Yusuf Estes Tells Christians
About ' Bakkah' & ' Makkah ''
We try to use any question to expose the proper dawah to Christians and Jews
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Question (from a reader):
In a report I want to do about Bible & Quran,
i want to know if there is any connection between what we
know in the Bible about Abraham and his wife Hagar and their
son going off to Arabia to a place called "Bacca" (Bible) or is it
related to the place called "Mecca" (Arabic?)
My friend tried to tell me it is in the Quran and a place of
prophets of Israel or something. Please clarify if you can.
Thanks.
Answer (from Yusuf Estes):
Here is what we find on your subject of the words
Let us know if it helps you or if you have other questions.
We are here to help clear up misunderstandings and
misconceptions about Islam and the Muslims.
BAKKAH - MAKKAH
Bacca - Mecca
Bakkah (Arabic: بكة) is one of the ancient names for what we call today : Mecca [Makkah].
This is now the most holy city of Islam. Most people believe they are
synonyms, but for Muslim scholars there is a distinction:
Scholars have said 'Bakkah' refers to the Kaaba and the sacred site
immediately surrounding it, while 'Mecca' is the name of the city in
which they are both located. The word 'Bakkah' is actually mentioned
in chapter 3 (Surah Al Imran), ayah 96 of the Quran. It says it is very
location of the first place of worship to the One God (Allah).
It is also identified with the Biblical
" valley of Baca " from Psalms 84 (Hebrew: בך).
Photo of Inside Kabbah
http://www.islamnewsroom.com/news-we-need/1961 Bakkah
Actually Bakkah (also transliterated
Baca, Baka, Bakah, Bakka, Becca, Bekka, etc.)
is the ancient name for the site of today's Mecca.
An Arabic language word, its etymology,
like that of Mecca is still preserved for us today.
One meaning suggested is; "narrow". This was seen as descriptive
of the area in which the valley of the holy places and the city of
Mecca are located, pressed in upon as they are by mountains.
Kabbah
Widely believed to be a synonym for Mecca,
it is said to be more specifically the early name for the
valley located therein, while Muslim scholars generally
use it to refer to the sacred area of the city that
immediately surrounds and includes the Holy Kabbah.
Inside Haram Facing Kabbah
Quran
The form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran
in chapter 3 (Surah Al Imran), ayah 96,
while the form Makkah is used in chapter 48, ayah 24.
Regarding the usage of the two different letters,
'B' And 'M' there is an opinion, the language in use in the
southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad,
the letter 'B' and the letter 'M' were sometimes interchangeable.
The Quran uses ' Bakkah ' as
"The first sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Bakkah,
a blessed place, a guidance for the peoples.
" Other references to Mecca in the Quran (6:92, 42:5)
call it Umm al-Qura, means "mother of all settlements."
Bible Story
According to Islamic teachings,
Bakkah is where Hajjar and Ishmael (Arabic: Ismail)
settled after being taken by Abraham (Arabic: Ibrahim)
to the wilderness, a story also narrated in the first of the Old Testament of the Bible, the Book of Genesis
(21:14-21). We learn what happened after Hajjar and
Ishmael ran out of water to drink. In hadith (narration
of prophet Muhammad), Hajjar runs back and forth
between two elevated points of Safa and Marwa seven
times in search of a caravan or someone to help, and
she is praying to Allah for help. About this same time
the angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic) appears and speaks
as recorded in Genesis 21:17-19:
God hears the cry of the boy,
and the angel of God calls to Hjjar from heaven and said to her,
'What troubles you, Hajjar? Fear not,
for God has heeded the cry of the boy where he is.
Come, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand,
for I will make a great nation of him.
' Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.
She went and filled the skin with water and let the boy drink.
Zam Zam Well
Hadith (narration) of the prophet, peace be upon him,
tells us a spring gushed forth from the spot where Hajjar had laid Ishmael,
and this spring came to be known as the Well of Zamzam.
When Muslims on hajj go between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times,
it is to commemorate Hajjar's search for help and the resulting revelation of the well of Zamzam.
It is also believed Hajjar and Ishamel stayed there in Bakkah,
and the Quran tells us Abraham came to Mecca to help his son Ishmael
build Kabbah near to the well of Zam Zam.
Lord of Bakka (in Hebrew)
Ibn Ishaq, the 8th century Arab Muslim historian,
relates that during the renovation of Kaaba undertaken by Muhammad,
the prophet of Islam, in 605 CE, the Quraysh found an inscription in one of the corners of the
foundation of the building that mentions Bakkah.
Composed in Syriac, it was incomprehensible to the Quraysh until a Jew translated it for them as
follows: "I am Allah, the Lord of Bakka. I created it on the day I created he
aven and earth and formed the sun and the moon,
and I surrounded it with seven pious angels.
It will stand while its two mountains stand,
a blessing to its people with milk and water.
" The name Bakkah is woven into the kiswa,
the cloth covering the Kaaba that is replaced each year before the Hajj.
Valley of Baca
The Valley of Baca is mentioned in Psalm 84 of the Bible in the following passage:
How lovely is Your dwelling-place,
O Lord of Hosts. I long, I yearn for the courts of the Lord ;
my body and soul shout for joy to the living God ...
Happy are those who dwell in Your house;
they forever praise You. Happy is the man who finds refuge in You,
whose mind is on the [pilgrim] highways.
They pass through the Valley of Baca,
regarding it as a place of springs, as if the early rain had covered it with blessing ...
Better one day in Your courts than a thousand [anywhere else];
I would rather stand at the threshold of God's house than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
The original Hebrew language phrase for the Valley of Baca is emeq ha-Baka.
It can also be translated as "Valley of the Balsam Tree" or "Valley of the Weeper".
This otherwise unidentified valley has been connected to Bakkah by Islamic writers.
[ Aqsa Mosque] It is the second mosque on earth
after the Sacred Mosque of Makkah according to the hadith
narrated by Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih,
on the authority of Abu Dharr:
"I asked Allah's Messenger which mosque was first placed on earth?
He answered, 'The Sacred Mosque.'
Then I asked which came next? He replied,
'The Aqsa Mosque.' Then I asked how long it was between the founding of the two?
He answered, 'Forty years.'"
[1]Hadith 3322 Sahih Bukhari.
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