Kaaba Quotes

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not. I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there. I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not. With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation. Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even. Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range. I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court. Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.

The word, 'cube', comes directly from the Arabic, Kaaba.

Fasting By Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 - 1273) English version by Coleman Barks There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness. We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything, no music. If the brain and belly are burning clean with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire. The fog clears, and new energy makes you run up the steps in front of you. Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry. Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen. When you're full of food and drink, Satan sits where your spirit should, an ugly metal statue in place of the Kaaba. When you fast, good habits gather like friends who want to help. Fasting is Solomon's ring. Don't give it to some illusion and lose your power, but even if you have, if you've lost all will and control, they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing out of the ground, pennants flying above them. A table descends to your tents, Jesus' table. Expect to see it, when you fast, this table spread with other food, better than the broth of cabbages.

Balanced atop the highest spire of the Salt Lake Temple, gleaming in the Utah sun, a statue of the angel Moroni stands watch over downtown Salt Lake City with his golden trumpet raised. This massive granite edifice is the spiritual and temporal nexus of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), which presents itself as the world's only true religion. Temple Square is to Mormons what the Vatican is to Catholics, or the Kaaba in Mecca is to Muslims. At last count there were more than eleven million Saints the world over, and Mormonism is the fastest-growing faith in the Western Hemisphere. At present in the United States there are more Mormons than Presbyterians or Episcopalians. On the planet as a whole, there are now more Mormons than Jews. Mormonism is considered in some sober academic circles to be well on its way to becoming a major world religion--the first such faith to emerge since Islam.

My heart has opened unto every form: it is a pasture for gazelles, a cloister for Christian monks, a temple for idols, the Kaaba of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah and the book of Quran. I practice the religion of Love; in whatsoever directions its caravans advance, the religion of Love shall be my religion and my faith.

As you circumambulate and move closer to Kaaba, you feel like a small stream merging with a big river. As you approach the center, the pressure of the crowd squeezes you so hard that you are given a new life. You are now a part of the people; you are now a man alive and eternal!

In 1979, while Saudi Arabia was in the midst of a process of liberalization, a group of religious fanatics seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The Masjid al-Haram houses the kaaba, considered the holiest sitefor Muslims. This incident was a national trauma and transformative for al Saud, who reacted to it with an increased religious traditionalism enforced by the government and spearheaded by the ulama. Ambassador Smith credited a clear transformation to what occurred in 1979. “Saudi Arabia started going ultraconservative after the takeover of the Holy Mosque.

The sudden and total disappearance of Mawlana aroused resentment among his disciples and students, some of them becoming highly critical of Hazrat Shams, even threatening him. They believed Hazrat Shams had ruined their spiritual circle and prevented them from listening to Mawlana's sermons. In March of 1246 he left Konya and went to Syria without warning. After he left, Mawlana was grief stricken, secluding himself even more rather than engaging with his disciples and students. He was without a doubt furious with them. Realising the error of their ways, they repeatedly repented before Mawlana. Some months later, news arrived that Hazrat Shams had been seen in Damascus and a letter was sent to him with apologising for the behaviour of these disciples. Hazrat Sultan Walad and a search party were sent to Damascus to invite him back and in April 1247, he made his return. During the return journey, he invited Hazrat Sultan Walad to ride on horseback although he declined, choosing instead to walk alongside him, explaining that as a servant, he could not ride in the presence of such a king. Hazrat Shams was received back with joyous celebration with sama ceremonies being held for several days, and all those that had shown him resentment tearfully asked for his forgiveness. He reserved special praise for Hazrat Sultan Walad for his selflessness, which greatly pleased Mawlana. As he originally had no intention to return to Konya, he most likely would not have returned if Hazrat Sultan Walad had not himself gone to Damascus in search of him. After his return, he and Mawlana Rumi returned to their intense discussions. Referring to the disciples, Hazrat Shams narrates that their new found love for him was motivated only by desperation: “ They felt jealous because they supposed, "If he were not here, Mowlana would be happy with us." Now [that I am back] he belongs to all. They gave it a try and things got worse, and they got no consolation from Mowlana. They lost even what they had, so that even the enmity (hava, against Shams) that had swirled in their heads disappeared. And now they are happy and they show me honor and pray for me. (Maqalat 72) ” Referring to his absence, he explains that he left for the sake of Mawlana Rumi's development: “ I'd go away fifty times for your betterment. My going away is all for the sake of your development. Otherwise it makes no difference to me whether I'm in Anatolia or Syria, at the Kaaba or in Istanbul, except, of course, that separation matures and refines you. (Maqalat 164) ” After a while, by the end of 1247, he was married to Kimia, a young woman who’d grown up in Mawlana Rumi's household. Sadly, Kimia did not live long after the marriage and passed away upon falling ill after a stroll in the garden

It is curious to note the widest read belief in antiquity that the omphalos had fallen from the sky, and an accurate idea of the sentiment of the Greeks regarding this stone can be had by saying it was somewhat similar to the sentiment Muslims feel with regard to the sacred black stone of the Kaaba.

The differences between religions are reflected very clearly in the different forms of sacred art: compared with Gothic art, above all in its “flamboyant” style, Islamic art is contemplative rather than volitive: it is “intellectual” and not “dramatic”, and it opposes the cold beauty of geometrical design to the mystical heroism of cathedrals. Islam is the perspective of “omnipresence” (“God is everywhere”), which coincides with that of “simultaneity” (“Truth has always been”); it aims at avoiding any “particularization” or “condensation”, any “unique fact” in time and space, although as a religion it necessarily includes an aspect of “unique fact”, without which it would be ineffective or even absurd. In other words Islam aims at what is “everywhere center”, and this is why, symbolically speaking, it replaces the cross with the cube or the woven fabric: it “decentralizes” and “universalizes” to the greatest possible extent, in the realm of art as in that of doctrine; it is opposed to any individualist mode and hence to any “personalist” mysticism. To express ourselves in geometrical terms, we could say that a point which seeks to be unique, and which thus becomes an absolute center, appears to Islam—in art as in theology—as a usurpation of the divine absoluteness and therefore as an “association” (shirk); there is only one single center, God, whence the prohibition against “centralizing” images, especially statues; even the Prophet, the human center of the tradition, has no right to a “Christic uniqueness” and is “decentralized” by the series of other Prophets; the same is true of Islam—or the Koran—which is similarly integrated in a universal “fabric” and a cosmic “rhythm”, having been preceded by other religions—or other “Books”—which it merely restores. The Kaaba, center of the Muslim world, becomes space as soon as one is inside the building: the ritual direction of prayer is then projected toward the four cardinal points. If Christianity is like a central fire, Islam on the contrary resembles a blanket of snow, at once unifying and leveling and having its center everywhere.

To summarize all of this, we have the following: (1) Archaeologists discovered 7 pits for boats around the Great Pyramid. (2) The longest of which is 44 meters; it is called the solar barque. (3) That boat (hypothetically speaking) needs [230/44]*4 steps to complete one single rotation (which looks like a square around the pyramid). (4) It therefore covers a distance which equals to the pyramid's height if it completes seven full rotations around the pyramid's base. (5) This mimics the application of Kaaba; even though the Kaaba has no dimensional merit for its structure (according to pure orthodox Islamic tradition) but the number seven is dominant and serves as an evidence that Egypt tried to plagiarize Adam's heritage and remodeled its theology accordingly.

Respect the people who are worshipping and praying. And when you go to the mosque, worship the way people are worshipping there. And when you go to the church or the synagogue, worship the way people are worshipping there. This is my approach too. All prayers are good. All prayers reach to him, and all paths ultimately end in him. There is no need to create any antagonism. To my sannyasins this is my message: If you want a silent, isolated place, a temple or a church or a mosque, then whichever is close by, enter there. All temples and all churches and all mosques are yours. Claim that ”Whichever place is dedicated to God is ours. Jerusalem and Kaaba and Kailash and Girnar – all are ours.” I give you all the temples of the world as yours and all the scriptures of the world as yours.

Ibn-Ishaq tells how it happened: “When Muhammad saw that his own people turned their backs on him, he was pained by their estrangement from what he brought them from God, and longed for a message that would reconcile him with his own people. He would gladly have seen those things that bore down harshly on them softened, so much so that he kept saying it to himself, fervently wishing for such an outcome. Then God revealed Sura 53, beginning with ‘By the star when it sets, your comrade does not err, nor is he deceived, nor does he speak out of his own caprice.’ But when Muhammad reached the words ‘Have you thought on Lat and Uzza, and the third one, Manat?’10 Satan added this upon his tongue: ‘These are the three great exalted birds, and their intercession is desired indeed.’” And here they were: the infamous Satanic Verses. The three “daughters of God” were no longer false gods, but giant high-flying birds covering the earth with their wingspans, graced with the power to intercede for those who worshipped them. The moment Muhammad recited these newly revealed verses in the Kaaba precinct, the response was overwhelmingly positive. “When they heard them, people rejoiced and were delighted,” ibn-Ishaq

Last Night My Soul Cried O Exalted Sphere Of Heaven Last night my soul cried, “O exalted sphere of Heaven, you hang indeed inverted, with flames in your belly. “Without sin and crime, eternally revolving upon your body in its complaining is the indigo of mourning; “Now happy, now unhappy, like Abraham in the fire; at once king and beggar like Ebrahim-e Adham. “In your form you are terrifying, yet your state is full of anguish: you turn round like a millstone and writhe like a snake.” Heaven the blessed replied, “How should I not fear that one who makes the Paradise of the world as Hell? “In his hand earth is as wax, he makes it Zangi and Rumi , he makes it falcon and owl, he makes it sugar and poison. “He is hidden, friend, and has set us forth thus patent so that he may become concealed. “How should the ocean of the world be concealed under straws? The straws have been set adancing, the waves tumbling up and down’ “Your body is like the land floating on the waters of the soul; your soul is veiled in the body alike in wedding feast or sorrow. “In the veil you are a new bride, hot-tempered and obstinate; he is railing sweetly at the good and the bad of the world. “Through him the earth is a green meadow, the heavens are unresting; on every side through him a fortunate one pardoned and preserved. “Reason a seeker of certainty through him, patience a seeker of help through him, love seeing the unseen through him, earth taking the form of Adam through him. “Air seeking and searching, water hand-washing, we Messiah-like speaking, earth Mary-like silent. “Behold the sea with its billows circling round the earthy ship; behold Kaabas and Meccas at the bottom of this well of Zamzam!” The king says, “Be silent, do not cast yourself into the well, for you do not know how to make a bucket and a rope out of my withered stumps.

And I was my own Ka'aba.

Remember that the Bennu bird came from Arabia, and this is where the black stone -which is the cornerstone of the Kaaba- exists on Earth. Most of the pyramidia which were discovered in ancient Egypt were made of black granite. The ancient Egyptian symbolism tried to reproduce Adam's heritage according to the same theme and yet on its own location and for its own bloodline aspiring thereby to assume the role of Noah's heir. The sole function of the black capstone/cornerstone was to pinpoint/receive the Messenger with the tidings which he carried; once that role was fulfilled, the stone was rendered operative only on the parallel domain of authority (i.e., Solar System and/or Political) and no more as a portal to the perpendicular (i.e., Upper Heavens). It is significant to note also that the root of the word 'Phoenix' in Arabic is the same root that delivers the word 'Ankh' and 'Enki'. The Babylonian Nabu (the son of Marduk) was in Sumerian times identified with Enki, and it is a straightforward observation to acknowledge the Semitic word 'Nabu' for what it means, i.e., Prophet. It gets even more interesting when one sees what happened to ancient Egypt once heresy broke out after waiting for so long and eventually giving up on seizing the Bennu bird exclusively for Egypt's cause: The Ankh is "finally" received by the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family through the veneration of Aten. Prior to Amenhotep IV, the sun disk served as a symbol in which major gods appeared, however, from that point on, it was the disk itself that became a god and obviously it was powerful enough to send its own prophets and tidings as one observes in the depictions of that dynasty. After all, it was an Eighteenth Dynasty ruler who succeeded in evicting the Semite Hyksos out of Egypt. [The final expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt by Ahmose I, most probably took place by this pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, Thebes once again became the central capital of Egypt. There was no distinct break in the line of the royal family between the 17th and 18th dynasties.] This is most interestingly the time when [the New Kingdom marked a period of high-quality Shabtis (i.e., answerers). Especially during the 18th and 19th dynasties. Ahmose I, was probably the first pharaoh to take Shabtis with him into the tomb.] It is now obvious that when the Upper Heavens didn't answer Egypt, the Shabtis and Ankhs started to.

Besides Jewish and Christian traditions, Islam also contains some traces of pagan traditions. In fact, the Ka’aba, the Meccan shrine to which every Muslim, if able, is obligated to make at least one pilgrimage, was a pagan Arab shrine and a center of pilgrimage long before Muhammad began preaching Islam.

One of them was Mecca, which was both trading centre and numinous shrine, governed by the family of a sheikh named Qusay, who had come up from Himyari and become the guardian of its Kaaba, a black meteorite surrounded by a pantheon of statues.

Modern day witches talk about "raising power." Catholics feel true reverence in the power of the consecrated host. Muslim pilgrims experience transforming power as they near the Kaaba. Snake handling Christians feel a holy anointing which protects them from deadly venom. All of these are spiritual cousins of Sacred Harp.

[...] si la Kaaba est le cœur de l’homme, les idoles qui la peuplaient représentent les passions qui obsèdent le cœur et l’empêchent de se souvenir de Dieu. Dès lors, la destruction des idoles [par le prophète] – et par extension le rejet de toute image susceptible de devenir une idole – est pour l’Islam la parabole la plus évidente de la « seule chose nécessaire », à savoir la purification du cœur en vue du tawhîd, du témoignage ou de la conscience qu’« il n’y a pas de divinité hormis Dieu »

L'Islam a perpétué jusqu'à nos jours le monde biblique, que le Christianisme, une fois européanisé, ne pouvait plus représenter ; sans islam, le Catholicisme eût vite fait d'envahir tout le Proche Orient, ce qui eût signifié la destruction de l'Orthodoxie et des autres Eglises d'Orient et la romanisation – donc l'européanisation – de notre monde jusqu'aux confins de l'Inde ; le monde biblique serait mort. On peut dire que l'Islam a eu le rôle providentiel d'arrêter le temps – donc d'exclure l'Europe – sur la partie biblique du globe et de stabiliser, tout en l'universalisant, le monde d'Abraham, qui fut aussi celui de Jésus ; le Judaïsme étant émigré et dispersé, et le Christianisme s'étant romanisé, hellénisé et germanisé, Dieu « se repentit » - pour employer le mot de la Genèse – de ce développement unilatéral et suscita l'Islam, qu'il fit surgir du désert, ambiance ou arrière-plan du Monothéisme originel. Il y a là un jeu d'équilibre et de compensation dont les exotérismes ne sauraient rendre compte, et il serait absurde de le leur demander (1). (1) Titus Burckhardt, ayant lu ces lignes, nous a communiqué au sujet du cycle Abraham-Mohammed les réflexions suivantes : « Il est significatif que la langue arabe soit la plus archaïque de toutes les langues sémitiques vivantes : son phonétisme conserve, à un son près, tous les sons indiqués par les plus anciens alphabètes sémitiques, et sa morphologie se retrouve dans le célèbre code de Hammourabi, qui est à peu près contemporain d'Abraham. » - « En fait, la Mecque avec la Kaaba construite par Abraham et Ismaël, est la ville sacrée oubliée, - oubliée à la fois par le Judaïsme, qui ignore le rôle prophétique d'Ismaël, et par le Chrisianisme, qui a hérité le même point de vue. Le sanctuaire de la Mecque, lequel est au Prophète ce que le Temple de Jérusalem est au Christ, - en un certain sens tout au moins, - est comme la « pierre rejetée par les bâtisseurs » et qui devient la pierre d'angle. Cette oublie du sanctuaire ismaélien, en même temps que la continuité Abraham-Ismaël-Mohammed, - le Prophète arabe étant de descendance ismaélienne, - ce double facteur nous montre comment l'économie divine aime à combiner le géométrique avec l'imprévu. Sans aucune importance est ici l'opinion de ceux qui voient dans l'origine abrahamique de la Kaaba un mythe musulman rétrospectif, et qui perdent totalement de vue que les anciens Arabes possédaient une mémoire généalogique à la fois extraordinaire et méticuleuse, comme d'ailleurs la plupart des nomades ou semi-nomades.

At Mecca, Guru Nanak lay down to rest. He fell asleep and at some point, his feet happened to point in the direction of the Kaaba. A Qazi admonished Guru Nanak: “Who is this sleeping infidel? Why have you, O sinner, turned your feet towards God?” he said. To this Guru Nanak retorted: “Turn my feet in the direction where God is not.

when we have our first sight of the Kaaba, the black-shrouded cube in Mecca that is our most sacred place, any wish in your heart is granted by God.

Kingdom (in stark contrast to the monolithic Najd). The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the modern reformer of Hajj, and his personal efforts dispelled the heinous pre-Islamic associations with idolatry. He restored the Ka'aba as the House of God and cleansed it of statues and symbols of pagan worship, which were sometimes stored even within its hollow core. He returned monotheistic worship to Mecca, making Hajj the pinnacle of Islamic worship, as the Quran

fact is that moderate Islamism is a myth. There are, to be sure, more than a billion moderate Muslims—people who pray five times a day or not, fast during Ramadan or not, perhaps entertain harmless superstitions about pork, the devil, or the conduct of the birds vis-à-vis the Kaaba, or indeed seek by painstaking study of the Quran and the hadith to reconcile the basic values of their religion with modern life and the discoveries of science. But Islamism is a political ideology that takes a literal, fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran as a master plan for society: Islamic law, the segregation of the sexes, the subjugation of women, the submission of the masses to clerical authority. You are either an Islamist or you are not, in the same way that you cannot be a little bit pregnant.

The ONLY holy sites in Islam (according to Orthodoxy) that are allowed to be visited by Muslims are: (1) Al Aqsa Mosque (falsely known as, Temple Mount Area) which resembles The Celestial Link. (2) Medina Mosque; which is the Political Residence of the Prophet. (3) Kaaba Mosque; which is the center of religion and resembles The Terrestrial Link. And these three sites are linked together with the natural logarithm parameter in regard to their metric distances from one another.

One of the most intriguing proofs that are available to us nowadays about the existence of two distinct polarizing authorities in ancient Egypt between the celestial perpendicular and parallel mandates on Earth, comes from the Arabian tribes history. Although the former authority was a converging force putting the Sun's movement in the sky into the main frame of that of the stars, the latter was a diverging one cutting all links to the main frame and begetting thereby the Sun's own cult. We observe this while reading middle eastern history (before and during the birth of Islam) on the behaviour of the pagan Arabs who profiled their theological opponents as being 'sba', which means 'stars servant/worshipper/glorifier'. In ancient Egyptian language this word meant, a star; and later on in Arabic, a verb was made out of it to refer to the apostasy act that has been committed by every other Arab sect (including Muslims) that diverged away from the main pagan Arab Sun's cult of the most powerful tribe which were residing in Mecca and controlling the Kaaba, i.e., Quraish. The main clan of that tribe had carried after all the name of, Abd Shams (Slave of the Sun).

Cort Lindahl discovered that the Great Pyramid [points to] Mecca and wrote about it in his books. And I hereby shed more light onto that by revealing that it even points to almost the same direction which the Black Stone points at! The Black Stone is located at the Kaaba's eastern corner; the corner from which the rotation of the pilgrimage around the Kaaba starts. It is as if the facade in front of the low wall of the Kaaba were pointing to the Great Pyramid's direction, or more accurately, the Great Pyramid does indeed point at the exact direction by which the Kaaba was mounted.

To the Sikhs the Golden Temple is just as holy as the Kaaba in Mecca is to Moslems, or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Christians. Had

Sami was nostalgic for the old Mecca, for the simpler times when the mizan, the balance, between modernity and tradition was easier to attain and maintain. His eternal quest for spiritual harmony was constantly disrupted by construction cranes, bulldozers, generators, and loudspeakers, Sami believed in an evolution that respected the continuity, but Mecca’s connections with the past were being physically severed. The future of the sanctuary of Islam was in danger. The aim of his research center was to make further expansions to the mosque and its surroundings more in tune with history, more respectful of tradition. It was a Sisyphean battle.

mirando hacia la quibla (la dirección que marca la sagrada mezquita Kaaba en La Meca).

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Julia Domna’s father, descended from kings appointed by Pompey, was high priest of the Arab sun deity Allah-Gabad – God of Mankind, Elagab in Latin – worshipped in the form of a black meteorite, probably just one of many across the Arab world. There was no evidence that Mecca existed at this point, but a similar black meteorite – the Kaaba – would be worshipped there. Julia’s name Domna – black in Arabic – referred to the divine stone of Emesa.

Mahoma nacio en La Mcca alrededor del ano 570, v formaha parte do una tribe cuvo dcbcr era guardar la Kaaba, una picdra usada para varias ofrcndas a las dcidades paganas.

Hajj is now. In this very moment, you are orbiting a Kaaba in your life. Just as the Earth spins around its own axis, we humans orbit a central point. What is your Kaaba?

Haji’s perform circumambulation of the Holy Kaaba bodily, the mystics do it with their hearts and aim at the privilege of seeing Allah.

Confirmar el carácter sagrado de la Kaaba era establecer un vínculo de continuidad con el pasado, lo que generaba un poderoso sentido de familiaridad cultural

For the Sufi Traveler, every journey is the haji, every tajalli is the Kaaba. Every path, if it be properly understood, is the Path; every way, however fraught with difficulty, can be experienced as a "straight" path to realization.

Die Sufis sagen, „die Kaaba, der heilige Ort, das Paradies ist das Herz des Menschen.“ Deswegen respektieren sie jedes Herz. Jedes Herz ist ihre Kaaba, ihr Heiligtum. Sie verbeugen sich vor dem Menschenherzen, denn in diesem Herzen lebt Gott. (S. 240)

Love arrived, beloved unveiled himself upon its arrival. Love has lifted, embraced and surrounded itself to my being. Beautiful perfect master's dust has made me capable of understanding, knowing and comprehending truth and immediately upon which love arrived. I was searching into books, places and shrines but when I touched my master's feet love arrived. I could not recognized him even after encircling the kaaba but when my heart encircled my perfect master love arrived. Identity, identifying and identified is dis classified, Love is no longer a hidden treasure to be identified. Love has removed the distinction of "You" & "I" when love arrived. Ayaz, hold love close dearer nearer to your life, He himself revealed himself through blink of an eye.

It would almost appear that he who first built the Kaaba - for since the time of Abraham the original structure has been rebuilt several times in the same shape - wanted to create a parable of man’s humility before God. The builder knew that no beauty of architectural rhythm and no perfection of line, however great, could ever do justice to the idea of God: and so he confined himself to the simplest three-dimensional form imaginable - a cube of stone...never had I felt so strongly as now, before the Kaaba, that the hand of the builder had come so close to his religious conception. In the utter simplicity of a cube, in the complete renunciation of all beauty of line and form, spoke this thought: ‘Whatever beauty man may be able to create with his hands, it will be only conceit to deem it worthy of God; therefore, the simplest that man can conceive is the greatest that he can do to express the glory of God.’ A similar feeling may have been responsible for the mathematical simplicity of the Egyptian pyramids - although there man’s conceit had at least found a vent in the tremendous dimensions he gave to his buildings. But here, in the Kaaba, even the size spoke of human renunciation and self-surrender; and the proud modesty of this little structure had no compare on earth.

There is no true justice without mercy. Mercy precedes everything, and it is why we are here. Mercy created us and is what is being revealed. The dervish dispenses, communicates, and shares that mercy. Sometimes wrath may be mixed in, but it is always in the service of mercy. God said to the Prophet, „We sent you only as a mercy to the Worlds.“ The dervish is one who is merciful. In Konya, over the entryway to the dergah where Mevlana (Rumi) is buried, is an inscription which says, „This is the Kaaba of the Lovers. Those who entered here became complete.“ The dervish walks the Path of completion. A Sufi has complete integration with life while remembering God with every breath. The great majority of Sufis have lived a family life, held a job, and contributed to society, while reaching extraordinary attainments of integrating the finite and the Infinite. They lived in a state of wahdat. (p. 76)

the Mahdi. Sunni beliefs also allowed for an apocalyptic redeemer whose arrival by the Ka’aba, alongside Jesus, signaled the end of times before the age of righteousness. But unlike Shias, Sunnis did not hold this as a central tenet, nor did they believe the Mahdi been born centuries ago and gone into occultation. He would instead reveal himself as a man from the people with particular attributes spelled out in the hadiths, the records of prophet Muhammad’s sayings and actions, written after his

It is nothing new that there is a lot of money to be made in religion. The sixth-century Quraysh knew this as well as any modern televangelist. In the equivalent of a Wall Street bull market, the elite of Mecca ran the city as a kind of oligarchy, with power in the hands of the wealthy few. Access was always mediated, and always for a fee. Selling the special ihram clothing was part of the business of pilgrimage, as was the provision of water and food for the pilgrims, and the sale of fodder for their camels and donkeys and horses. Which clans controlled which franchises was determined by the Quraysh leadership, who essentially parceled out monopolies (Muhammad’s own clan, the Hashims, held the one on providing water, thanks to Abd al-Muttalib’s ownership of the treasured Zamzam well). Every aspect of the pilgrimage had been carefully calculated down to the last gram of silver or gold or its equivalent in trade. Fees for the right to set up a tent, for entry to the Kaaba precinct, for the officials who cast arrows in front of Hubal or cut the throats of sacrificial animals and divided up the meat—all these and more were predetermined, and to the sole profit of the Quraysh. Their business was faith, and their faith was in business.

»So bist Du also der Sohn Abul Abbas', des Sohnes Dawud al Gossarah?« »Ja.« »Und beide waren Pilger?« »Ja.« »Auch Du bist ein Hadschi?« »Ja.« »So waret Ihr alle Drei in Mekka und habt die heilige Kaaba gesehen?« »Dawud al Gossarah nicht.« »Ah! Und dennoch nennst Du ihn einen Hadschi?« »Ja, denn er war einer. Er wohnte am Dschebel Schur-Schum und machte sich als Jüngling auf die Pilgerreise. Er kam glücklich über el Dschuf, das man den Leib der Wüste nennt; dann aber wurde er krank und mußte am Brunnen Trasah zurückbleiben. Dort nahm er ein Weib und starb, nachdem er seinen Sohn Abul Abbas gesehen hatte. Ist er nicht ein Hadschi, ein Pilger, zu nennen?« »Hm! Aber Abul Abbas war in Mekka?« »Nein.« »Und auch er ist ein Hadschi?« »Ja. Er trat die Pilgerfahrt an und kam bis in die Ebene Admar, wo er zurückbleiben mußte.« »Warum?« »Er erblickte da Amareh, die Perle von Dschuneth, und liebte sie. Amareh wurde sein Weib und gebar ihm Halef Omar, den Du hier neben Dir siehst. Dann starb er. War er nicht ein Hadschi?« »Hm! Aber Du selbst warst in Mekka?« »Nein.« »Und nennst Dich dennoch einen Pilger!« »Ja. Als meine Mutter todt war, begab ich mich auch auf die Pilgerschaft. Ich zog gen Aufgang und Niedergang der Sonne; ich ging nach Mittag und nach Mitternacht; ich lernte alle Oasen der Wüste und alle Orte Egypten's kennen; ich war noch nicht in Mekka, aber ich werde noch dorthin kommen. Bin ich also nicht ein Hadschi?« »Hm! Ich denke, nur wer in Mekka war, darf sich einen Hadschi nennen?« »Eigentlich, ja. Aber ich bin ja auf der Reise dorthin!« »Möglich! Doch Du wirst auch irgendwo eine schöne Jungfrau finden und bei ihr bleiben; Deinem Sohne wird es ebenso gehen, denn dies scheint Euer Kismet zu sein, und dann wird nach hundert Jahren Dein Urenkel sagen: >Ich bin Hadschi Mustafa Ben Hadschi Ali Assabeth Ibn Hadschi Saïd al Hamza Ben Hadschi Schehab Tofaïl Ibn Hadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ibn Hadschi Dawud al Gossarah,< und keiner von all diesen sieben Pilgern wird Mekka gesehen haben und ein ächter, wirklicher Hadschi geworden sein. Meinst Du nicht?«

Each and every word of the Quran has become an idol. As Muslims, without knowledge of what the words even mean, we continue to follow the Quran. Even those that read the translation continue to look only at its superficial, linguistic meanings. They did the same thing with their religious personalities. They created an idol of their messenger of God, Muhammad, who destroyed 360 sculptures in the Kaaba. The destruction of the sculptures gives the impression that he was against idolatry. But his own followers have made him an idol.

Ich suchte und konnte Dich nicht finden; ich rief vom Minarett laut nach Dir; ich läutete beim Steigen und Sinken der Sonne die Tempelglocke; ich tauchte vergeblich in des Ganges heiligen Strom; ich kam enttäuscht von der Kaaba zurück; ich sah mich auf Erden nach Dir um; ich suchte nach Dir im Himmel, mein Geliebter, doch endlich habe ich Dich gefunden – als verborgene Perle in der Muschel meines Herzens.

the primordial artifact- of the Kaaba of canonical economics today is the claim that the free market somehow caused, and failed to cure, the Great Depression.