Basic HTML Version
-17-
“And remember when We showed Abraham the site of the [Sacred] House
[saying]: Associate not anything [in worship with Me and purify My House for
those who circumambulate it [i.e. perform Tawaaf] and those who stand up
for prayer and those who bow down and make prostration [in prayer etc.].”
(Quran 22:26)
After building the Kaaba, Abraham would come to Makkah to perform Hajj
every year, and after his death, this practice was continued by his son.
However, gradually with the passage of time, both the form and the goal
of the Hajj rites were changed. As idolatry spread throughout Arabia, the
Kaaba lost its purity and idols were placed inside it. Its walls became covered
with poems and paintings, including one of Jesus and his mother Maryand.
Eventually over 360 idols came to be placed around the Kaaba.
During the Hajj period itself, the atmosphere around the sacred precincts of the
Kaaba was like a circus. Men and women would go round the Kaaba naked,
arguing that they should present themselves before God in the same condition
they were born. Their prayer became devoid of all sincere remembrance of
God and was instead reduced to a series of hand clapping, whistling and the
blowing of horns. Even the Hajj call was distorted by them with the following
additions: “No one is Your partner except one who is permitted by you. You
are his Master and the Master of what he possesses.”
Sacrifices were also made in the name of God. However, the blood of the
sacrificed animals was poured onto the walls of the Kaaba and the flesh was
hung from pillars around the Kaaba, in the belief that God demanded the
flesh and blood of these animals.
Singing, drinking, adultery and other acts of immorality was rife amongst
the pilgrims and the poetry competitions, which were held, were a major
part of the whole Hajj event. In these competitions, poets would praise the
bravery and splendor of their own tribesmen and tell exaggerated tales of
the cowardice and miserliness of other tribes. Competitions in generosity
were also staged where the chief of each tribe would set up huge cauldrons
and feed the pilgrims, only so that they could become well-known for their
extreme generosity.
Thus the people had totally abandoned the teachings of their forefather and
leader Abraham. The House that he had made pure for the worship of God