-up the caliphate again. With the outbreak of the twenty-first century, the caliphate was still only a dream of a small handful of traditionalists. ========================================================================= Article by Manie Bosman (E-Mail maniebosman@mweb.co.za)