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By Khalid Baig

(Author’s Request: Please turn off your television set as you read this article.)

Television has spread like a wild fire in the world, including the Muslim world. It seems to have overcome the limitations of space and time.

Consider place. In Saudi Arabia, one can find the imprints of Hollywood only a few yards away from the Haram, the most sacred of all sanctuaries of Islam. Videocassettes are easily available at stores. A hotel attendant, at a walking distance from the Haram al-Sharif in Makkah can be found busy watching English movies on the television in his office even as the prayers are going on. At the Jeddah airport, the Umrah pilgrims can watch a European beauty contest courtesy of an Egyptian TV channel being broadcast to the airport television sets.  Read more... (2604 words, estimated 10:25 mins reading time)

Muharram is the month with which the Muslims begin their lunar Hijrah Calendar. It is one of the four sanctified months about which the Holy Quran says, “The number of the months according to Allah is twelve (mentioned) in the Book of Allah on the day He created heavens and the earth. Among these (twelve months) there are four sanctified.”

These four months, according to the authentic traditions, are Dhul-Qa’dah, Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab. All the commentators of the Holy Quran are unanimous on this point, because the Holy Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, in his sermon on the occasion of his last Hajj, declared: “One year consists of twelve months, of which four are sanctified months, three of them are in sequence; Dhul-Qa’dah, Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram, and the fourth is Rajab.”  Read more... (1702 words, estimated 6:48 mins reading time)

Friends have invited me to give a talk on Madinah, describing what I saw there, and I have readily agreed. As a Persian poet has said: “To talk of the beloved is no less pleasant than to meet him.”

I do not know when I first heard of Makkah and Madinah. Like all Muslim children, I was brought up in an environment in which Hijaz (Arabia) and Makkah and Madinah were household words. I, distinctly, remember people saying Makkah, Madinah together as if these were the same. When they took the name of one of them, they, generally, mentioned that of the other as well. I, thus, came to imagine that Makkah and Madinah were not two different places, but one, and learnt to appreciate the difference only as I grew up. It, then, became clear that these were two different towns separated from each other by over 300 kilometers.  Read more... (1760 words, 6 images, estimated 7:02 mins reading time)

It is a fact that Makkah is a blessed city. Every inch and every rock or bit of sand is blessed. We have already mentioned those places of special blessing. Now there are a few more to which attention should be drawn.

1. Firstly there is a place where the house of Hazrat Khadija R.A. used to be; and where Hazrat Fatima Zahraa R.A. was born; and where all the children of Rasulullah Sal’am were born except Hazrat Ibrahim A.S. up to the Hijrat Rasulullah Sal’am live here. The Ulama are of the opinion that second to the Holy Masjid, this place is the most virtuous in Makkah.  Read more... (767 words, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

Hazrat Umar R.A. said; ‘I would much rather prefer to commit seventy sins at Rukiya (outside Makkah) than to commit one sin inside Makkah. In the same way that righteous deeds are considerably increased in reward, so also sins there are tremendously multiplied. For this reason Hazrat Umar R.A. considered a sin in Makkah, seventy times more heinous than outside the Holy City. A similar saving of Hazrat Ibn Abbaas R.A. has already been quoted in chapter three. Hazrat Umar R.A. mentioned this on numerous occasions. It is for this reason that many elders of Islam did not approve of staying permanently in Makkah, because it is very difficult to give the place its rightful due in honor and respect. Hazrat Imaam Ghazali R.A. wrote that any sinful act is very strongly prohibited there and the committee of such acts can easily earn the anger of Allah. (Ithaaf)  Read more... (416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Hazrat Anas bin Maalik R.A. reports that Rasulullah Sal’am said: ‘The salaat which a person performs in his house is one salaat; and his salaat in the local masjid is equal to 25 salaats: and his salaat in the Jaame Masjid where the people gather is rewarded to the extent of five hundred salaats; and his salaat in the mosque of Jerusalem, Masjidul Aqsaa is rewarded to the extent of fifty thousand salaats: and his salaat in my mosque-Masjidul Nabawi in the Holy Mosque of Makkah is rewarded to the extent of one hundred thousand salaats’
The fact that salaat in the Holy Mosque of Makkah is rewarded up to one hundred thousand times be borne out by many ahaadith.  Read more... (405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Hazrat Ibn Abbas R.A. reports that the Messenger of Allah said: “One hundred and twenty mercies descend upon the Ka’ba every day and night; sixty for those performing tawaaf, forty for those performing salaah and twenty for those merely looking at Ka’ba”.
Here we are told that merely looking at the Ka’ba is a form of Ibaadah. Hazrat Saeed ibn Musayyib R.A. the well known. Tab’iee used to say that whoever merely looks at the Ka’ba with complete faith, becomes so cleansed of his sins as the day he was born.  Read more... (466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The virtues of these two places-Makkah and the Ka’ba has been expounded in many verses of the Qur’aan and the Hadith. We shall now look at a few of these. Allah says in the Qur’ an “The first House (of worship) appointed for men was that at Bakka, full of blessing. On this Hazrat Ali R.A. said that houses for residence had been erected before the Ka’ba but the very first place for Hs worship was this one. It is reported above by many companions that this portion of the earth first appeared above the water after its creation and from it the rest of the earth was spread and rolled out, in the same manner as a roti is rolled out by a roller, to a large round flat bread, from a small round piece of dough.  Read more... (663 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

For the inhabitants outside the boundaries of Miqat it is Wajib that at the time of their departure from Makkah they perform a parting Tawaf. (Tawaf-e-Wida). This is the last Wajib of Hajj and all three kinds of Hajj are like in this respect, as it is Wajib for one who performs any kind of Hajj. This Tawaf is not however Wajib for the people of Haram and the inhabitants of inside the boundaries of Miqat.  Read more... (423 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Out of Wajibat of Hajj now there remained only a few practices. You are to stay at Mina for to or three days and to perform Rami on all the three Jamarat. To spend the nights of these days as well in Mina is Sunnat-e-Mu’akkada while according to some others it is Wajib. It is forbidden to spend the nights anywhere out-side Mina whether in Makkah or anywhere else (Irshad-us-Sari).  Read more... (498 words, estimated 1:60 mins reading time)