that founded the city of Yathrib, later to be known as Medina. Blessed by much underground water, the plain of Yathrib, lying between the ranges of the Sarat Mountains, became the site of a prosperous community. But its people disobeyed God and so were punished by natural calamities such as pestilence, and also the Prophet Moses sent an army to punish them. Centuries later, Jews, probably fleeing from Nebuchadnezzar, migrated to Yathrib and formed the community whose descendants the Prophet of Islam was to meet upon his migration to that city.
According to Arab custom going back to the earliest known historical period, it was forbidden to fight in the vicinity of the Ka’bah. Another branch of the Amaliq, taking advantage of the fact that the descendants of Ishmael (Ismail), the custodians of the Ka’bah, would not engage them in battle there, attacked them and drove them out. The descendants of Ismail took refuge in the gorges around Mecca as nomads, some wandering to other parts of Arabia and others remaining close to the House of God erected by their ancestors Abraham and Ishmael (Ismail). Gradually, Mecca grew in stature as the chief sanctuary of Arabia, and tribes would come from every corner of the peninsula to pray in and around the Ka’bah, which had by now become defiled, from the Islamic point of view, with idols of various tribes, the original significance of the structure as the House of the One God eclipsed and forgotten by the majority save the few who, however, remained attached to Abrahamic monotheism and whom Islam calls the hunafa or “primordialists”. It was also as a result of the presence of these idols that Jews ceased to visit the Ka’bah. The structure of the Ka’bah remained unchanged, however, and it was rebuilt exactly as it was before by the Amaliq after a flood inundated and destroyed it. What changed over the centuries was that floods brought sedimentation from adjacent hills, which raised the ground around the Ka’bah to such an extent that the original mound upon which Abraham had built the Ka’bah was no longer visible.
It was the victory of the Jurhum tribe from the Yemen over the Amaliq and their conquest of Mecca that accentuated polytheism in the Sacred City. But they were, in turn, defeated by the Khuza’ah, an Arab tribe of Ismailite descent, which had migrated to the Yemen and then returned north. The Amaliq did not leave Mecca, however, without seeking to ravage it, including among their actions the burial of the spring of Zamzam. In entering Mecca, the Khuza’ah continued to protect the city as a center of pilgrimage for the Arab tribes, and themselves brought the famous idol Hubal, which they placed within the Ka’bah and which they made the chief idol of Mecca.
The Quraysh, the Hashimites and the Birth of the Prophet
Around the fourth or fifth Christian century, another Ismailite tribe, the Quraysh, one of whose members was to be chosen as the final prophet of God, began to gain ascendance in Mecca. One of their members, Qusayy, married the daughter of the chief of the Khuza’ah tribe and later became the ruler of Mecca and custodian of the Ka’bah. He ruled over both the Quraysh who lived near the sanctuary and those farther away. He was a capable ruler and it is said that it was he who built the city of Mecca in the form of concentric circles around the Ka’bah with the inhabitants of each circle being determined by their social rank, with those of higher rank living closer to the “Ancient House”. This original plan of the city lasted into the historical period and traces could be found until the advent of the urban development of recent decades.
The grandson of Qusayy was named Hashim, after whom the clan of the Prophet, the Hashimite, is named. Hashim was also a competent ruler and succeeded in making Mecca prosperous by expanding trade routes through the city. He married Salma, one of the most influential women of Yathrib of the tribe of Khazraj, and from this union was born Shaybah. Brought up originally by his mother in Yathrib, he was taken to Mecca upon the death of his father by his uncle Muttalib. Since he was riding behind his uncle in entering the city, he was called in error Abd al-Muttalib (the slave of Muttalib), a name with which he came to be identified. This remarkable figure of great spiritual stature and statesmanship finally became the ruler of Mecca.
Prayers in the evening of Laylat al-Qadr, normally celebrated on the 27th of Ramadan.
Sholat di malam Laylatul Kadar, biasanya dirayakan pada tanggal 27 Ramadhan.
Once, while sleeping by the area adjacent to the Ka’bah known as Hijr Ismail, he dreamt that he should dig for the spring of Zamzam buried long before by the Amaliq. The dream occurred twice, and so Abd al-Muttalib began to circumambulate the Ka’bah. After completing this ancient ritual, he saw a number of birds strutting to a place a hundred yards away from the Ka’bah. And so he began to dig in that spot to which he was led by the sign from Heaven. Soon, the long-lost spring of Zamzam gushed forth as if foretelling of the reassertion of primordial monotheism and the reconsecration of the Ka’bah to the One in the near future. The tribe of Hashim was given the right of supervision over the water of the Zamzam, a privilege whose significance can hardly be overemphasized.
Abd al-Muttalib had vowed that if he were to have ten sons, he would sacrifice one of them to God to whom he, as a hanif, always prayed, never bowing before the idols of Mecca. After the drawing of lots, Abd Allah, his most beloved son, was chosen for sacrifice but his mother, Fatimah, from the powerful Makhzum tribe, was opposed to this act. After much consultation and prayer, Abd al-Muttalib agreed to sacrifice a hundred camels instead. The future father of the Prophet of Islam was thereby saved and Abd Allah who, because of his physical beauty was called the Joseph of his time, was married in 569 according to his father’s choice to Aminah, a descendant of the brother of Qusayy.
There lived at that time a hanif in Mecca by the name of Waraqah who had become a Christian. A holy man in touch with other Christians of the region, he declared that the coming of a new prophet was imminent. The rabbis had also believed in this news but they considered the new prophet to be a descendant of Isaac while Waraqah thought that he could be an Arab. Before the marriage ceremony, as Abd Allah and his father Abd al-Muttalib were walking toward the place where the ceremony was to take place, the beautiful and pious sister of Waraqah, Qutaylah, was standing at the door of her house. She saw Abd Allah and became startled by the light in his face which she knew to be the light of prophecy. She offered herself in marriage to him for the hundred camels that were sacrificed by his father in his place, but Abd Allah could not disobey his father and therefore refused the offer. After the consummation of the marriage, the next day when Abd Allah saw Qutaylah again she showed no interest in him, and when he asked the cause she said that the light in his face had disappeared. That light was to manifest itself in the being of the child who was conceived the night before. But Abd Allah did not live long enough to see his son Muhammad, who was born in the Year of the Elephant, that is 570, as an orphan.
That year was indeed a momentous one for Mecca, Arabia and ultimately most of the world. The Christian ruler of Abyssinia, Abrahah, had conquered the Yemen and built a cathedral in San’a with the hope that this monument would replace Mecca as the center of religious activity in Arabia, but the cathedral was defiled by a member of the Kinanah tribe who managed to escape to safety. Abrahah thus decided to take revenge upon Mecca by razing the Ka’bah to the ground. He assembled a vast army with an elephant leading in front. Approaching Mecca, he asked for the leader of the Quraysh to come out to meet him, saying that he had nothing against the people of the city but wanted only to destroy the Ka’bah. Abd al-Muttalib came out to meet him, and to the great surprise of the latter did not ask for the Ka’bah to be saved but only for his camels, taken by Abrahah’s soldiers, to be given back. When Abrahah asked why this was his only demand, Abd al-Muttalib said that he was responsible only for his camels and that the Lord of the Ka’bah would take care of his own House. Abd al-Muttalib then returned to the Ka’bah, asking God for help and then left with all the Meccans to the adjacent hills.
Abrahah then decided to march upon Mecca, but near the city the elephant in front of the army refused to move and simply sat on the ground. No amount of beating could change its will. Suddenly, the sky turned black and a cloud of birds appeared, which pelted the army, killing most of the soldiers, the rest fleeing back to the Yemen. Hence the year, so famous
