The Ka‘bah seen from the southeast, the direction of Yemen.
Prayers in the evening of Laylat-al Qadr.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
A book project realized with the support of Thaara International, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Photography and captions copyright © 1997; 2013 by Ali Kazuyoshi Nomachi represented by Crevis Company Limited
Text copyright ©1997 by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owners and the above publisher of the book.
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1365-7 (ebook)
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A number of pilgrims gain the special opportunity of standing before the door of the Ka‘bah in prayer. Every year during the Hajj season this golden door is opened by the governor of Mecca and washed with perfume. To enter the Ka‘bah is a very rare honor and privilege bestowed upon only a few dignitaries each year.
Pilgrims at Jabal Uhud, north of Medina, before dawn. It was here that on 23 March 625 (AH 3) the Islamic army led by the Blessed Prophet suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Meccan army in a major battle of the early history of Islam during which the Prophet himself was injured.
CONTENTS
Tawaf or circumambulation around the Ka‘bah. Tawaf is a required part of the Hajj and must be performed seven times counter-clockwise starting at the southeastern corner of the Ka‘bah where the Black Stone, symbol of the original covenant between God and man, is embedded.
The Holiest Cities of Islam
“And this is a Book which We have sent down full of blessings and confirming what [was revealed] before it: that thou mayest warn the Mother of Cities [Umm al-qura—Mecca] and its surroundings. Those who believe in the hereafter believe herein and they are constant in their prayers.”
—Qur’an, vi: 92, trans. Yusuf Ali, modified
“Medina is best for them if they only knew. No one leaves it through dislike of it without God putting in it someone better than he in place of him, and no one will remain there in spite of its hardship and distress without my being an intercessor on his behalf on the day of resurrection.”
—Saying (hadith) of the Prophet of Islam, in Muhammad ibn Abd Allah Khatib al-Tibrizi, Mishkat al-Masabih, trans. James Robson, Lahore: Muhammad Ashraf, 1981, pp. 586–7
Two events, which in fact are two aspects of the same reality, cast the cities of Mecca (Makkah) and Medina (Madinah) in a short period upon the pages of world history. These events were the birth in AD 570, the maturity and prophethood
