A 61 page secret note prepared by Academics has recommended the shifting of the grave of Prophet Mohammed in Saudi Arabia to an anonymous grave yard.
masjid-al-nabawi
This note is being considered by the Saudi Government for implementation.
Saudi Arabia follows a stricter version of Islam and it considers the veneration of an individual,Prophet Mohammed as sacrilegious.
“The controversial proposals are part of a consultation document by a leading Saudi academic which has been circulated among the supervisors of al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, where the remains of the Prophet are housed under the Green Dome, visited by millions of pilgrims and venerated as Islam’s second-holiest site.
The formal custodian of the mosque is Saudi Arabia’s ageing monarch King Abdullah.
The plans, brought to light by another Saudi academic who has exposed and criticised the destruction of holy places and artefacts in Mecca – the holiest site in the Muslim world – call for the destruction of chambers around the Prophet’s grave which are particularly venerated by Shia Muslims.
The 61-page document also calls for the removal of Mohammed’s remains to the nearby al-Baqi cemetery, where they would be interred anonymously.
There is no suggestion that any decision has been taken to act upon the plans. The Saudi government has in the past insisted that it treats any changes to Islam’s holiest sites with “the utmost seriousness”.
But such is the importance of the mosque to both Sunni and Shia Muslims that Dr Irfan al-Alawi warned that any attempt to carry out the work could spark unrest. It also runs the risk of inflaming sectarian tensions between the two branches of Islam, already running perilously high due to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
Hardline Saudi clerics have long preached that the country’s strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam – an offshoot of the Sunni tradition – prohibits the worship of any object or “saint”, a practice considered “shirq” or idolatrous.
Dr Alawi, director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, said: “People visit the chambers, which are the rooms where the Prophet’s family lived, and turn towards the burial chamber to pray.
“Now they want to prevent pilgrims from attending and venerating the tomb because they believe this is shirq, or idolatry. But the only way they can stop people visiting the Prophet is to get him out and into the cemetery.”
For centuries Muslim pilgrims have made their way to Mecca in order to visit the Kaaba – a black granite cubed building said to be built by Abraham, around which al-Masjid al-Haram, or the Grand Mosque, is built, and towards which every Muslim faces when they pray.”
In the 10th century, an observer described it as being one cubit (slightly over 1.5 feet (0.46 m)) long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring 1.5 yards (1.4 m) by 1.33 yards (1.22 m). According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was 42 inches (110 cm) high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being 2.5 feet (0.76 m) long by 1.5 feet (0.46 m) wide.[2]
The Black Stone was first described in Western literature in the 19th and early 20th centuries by European travellers in Arabia, who visitedthe Kaaba in the guise of pilgrims. Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book Travels in Arabia:
It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.[6]
The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.
Many lands and its people have forgotten their History.
Most of the histories of the Ancient Civilizations were either destroyed or doctored by the British to suit their Political aspirations and for the spreading
of Christianity
Vikramadhitya Empire
Starting from Africa,, Vikings.Pagans, Romans, Polynesian Islands, you would find that the ancient history of these people are either lost or at best very hazy.
Muslims did not lag behind in this quest for colonization and zeal to spread their Religion, Islam.
Recently I found that the traces of the ancient Religion of the Africans have been erased and you would find absolutely no information on their Religion
excepting about Christianity and Islam.
What little is known of the Great African Religion is doctored and is subject to some derogatory terms under the guise of describing it by
“Syncretization” and the like.
I posted an article on this.
Now it seems that Saudi Arabia is also on this list.
Nothing seems to be there that was before the advent of Islam.
Arabs are described even today as uncouth, use flowery language,indecisive and are generally unreliable.
As if to compensate this patronizingly it is stated that they are very hospitable. that’s all.
Please read any book that has a Middle East Character,including the much acclaimed ‘Oh!Jerusalem‘
People of Saudi Arabia seem to know nothing about their History sans the ones relating to Islam or during the Crusades!
They have taken to the description of their ancestors having been labelled a Nomads!
I have read some information on this subject and am sharing it here.
Seems to me that this tallies with the kingdoms and Land Mass describe din Hindu Purans.
”
Arabia is an abbreviation. The original word even today is Arbasthan. It originates in Arvasthan. As observed earlier Sanskrit “V” changes into “B”. Arva in Sanskrit means a horse. Arvasthan signifies a land of horses, and as we all know Arabia is famous for its horses.
In the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. a wave of effecting a complete break with the past spread over West Asia. All links with the past were broken, images smashed, scriptures destroyed, education discontinued and the entire West Asian region took a plunge in abysmal ignorance which lasted for centuries thereafter and perhaps persists to a certain extent even today because if in the whole world modern scientific and educational developments find stubborn and entrenched resistance anywhere it is in the West Asian countries. It is said that the late Saudi Arabia ruler could not permit a radio broadcasting station opened in his own capital because of opposition from his Maulavis. He then resorted to a stratagem. Once while he had his council of Maulavis in attendance he had a radio set switched on to a program of Koranic recitation broadcast from a small transmitting station set up earlier without much ado. The Maulavis were delighted, so goes the report, to hear the word of Allah coming to them as if from nowhere. The king told them that what objections could they have to a mechanism which broadcast the word of Allah. The Maulavis agreed and the small radio broadcasting project was at last ratified.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica and Séance Islamia the Arabs are ignorant of their own history of the pre-Muslim era. By a strange euphemism they call it a period of ignorance and darkness. Probably no other country in the world has deliberately written off a 2,500 year period of their own history by systematically stamping out and snapping all links with the past. They have wiped the memories of preMuslim era off their minds. So while they chose to remain ignorant of their past ironically enough it is they who dub the pre-Muslim era as a period of ignorance.
Fortunately we can still trace the history of that preIslamic Arabia. It is a well known adage that there is no such thing as foolproof destruction of all evidence. The pre-Islamic history of Arabia is the story of Indian Kshatriyas over that land, with the people following the Vedic way of life.
In our attempt to reconstruct the story of pre-Islamic Arabia we begin with the name of the country itself. As explained earlier the name is fully Sanskrit. Its central pilgrim centre, Mecca is also a Sanskrit name. Makha in Sanskrit signifies a sacrificial fire. Since Vedic fire worship was prevalent all over West Asia in pre-Islamic days Makha signifies the place which had an important shrine of fire worship.
Coinciding with the annual pilgrimage of huge bazaar used to spring up in Makha i.e. Mecca since times immemorial. The annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca is not at all an innovation but a continuation of the ancient pilgrimage. This fact is mentioned in encyclopedias.
VIKRAMADITYA
Evidence is now available that the whole of Arabia was part of the great Indian King Vikramaditya’s vast empire. The extent of Vikramaditya’s empire is one of the main reasons for his world wide fame. Incidentally this also explains many intriguing features about Arabia. It could be that Vikramaditya himself had this peninsula named Arvasthan if he was the first Indian monarch to capture it and bring it under his sway.
The second intriguing aspect is the existence of a Shivalinga or the Mahadeva emblem in the Kaaba shrine in Mecca. Before going into further details about the ancient Vedic rituals and names still clinging to Muslim worship at Mecca we shall see what evidence we have about Arabia having formed part of Vikramaditya’s dominions.
ANTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT ARABIC POETRY: SAYAR-UL-OKUL
In Istanbul in Turkey, there is a famous library called Makteb-e-Sultania which is reputed to have the largest collection of ancient West Asian literature. In the Arabic Section of that library is an anthology of ancient Arabic poetry. That anthology was compiled from an earlier work in A.D. 1742 under the orders of the Turkish ruler Sultan Salim.
The ‘pages’ of that volume are made of HAREER – a kind of silk used for writing on. Each page has a decorative gilded border. It may be recalled that gilding pages of sacred books is an ancient custom associated with old Sanskrit scriptures found in Java and other places. The anthology itself is known as SAYAR-UL-OKUL. It is divided into three parts, the first part contains biographic details and the poetic compositions of pre-Islamic Arabian poets. The second part embodies accounts and verses of poets of the period beginning just after Prophet Mohammad up to the end of Banee- Ummayya dynasty. The third part deals with later poets up to the end of Khalifa Harun-al-Rashid’s times. Incidentally “Banee” means “Vanee” and Ummayya as in Krishnayya are Sanskrit names.
Abu Amir Abdul Asamai, a distinguished Arabian bard who was the Poet Laureate of Harun-al-Rashid’s court has compiled and edited the anthology.
The first modern edition of Sayar-ul-Okul anthology was printed and published in Berlin in A.D. 1864. A subsequent edition was published in Beirut in A.D. 1932. This work is regarded as the most important and authoritative anthology of ancient Arabic poetry. It throws considerable light on the social life, customs, manners and entertainment forms in ancient Arabia. The book also contains an elaborate description of the ancient Mecca shrine, the town and the annual fair known as OKAJ which used to be held there every year. This should convince readers that the annual Haj of the Muslims to the Kaaba is only a continuation of the old fair and not a new practice.
But the OKAJ fair was far from a carnival. It provided a forum for the elite and learned to discuss the social, religious, political, literary and other aspects of the Vedic culture then pervading Arabia. Sayar-ul-Okul asserts that the conclusions reached at those discussions were widely respected throughout Arabia. Mecca, therefore, followed the Varanasi tradition of providing a seat for important discussions among the learned while the masses congregated there for spiritual bliss. The principal shrines at both Varanasi in India and at Mecca in Arvasthan were Shiva temples. Even to this day the central object of veneration at both Mecca and Varanasi continues to be the ancient Mahadeva emblems. It is the Shankara stone which Muslim pilgrims reverently touch and kiss in the Kaaba.
ENTRY OF NON-MUSLIMS FORBIDDEN
A few miles away from Mecca is a big signboard which forbids entry to any non-Muslim in the area. This is a reminder of the days when the Shrine was stormed and captured solely for the newly established faith of Islam. The object obviously was to prevent its recapture.
As the pilgrim proceeds towards Mecca he is asked to shave his head and beard and to don a special sacred attire. This consists of two seamless sheets of white cloth. One is to be worn round the waist and the other over the shoulders. Both these rites are remnants of the old Vedic practice of entering Hindu shrines, clean shaven and with holy seamless spotless white sheets.
The main shrine in Mecca which houses the Shiva emblem is known as the Kaaba. It is clothed in a black shroud. This custom could also originate from the days when it was thought necessary to discourage its recapture. According to encyclopedias Britannica and Islamia the Kaaba had 360 images. Traditional accounts mention that one of the deities among the 360 destroyed, when the shrine was stormed, was that ofSaturn, another was of the moon and yet another was one called Allah. In India the practice of Navagraha puja that is worship of the nine planets is still in vogue. Two of these nine are the Saturn and the moon. Besides, the moon is always associated with Lord Shankara. A Crescent is always painted across the forehead of the Shiva emblem. Since the presiding deity at the Kaaba shrine was Lord Shiva i.e. Shankara,the crescent was also painted on it. It is that crescent which is now adopted as a religious symbol of Islam. Another Hindu tradition is that wherever there is a Shiva shrine the sacred stream of Ganga that is the Ganges must also co-exist. True to that tradition a sacred fount exists near the Kasba. Its water is held sacred because it was regarded as but another Ganga since pre-Islamic times. Muslim pilgrims visiting the Kaaba shrine go around it seven times. In no other mosque does this perambulation prevail. Hindus invariably perambulate around their shrines. This is yet another proof that the Kaaba shrine is a pre-Islamic Shiva temple where the Hindu practice of perambulation is still meticulously observed.
‘According to tradition, Chandragupta II achieved power by assassinating a weak elder brother. Inheriting a large empire, he continued the policy of his father, Samudra Gupta, by extending control over neighbouring territories. From 388 to 409 he subjugated Gujarat, the region north of Bombay (Mumbai), Saurastra (now Saurashtra), in western India, and Malwa, with its capital at Ujjain. These territories were ruled by Shaka chiefs, whose ancestors were Scythian tribes from the regions around Lake Balkhash (Balqash) in Kazakhstan. To strengthen his southern flank, he arranged a marriage between his daughter Prabhavati and Rudrasena II, king of the Vakatakas. When Rudrasena died, Prabhavati acted as regent for her sons, thereby increasing Gupta influence in the south. The emperor may also have made a matrimonial alliance with a dynasty in Mysore. He is almost certainly the King Chandra eulogized in the Sanskrit inscription on the iron pillar in the Qūwat al-Islām mosque in Delhi.
I have been intrigued s to ow the Moon is sighted by The Muslims for Fasting during the Month of Ramadan, .
I checked up.
It seems a bit complicated.
I am quoting from sources which seem authentic .
**To further clarify this topic watch – Moon Sighting: a clarification here**
The issue of moon sighting has never been as divisive as it has become today. In the past, Muslim scholars agreed on a certain method to decide the start and end of the month of Ramadan. In the last few years, advancements in communications and media have turned the world into a small village creating a new context where matters concerning inter-countries relations are involved. A second new context may also be related to the presence of many Muslims in countries that lack one single Muslim authority. Resultantly, readily understood issues related to a number of Islamic rituals have now become controversial and confusing. This confusion is further fuelled by the influence of a Western lifestyle upon Muslims; generally speaking, Muslims are often accused of being anti-Western or even unscientific in their spheres of life. This can influence them to react emotionally and unreasonably. One such observable sphere in which many Muslims have reacted in this manner is with regard to moon-sighting and the establishment of the start of the month of Ramadan, ‘Id al-Fitrand ‘Id al–Adha.
Moon Sighting in Islam.
In this article, I would like to draw attention to specific principles in an attempt to remove misconceptions surrounding the ongoing debate. Shari’ah Principles related to the confirmation of the beginning of Ramadan and the ’Id I believe many readers will be aware of these principles yet some of them may not be aware of specific fundamental issues within them. In order to gain a deeper understanding we have to differentiate between the principles used by those in authority in any Muslim community including the Muslim nation [ummah] under the Caliph [khalifah] or other leaders in his absence, and the principles used by ordinary Muslims.
Leaders or those in charge are commanded to employ one of two principles. The first is to sight the moon with the eye. The basis for this doctrine is numerous Prophetic traditions [ahadith]; Abu Hurayrah relates that the Prophet, may Allah praise and send peace and blessings upon him, said, ‘Fast when you see it (i.e., the moon) and cease fasting when you see it, and if it is hidden or cloudy, complete the counting of Sha’ban as thirty days.’ This hadith is agreed upon by Al-Bukhari and Muslim; similar authentic ahadith are also recorded. The second principle applies only in the absence of the first, which is to complete thirty days for the month of Sha’ban. The basis for this is also the previous hadith and many other similar statements. It is worth noting that the overwhelming majority of scholars unanimously agreed upon using these two principles. {quotes}Furthermore, it has been stated by a number of scholars that the overwhelming majority of scholars also agreed not to consider astronomy or calculations as a tool to confirm the beginning of Ramadan or ’Id.{/quotes}
Scholars who quoted this consensus include al-Jassas al–Hanafi1, al-Baji al-Maliki2 Ibn Rushd al-Maliki3, al-Subki al-Shafi’i4, Ibn Taymiyyah5, Ibn ‘Abidin Al-Hanafi6 and others. They added that the effective cause [‘illah, ratio legis] for confirming these events is the visual sighting of the moon or the completion of the month of Sha’ban. This means that the only basis for fasting is one of these two principles.”
“Moonsighting.com calculates where moonsighting is possible for every month using the criteria, developed by Khalid Shaukat. Development of the criteria took decades of research using thousands of observations from different locations collected over a period of 170 years. These calculations “
How do Muslims in the Arctic sight the Moon when the Sun does not set?
The Atlantic has an interesting article on this.
As Hassan Ahmed, a Muslim resident who came to the city from Somalia and works at the Islamic Center of Northern Norway told me, “the sun doesn’t set. For 24 hours it’s in the middle of the sky.” Faced with the impossibility of adhering to the sunrise/sunset rule, Tromsø‘s Muslims must find alternative ways of determining when to fast. “We have a fatwa,” or clerical decree, Ahmed said. “We can correspond the fast to the closest Islamic country, or we can fast with Mecca.”
Sandra Maryam Moe, a Norwegian convert to Islam and manager of Tromsø’s community center and mosque, Alnor, echoed Ahmed’s statement: “since we have midnight sun during Ramadan this year, we’ve chosen to use the timetable for Mecca.” This means that if the sun rises in Mecca at 5:00 am, residents of Tromsø will begin the fast at 5 a.m. (Norwegian time). In addition to being a good symbolic choice, adhering to Mecca’s timetable, according to Moe, also provides a practical benefit: “they have very stable times for sunrise and sunset so that makes the prayers and the fasting quite balanced.”
So tonight at 7:07 — the time of the would-be-sunset — Muslims in Tromsø will gather at Alnor’s mosque, one of the northernmost in the world, and with the afternoon sun still shining through the windows, break the fast. Typically, this involves a combination of cuisines — from traditional dates to the rich, thick bread Norway is famous for. A nightly ritual during Ramadan, Moe says the gathering is very popular. “It’s full every night with people coming to join and break fast together and pray together. It’s a very social time throughout Ramadan.”
Mecca Relic Demolished ,Saudi Arabia.Saudi Arabia demolishes Islam relics.
Photographs obtained by The Independentreveal how workers with drills and mechanical diggers have started demolishing some Ottoman and Abbasid sections on the eastern side of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.
The building, which is also known as the Grand Mosque, is the holiest site in Islam because it contains the Kaaba – the point to which all Muslims face when praying. The columns are the last remaining sections of the mosque which date back more than a few hundred years and form the inner perimeter on the outskirts of the white marble floor surrounding the Kaaba.
The new photos, taken over the last few weeks, have caused alarm among archaeologists and come as Prince Charles – a long-term supporter of preserving architectural heritage – flew into Saudi Arabia yesterday for a visit with the Duchess of Cornwall. The timing of his tour has been criticised by human rights campaigners after the Saudis shot seven men in public earlier this week despite major concerns about their trial and the fact that some of the men were juveniles at the time of their alleged crimes.
Many of the Ottoman and Abbasid columns in Mecca were inscribed with intricate Arabic calligraphy marking the names of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions and key moments in his life. One column which is believed to have been ripped down is supposed to mark the spot where Muslims believe Muhammad began his heavenly journey on a winged horse, which took him to Jerusalem and heaven in a single night.
To accommodate the ever increasing number of pilgrims heading to the twin holy cities of Mecca and Medina each year the Saudi authorities have embarked upon a massive expansion project. Billions of pounds have been poured in to increase the capacity of the Masjid al-Haram and the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina which marks where Muhammad is buried. King Abdullah has put the prominent Wahabi cleric and imam of the Grand Mosque, Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, in charge of the expansion while the Saudi Binladin Group – one of the country’s largest firms – has won the construction contract.
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