Humans had forgotten their humanity, along with many other things.
It had disappeared into a well as deep as the ocean, as dark as the night.
What fell in there first were justice, truthfulness, mercy…
Yes, the world needed a new teacher, a new prophet.
A prophet who was going to remind humans all they had forgotten; answer all questions; clean their hearts.
Why Makkah?
They say the darker the night is, the lighter the morning will be. In the year 571, the sun finally rose in Makkah.
The last Prophet was born.
You may ask the question, “Why Makkah?”
You may wonder, “Why was the Prophet born in the desert, in a small city?”
It is true that Makkah was just like an ordinary city in the Arabian Peninsula. Situated in a warm, dry, infertile valley, unsuitable for farming and unpleasant to the eyes.
But it had a feature different from all the other cities in the world:
THE KA’BAH!
The mother of cities
The Ka’bah, the first house of worship made for God, was in Makkah. For this reason, Makkah was considered the mother of cities. Allah mentions Makkah in the holy Qur’an:
This is a blessed Scripture that We have sent down to confirm what came before it and for you to warn the Mother of Cities and all around it.
Surah Al-An‘am 6:92
The Ka’bah was made by Adam, the first human and first prophet. Over time it had collapsed and been lost. However, Allah ordered Prophet Abraham to rebuild it.
Long centuries came and went and the Ka’bah became an important site throughout Arabia.
However, the Ka’bah, ‘Allah’s house’ (Baitullah), became ‘the house of idols’ instead!
At the time of the Prophet Muhammad the people of Makkah knew of Allah’s existence but they put large and small idols made out of wood, stone, clay, and soil between themselves and Him.
They asked for things they needed from the idols that they made with their own hands. Not directly from Allah
When they were scared, they would seek refuge in their idols, not in Allah.
When they set out on a journey, they would take the idols they had made out of halva (a sweet) with them and, when they got hungry, they would eat the idols that they had worshipped shortly before.
Supposedly, the idols drew them closer to Allah. Yet what they were doing was distancing themselves from Him.
The people who filled the Ka’bah with idols had hearts as dry as the desert and as hard as stone.
Their fathers buried their daughters alive in the earth.
Known or unknown, every type of corruption was an ordinary thing…
This was the place where the night of ignorance was darkest.
And the brightest sun since the creation of the earth was going to rise in this dark place; and shortly after it had risen, was going to astonish the whole world.
The sun that rose in Makkah
Since Prophet Adam, the Ka’bah has been was the place to worship Allah alone as God, asking only Him for the things we need, seeking refuge in Him alone when we’re scared and only being scared of Him.
Which is why if a cleaning up of idols was going to take place on earth, this had to start with the Ka’bah in Makkah.
The flag rises from where it falls.
Makkah was the mother of cities.
Allah’s house, the Ka’bah was there.
When the Prophet reached the age of forty, Allah sent the Angel Gabriel to him. Thus, his mission as a prophet began. The verses of the Qur’an were revealed to him for exactly twenty-three years.
During these twenty-three years, the Prophet, with the help of Allah, did many great things that weren’t granted to anyone else in the history of the world.
The Ka’bah was cleaned of idols. Just as in the day of Prophet Abraham, Allah’s masjid was on earth again.
However, before the Ka’bah, people’s hearts and minds were cleaned of idols.
From those stone hearts, fountains of faith flowed after the Prophet’s one look, one word, and one touch.
Those chests as dry and dusty as the desert turned into gardens with beds of roses.
The people abandoned all bad habits with his one word.
These were great things!
You see how much effort goes into making people give up a small habit such as smoking despite the danger to their health, but they remain unsuccessful!
The Prophet didn’t stop at making them leave their bad habits but also replaced them with good ones.
Those people that buried their daughters alive were now being careful not to kiss their sons more than their daughters. Because the Prophet amongst them told people to be fair, even when it came to kissing their children.
They threw away the jars of alcohol that they were drinking when they heard the order, “Allah banned it!”
Instead of taking someone’s belongings against their will, they gave their own belongings to the poor.
The hungry were fed, the naked were clothed.
A bridge of brotherhood was being formed between the rich and the poor.
Ordinary people in the streets of Makkah and Madinah turned into stars.
Those stars were the friends of the Prophet.
We call them the companions.
The sun that rose in the mother of cities, Makkah, enlightened their hearts first.
Then this light dazzled the whole world’s eyes…
