Why Mecca?
Why is a pilgrimage to Mecca one of the Five Pillars? How did it become the holiest city in the Islamic religion? Where is it? What do Muslims do when they get there? To find out the answers to these questions read on.
Mecca is located in modern day Saudi Arabia with a history that goes back four thousand years when the valley was called Baca. It was a dry uninhabited until Abraham, according to Muslim beliefs, was instructed by God to bring Hagar his wife and his son to her, Ishmael to the desolate place from Palestine. Out of food and water Hagar took her son in search of survival when Ishmael struck his foot on the ground and water appeared thus saving them. Muslims believe that Ishmael and not Isaac as the Bible indicates was the son that God told Abraham to sacrifice and claim that the writers of the Bible changed which son saved by God providing a sacrificial lamb to replace his son.
The pilgrimage to the Kaaba was reference in the Bible by King David in the Psalm 84:4-6
4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
Mostly because of the continuous flow of water that still runs after four thousand years, Mecca became an important city in the middle of the desert. It became a stop for caravans that traversed Arabia – route from Yemen and India through Syria and Europe. The prophet Abraham was then instructed to build a shrine to God in the Valley of Baca. The Muslim belief is that the location of this shrine is in the center of Mecca and marked by a structure called the Kaaba that is 40 feet on each side and 50 feet high made of bricks and covered by black cloth embroidered by gold thread. The Kaaba is surrounded by Islam’s most sacred mosque called the Masjid al-Haram. During the pilgrimage Muslims must visit the Kaaba and walk counter-clockwise seven times around the shrine.
In more recent times, Mecca was the birthplace of Muhammad who is universally accepted by Muslims as the last prophet sent by Allah to deliver his word. In addition to his birthplace, Mecca is the location where he first received the Quran.
I hope this blog doesn’t prompt your interest enough to plan a vsit to the holy city – unless you are Muslim. Non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city.
