Mecca Quotes

“A moral compass does not cease to function because one's surroundings are new and strange, or else it is no compass at all.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“What is done with one's vision of the past has enormous implications for how present realities are handled and the quality of idealism that can be applied to shaping the future.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“Archaeological evidence, however, is not our only source of insights into history. Our window into the past includes words as well as memories, what today is known as oral history. Learning about the past from words requires a kind of detective work. Humanity's written records are a jigsaw full of gaps that need to be filled. The gaps exist for no other reason than that writers of yesteryear were not writing for today's audiences. They had their own concerns, their own reasons to write, and no requirement to answer today's questions.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“Time is a dimension of human understanding, a challenge to our assumptions, imagination and our ability to make and, on occasion, break connections.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“It is a paradox of human dynamics, of how the progress of new ideas often rests on the survival of old ways.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“We live in an age of scepticism where the power of words as persuaders is continually and increasingly questioned. From advertising slogans and their glib promises to the endless examples of broken promises and failed utopias of political rhetoric, or indeed the murderous promises inspired and fulfilled on the basis of such rhetoric, we take words with a large pinch of reasonable doubt. We reach for alternative forms of corroboration. However, when other proofs are absent we are thrown back to the phrase that once ruled the London Stock Exchange: 'My word is my bond'. An assessment of human nature - the quality, character and actions of a person - is what determines the probability whether verbal claims are credible. The word is indeed our last resort.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“There is no objective test for divine revelation, no forensic evidence to evaluate. Even for the believer it is an experience beyond normal comprehension. It is, as T.S. Eliot put it, the intersection of the timeless with time. Mortals on occasion may, perhaps, catch transient glimpses that give intimations of this profound experience, which is the theme of Eliot's poem The Four Quartets.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“How you get here is immaterial, it's being here that really matters.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“The Sanctuary and its deities were the main source of the city’s income. Visitors paid to enter the city. They had to buy the correct apparel to perform rituals in the Sanctuary. They had to pay again to acquire offerings for the gods. Mecca was not just one of the world’s oldest shrines, it was a citadel for capitalism. The people who oiled the wheels of Meccan religious life were known as Hums.”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City

“the Quraysh leadership and remained”
― Ziauddin Sardar, Mecca: The Sacred City