Dear Friend,
What is Holy Kaaba?
In Makkah , the Almighty God Allah' s House known as Kaabah is located. Holy Kaabah is like a cubic structure big room covered with a black cloth. Kaabah is located geographically at the centre of this earth [you can see it in centre of the world map]. In the Holy Quran, God has nominated Kaabah as the Allah's House, Hence all the Muslims respect kaabah as the house of God and make rotations (or walk)around it i.e tawaaf, as per the umrah procedures. It is believed that the actual God's office (i.e Arsh, aythal Kursi, paradise etc) is located exactly above kaaba (above the universe upon seven skies). All the muslims turn daily towards kaaba (makkah) direction and offer their prayer to the God of this world daily 5times, from NewYork to Indonesia. Kaaba is the holiest place and any kind of violence is forbidden around kaaba.
Muslims cannot see their God / Creator and they donot have any pictures of God or photos or statues for their satisfaction. Therefore God has ordered prophet Ibraheem(peace be upon him) to construct a house on the land (of Makkah City) for the people to come there from far-far places and worship there and get more blessings of the almighty God of this world. We have not seen our God (the creator) , who as created us, created our children, created sun, moon, air, water, petrol etc to work for us. Of course after death we all have to return back to our lord (to answer, what we did in this world life) i.e meeting with our lord. But in this world lifetime, we cannot see God because this world is an examination place. Therefore many muslims go to Kaaba and feel that they have come nearer to God(to his house) and they worship lot at this holy site to achieve God's blessings (rehmat) and heart's satisfaction (to cool their eyes) .
God says in the holy Quran that the , Identification of Kaabah is also done by the presence of standing place or stone of Ibrahim(Muqaam ibrahim), whoever enters this holy site will be safe & secured and Muslims are ordered to visit this holy site at least once in their life time (if they are financially capable). http://quran.com/3/97
One thing to make it clear that holy Kaabah is NOT the God. It is a house constructed with bricks, stones, cement ,having door & roof etc. But (as mentioned in the holy Quran and shown by prophet Mohammad pbuh), It is a respected place of God(called Masjid al-Haraam) and it is like a God's House. Therefore Muslims donot worship to Kaaba but they worship to the God of this house(kaaba). http://quran.com/106/3
Kaabah was initially constructed by Prophet Ibraheem (peace be upon him, pbuh) and his son upon the instruction of the almighty God Allah. Prophet Ibraheem was one of the greatest prophet and he is like the father of prophets (for jews, Christians & muslims) and he is referred in the Bible as Abraham. As you know that since the beginning of this earth, many houses, palaces, landmarks were built on this earth but they got destroyed after some years. But Kaaba is the oldest house of God , which prophet Ibraheem (peace be upon him) constructed around 4000years ago for the people to worship to one God Allah there and do Hajj etc. Till now that house (Kaaba) is still situated at the same exact location and millions of people visits there from very far-far locations to seek the blessings of the one true unseen almighty God Allah.
As no religion came from the God at the time of Prophet Ibrahim, Hence it is mentioned in the Holy Quran that prophet Ibrahim was neither a Christian nor a Jew but he submitted/surrendered his will to the Almighty God Allah and he worshiped none but Allah alone. Many places in the Holy Quran, wherever the name of Prophet Ibraheem is mentioned, God clarified that he was not a Mushrik (i.e he donot associate anybody along with the almighty God, God is one and alone even before the advent of this earth and even after the distruction of this earth Qayaamat), God has no subordinates etc. http://quran.com/3/67
The Almighty God Allah also loved prophet Ibrahim and gave him a title as "intimate Friend of God" (Khalil-Allah). http://quran.com/4/125 It is made mandatory on all the muslims to visit for Haj once in a life time to the God's House Kaaba. Prophet Ibraheem used to stand on a stone for constructing the Kaaba and that stone is known as Muqaam Ibraheem (place of Ibraheem). God says in the Holy Quran that the place of Ibraheem is the open evidence where the God's house Kaaba is located. Muslims are asked in the holy Quran to make the place of Ibraheem as their prayer place. (That much love the almighty God Allah has with Prophet Ibrahim). http://quran.com/2/125
Prophet Ibraheem along with his son prophet Ismaeel constructed the house of God called Kaaba (having a cube structure) in the Makkah city of Saudi Arabia. They built kaaba for the worship of only one almighty God Allah and called people to come there to perform Hajj annually.
As per the holy Quran, When prophet Ibrahim and his son prophet Ismaail were constructing the holy Kaaba. They were praying God to create a muslim nation from among their descendants. They also prayed God to send among their descendants ONE messenger (i.e prophet Mohammad) , who will read out messages of God to the people, and who will teach them the book(i.e Holy Quran) and its knowledge (wisdom), who will also purify them (i.e prophet Mohammad purified the hearts of people by removing statues love i.e shirk and establishing one true God's love i.e tawheed). O lord Allah, No doubt you are the almighty and wise. http://quran.com/2/129 . In this way , prophet Mohammad pbuh born from the descendants of prophet Ismaael (around 2000 years later).
But over a period of 2000 years later, shaitaan (devil) completely misguided arabs and distorted their belief & faith. So they started believing on multiple Gods & Goddess etc. Before the birth of prophet Mohammad , people of makkah filled Kaaba with (around) 300 statues of different Gods and it became a temple. There were many statues planted around the kaaba also. People used to worship other Gods/statues, sacrifice animals in the name of other Gods besides worshiping Allah. In makkah people were divided into many tribes. The Quraish tribe was the main descendant of the prophet Ismaeel and they were the main guardian/incharge of the God's house Kaaba and they were serving all the pilgrims coming to Hajj annually. One of the duties of the leader of Quraysh was to look after those who came on pilgrimage to the Kaaba. The pilgrims would come from all over Arabia and it was a great honor to provide them with food and water. Prophet Mohammad's grand father (Abdul Mutallib) was a highly respected leader of Quraish tribe and he was the incharge of the holy Kaaba.
Sometimes pilgrims coming from different countries bring statues of their Gods to Kaaba during the annual Hajj ceremony and fix them there. As time passed, however, the Arabs stopped worshipping Allah directly and started bringing idols back with them from the different countries they visited. These idols were placed at the Kaaba. In other words, Arabs were worshiping to Allah besides worshiping to other Gods also (i.e believing on mulitiple Gods concept called Mushriks).
There were some people in Makkah , who donot believe on the existence of one God Allah as the God(they are called Kafirs) , they used to pray everything and anything like rocks , stones, trees, animals cows, images & statues etc. Along with the Allah many other Gods and Goddess were also worshipped at the ancient kaaba. Arabs prayed around 300 statues or idols that stood in and around the cube structure kaaba.
Year of the Elephant:
There was a great King by name Abrahah of Yemen. He hated the idea that many arabs from yemen and all over the arabia going on an annual pilgrimage for Hajj to Makkah (i.e holy Kaaba). So he constructed a biggest and costly church in Yemen and ordered all the people to come to yemen for hajj. But no one obeyed him and arabs got instead angry against him. So he thought of destroying the holy Kaaba, so that the people's attention will be diverted towards yemen for annual hajj. He came to makkah with a huge army(of around 20,000 troops) containing big elephants and waited whole the night outside the makkah city. He planned of tying the iron chains in kaaba walls and connect these chains to elephants. Once the elephants are moved , at once all the four walls of the kaaba will be brought down.
In the same night, the King sent a message to the biggest leader of Makkah city Abdul Mutallib( Prophet Mohammad's Grand father), saying that I have not come to fight with the makkah people but my only plan is to destroy the kaaba. If any person comes in the way then the king has to forcefully kill him. Prophet's grand father told that, our intention is not to fight with him(the king) neither we have that much strength. Kaaba is the respected house of the God Allah, and it is the live sign of Prophet Ibrahim. If Allah wants then he will save his own house. But we donot have that much encouragement neither strength to fight with that huge army. In the final moments, Prophet Mohammad's Grandfather was praying by holding the God's house(Kaaba) door, saying/praying that, Allah please save your respected holy house from this king and his army.The leader of makkah people quraish tribe was Abdul Mutallib (i.e Prophet Mohammad's Grand father). He saw the huge army which cannot be resisted and announced that all the makkah people should vacate the city and go onto mountains. Before leaving, he caught the door of kaaba and prayed Almighty God Allah to protect their forefather religious house of the God/dignity/arab's prestige from destruction.
Next day, when the king want to enter into the makkah city along with his huge army, his elephants are not moving towards makkah but when they are faced towards yemen they started moving. Soldiers tried their best to take the elephants into the makkah city (beating etc) but no use. Very soon a group of birds(abaabeel) came from the sea side and gathered over the army like a cloud. Each bird was carrying 3 small stones, one in beak and one in each claw(leg). When the birds threw the small stones upon the army, king etc, wherever the stone touched then that part of the body got detached (or the stones passed through their bodies and dropped on the ground like strong bullets), . All the army started running away from makkah and the king also ran and in the way each part of his body got detached and finally he died in the way back to yemen. The king Abrahah was not found in the history after his great expedition to Makkah.
After seeing their enemy ran away and got destroyed, all the makkah people came down from the mountains and gave thanks to Allah. They got lot of remains of the war etc. After this event, Quraysh gained great respect and became known as 'the people of Allah', and the year in which these events took place, 570A.D, was named the 'Year of the Elephant'. In that year Allah had saved the Ka'bah and he would soon bring forth a Prophet (i.e Mohammad) from among the Quraysh tribe. This incident in mentioned in the holy Quran also (surah feel/elephant chapter) i.e how Allah destroyed the elephant people and made their plan useless.
God says (to prophet Mohammad pbuh) in the holy Quran that, have you not seen , How your lord dealt with elephant people, and your lord converted their (great war plan) into a (misfortune or) great error, and your lord sent upon them a group of birds, who were striking them(elephant people army) with stones of hard clay, and converted them (& killed & made them) like an eaten straw (i.e like the powdered skin of wheat). http://quran.com/105
One thing to note down here, is that, the almighty God Allah did not bring similar great army to fight with the king Abrahah, to save his house, but instead God sent only some birds with stones in their legs to destroy that army. This is the greatness of the God Allah (Allahu-Akbar). In this event, God gave special favor upon the Makkah (political , Quresh tribe) people, army came to destroy the kaaba, but God from the sky top, deleted the army and its name from the history before they could delete the God's house. And God made them powerless and destroyed them. Prophet Mohammad was born that year itself. God gave success to Quresh tribe (not because of their goodness) but God want to save his house, God want to initiate a new religion called Islam from that place and God want to sent his final prophet Mohammad in Makkah city.
Prophet Mohammad born in Makkah City:
Prophet Mohammad(may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, pbuh) born in Makkah city of Saudi Arabia & his life period was (570 – 632) i.e around 1400 years ago from now and his age was 63 years. He was born in the Year( which is famous & well known year in the arab's history) i.e "the year of Elephant", (when a king of Yemen came with a huge army with elephants towards Makkah city to destroy the house of God i.e holy Kaaba).
Prophet Mohammad was born & grown up from child to the youth age in Makkah city. Makkah city people & leaders used to love him, respect him & believe in his words. Makkah city people were seeing his efficient characters & behavior since the childhood and they used to call him with two titles in Arabic i.e al-Sadiq (means the Truthful) and al-Amin(means the faithful/trustworthy). At the age of 25years, he became a good business man. After seeing his sincerity and faithfulness in the business, a wealthy Lady of Makkah(i.e Khadija) proposed & married him and they got around six children. He was living a peaceful family life and he was having lot of money & wealth.
At the age of 40 years , an angel jibraeel (Gabriel) came from sky and told him that he has been appointed as the messenger of God, to deliver the God's last message (i.e holy Quran) to this world. He was also granted the leadership of the new religion called Islam . The main aim of the religion is to divert the people to worship to only One almighty God Allah and believe that prophet Mohammad is the messenger of Allah. As per my study & personal view, becoming the prophet or messenger of God is not an easy task but it is a great challenging job, had a risk of life from enemies and it is same as accepting a great responsibility and the leadership of a big community. It happened that, when prophet Mohammad announced that 'I am the messenger of God' then his own tribe & society people became his enemies and finally they even tried to kill him. Because his society people were believing on multiple Gods besides believing in Allah(i.e they were Mushriks/pagans), worshipping statues of different faces etc. But prophet Mohammad was telling them to stop worshipping all other Gods and start believing/ worshipping to only one unseen almighty God Allah.
Makkah city people got angry & started very severe treatment against prophet Mohammad and his handful followers. So he left his beloved home town Makkah city and went(migrated) to another city & lived in exile in that city called Madinah( which is also located in Saudi Arabia , around 400km away from the Makkah city). Makkah people again becoming angry continuously with the back support of shaitaan because they hate muslims worshipping to only one God Allah. Hence many times Makkah people came up with full army & preparations to attack Madinah city and they wanted to kill prophet Mohammad there. So that the new religion Islam will be closed for ever. Many wars and historical battles happened between makkah people and Madinah muslims (i.e the followers of prophet Mohammad). Prophet Mohammad and his companions fought and faced bravely all the battles to defend their new religion of one God i.e ISLAM. In other words, Muslims donot have any right on this land to worship to only one( unique, powerful, alone , incomparable) almighty God Allah. Of course the God of this world was always helping his messenger the prophet Mohammad from the sky by sending angels in the form of troops/army in all the critical situations during wars etc. Because God wants to bring up truth and destroy the falsehood. Hence prophet Mohammad got success in all the battles with the help & back support of God.
Finally after 9years of living in exile in Madinah City, followers of prophet Mohammed increased from a handful to thousands in number, so prophet Mohammad prepared an army of around ten thousand companions/followers of one true God. Then he personally came and surrounded the entire Makkah city and they entered the Makkah city from all the directions at once. God gave him a historical success called victory of Makkah without any fighting/bloodshed (you can see the chapter surah Fatah in holy Quran for details of that victory). When prophet Mohammad got the control of the entire Makkah city, he forgave all the makkah people who behaved badly with him and killed many of his followers in wars, battles etc earlier. And then he removed all the statues from the holy Kaaba and made the holy kaaba dedicated purely for the worship of the almighty God Allah. Seeing this situation from houses through windows, Makkah people realized that all their statues are false and powerless. Seeing this change in the makkah city, the residents of makkah city realized that all their statues Gods are powerless and the almighty God Allah is most powerful , successful & almighty. Because if any of their statue God was true then it would not , have allowed prophet Mohammad to enter into the Makkah city. They came to know that prophet Mohammad did not spoke a lie (or false initially) and he is the true messenger of the God and he is calling towards the worship of one true powerful almighty Lord Allah.
They already know(from the year of Elephat) that the holy kaaba is the true house of God and they also came to know that prophet Mohammad is the true messenger of Allah(from the victory of Makkah), because nobody can invade/attack this holy city of God i.e Makkah, it is a historical fact. Finally all the Makkah people accepted Islam and became the follower of prophet Mohammad(may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
But prophet Mohammad is a great and successful prophet. Who, not only cleaned the house of God i.e Kaaba from all the false statues(or false Gods etc.) but he also cleaned the love of statues(multiple Gods concept) from the hearts of millions of people. He not only explained/preached about the new religion Islam but he worked hard (day & night i.e within the last 23 years of his life) to established a Saudi Arabia kingdom on this earth where muslims can independently follow the peaceful rules & regulations of the religion Islam and worship to the one true God of this world. Today, it is the result(or fruits) of his efforts that millions of muslims from all around the world are going to Makkah for a peaceful (fearless) Umrah & Hajj annual pilgrimage. Lord of this universe protected prophet Mohammad and safeguarded him in all the wars & critical situations till his success , so that nobody call kill him. And at the age of 63years, he died in a normal death i.e he went back to his God. He told to his companions that he will meet them again, on the final day of Judgment(after Qayaamat).
He was such a great Prophet of Allah having a great superior characters/manners that when the people see his face for the first time, their hearts admit that this person cannot be a liar because he has so much blessing and rehmat on his face (granted by Allah). Many christian, Jews and other worshippers of fire etc all accepted him as the last messenger of God and became muslim. He hate people to stand up, upon his arrival. He never allowed people to call him as a King, but people used to call him respectfully as "Yaa Rasool Allah"(O Messenger of God). Even after becoming the ruler of the big Arabian peninsula and the entire Muslim's treasury was at his disposal but he did not constructed any royal palace for himself with gold , diamonds etc for his enjoyment. he was still living in his small old house, sometimes he used to be hungry and gives away available food to the beggars coming to his door step. Aa'isha, the prophet Muhammad's wife, said, "The mattress of the Prophet , on which he slept, was made of leather stuffed with the fiber of the date-palm tree.". He did not came to this world to enjoy the luxury of this world because (he knows that) God has already kept a marvelous palace for him, in the paradise. He came in this world to connect the people of this world to their true Lord, so that people should bend down(do sajda) in front of the almighty God Allah and seek forgiveness. In other words he removed millions of human beings from the darkness(of ignorance) towards the light (of Islam). Whoever followed his advice from the last 1400years gained the mercy of God. Hence God says in the holy Quran that " we have not sent you (in the world..O Mohammad) but as a mercy for the entire universe". http://quran.com/21/107
From Mohammad they did not get something new, simply returning to an old religion. In many ways Prophet Mohammad was calling people towards a one true God (not a new god) ,the God of Abraham, calling towards the one true faith, the faith of Ibrahim, he did not invented a new God, but he was following the same God of Adam, Ibrahim , Musa & Jesus(peace be upon them). Prophet Mohammad pbuh in every sense and term is a reformer.
In the holy Quran, the almighty God Allah asks prophet Mohammad pbuh to tell the people that: Allah has spoken the truth that, all people should follow the religion of prophet Ibrahim(Ahraham) Hanifa (Islamic Monotheism, i.e. he used to worship Allah Alone), and prophet Ibrahim did not associate any other God (or partner/wife/son etc) along with the almighty God Allah (i.e he was not a mushrik). http://quran.com/3/95
Prophet Mohammad pbuh sayings:
God has created all the human beings from one pair (of Adam & Hawa), so all people are same and alike(in front of God). But God gives importance to that person who follows all the orders of God (that are mentioned in the holy Quran) and follows the guidance given by the prophet Mohammad (pbuh). This is possible only if the person has more fear of God in his heart. God donot care whether a person belongs to a big family or a royal family (this is just for your identification), but he gives importance to a person who (without seeing God) fears with God and avoid all the bad activities. Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) told that God will not see ( or bother) about your faces and your wealth but God sees your hearts and your works (doing good works or bad works etc).
In the muslims religion(Islam) , there is no difference between people like black man and a fair man. All human beings are treated equally. Nobody has importance over other, but the person having more fear of God (doing more good works) is higher than the other person. Prophet Mohammad(pbuh, on the day of victory of Makkah) told to a huge gathering that, God has removed the ignorance of feeling proud full upon your big familes or big great grand fathers etc. But the human beings are of only two kinds now.
First type of human being is the one, who has more fear of God , does all good works and avoids all the bad activities. Such person has a very high value near God.
Second type of human being is the one, who is involved in all the bad activities having no fear of God (and does not believes in God's existence etc). Such people are very bad and worst in the eyes of God.
At other place it is mentioned that , a person belongs to which nation or which family is immaterial , because all of you are treated as the children of Adam, nobody has any priority over other, but the priority is given to a person who is more religious (following all the rules of the religion) and having more fear of God in his heart. A person can be identified as a bad person due to his bad talking, selfishness and uttering shameless words etc. Prophet Mohammad pbuh, used to like such persons who has more fear of God in their hearts.
Madinah City—Prophet Mohammad pbuh Last resting place. Green Tomb.
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Regards,
Husnain Nasir
Organization & Development Administrator.
Petrofac Saudi Arabia Ltd.
KARAN Utilities & Cogeneration Project JI-194,
Khursaniyah Gas Plant, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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