In a small valley among the mountains, hidden from the whole world, there is the holy of holies of Islam - the city of Mecca. It is to him that the gaze of Muslims all over the world turn five times a day.
Unlike other eastern cities, Mecca was not surrounded by a wall, but mountains have always served as a natural fence. The wide street Massai stretches across the city, to which houses - large and small - slide down from the mountains in numerous tiers. In the middle of the street, at the very bottom of the valley, there is a square with the famous Haram ash-Sherif mosque, which means "House of God". Muslims are sure that it is in this place that the center of the universe is located, because it is not even the earth, a part of the sky overturned to the earth. And on the last day of the existence of the world, she will return to heaven.
The territory of the Forbidden Mosque is a sacred place for Muslims around the world. This is said many times in the second chapter of the Koran: “And wherever you come out, turn your face towards the mosque; and wherever you are, turn your faces towards her."
The square is similar to a traditional oriental courtyard, only of a very large size. It is surrounded in three, and sometimes in four rows by columns of marble, granite and ordinary stone. At the top, the columns are connected by pointed arches and are covered with small white domes, and seven slender minarets rise above them.
But why exactly Mecca is considered a qibla - the side where the prayer of Muslims should be directed and the mihrab - the sacred niche in the mosque, wherever this mosque is located? After all, it would seem that a prayer to Allah should be ascended to heaven.
Even the ancient Arabs turned their eyes to Mecca, because their pagan gods were also in the Kaaba. This temple was a veritable pantheon of gods and could satisfy all requests. It contained about 360 different idols and sculptural images of deified persons. Among them are the Arab gods Ilat, Uzza, Hubal and others; Assyro-Babylonian Marduk, Assor, Sin, Samas and Astarte; Jewish patriarch Abraham and the Virgin Mary with the Christ-child in her arms.
According to Arab legend, the Kaaba was erected as an altar for prayer by the ancestor of the people, Adam. Adam suffered greatly from the fact that he lost not only paradise, but also the temple in which he was used to praying in paradise. Then God had mercy, and a copy of the temple was lowered to the ground.
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To make the Kaaba easier to build, the angel Jabrail brought Ibrahim (Abraham) a flat stone that could hang in the air and serve as a scaffolding. This stone is still in the Kaaba, and believers can see the footprints of their forefather on it.
In the center of the square is a large stone cube about thirteen meters high with a flat roof. This is the Kaaba, once a pagan sanctuary, and now the main temple of the Muslim world.
There are no windows in the Kaaba, and the door covered with silver sheets is raised from the ground to a height of about 120 centimeters, so the temple can only be reached by a wooden staircase, which is specially rolled up during the Hajj.
From above, about three-quarters of its height, the Kaaba is covered with a kiswa, a black silk cloth sewn from eight pieces. On it are embroidered sayings from the Koran in gold and silver letters. For a long time, this matter was prepared in Egypt and
and was sent to Mecca, and only one family has the right to embroider it, which passes it down from generation to generation.
The ruler Kerb ibn Esed was the first to close the walls of the Kaaba in the form of special reverence. Under the Baghdad Caliph Mamun, this veil was made of light material and changed three times a year. But in I 149, the Egyptian caliph Salih Ismail began to expel kiswah from Egypt from black matter, and this was done only once a year. Since then, this custom has been preserved to the present day.
On the eastern side of the Kaaba there is the Bab-e-sheyb gate. A pilgrim entering this gate from the right side finds himself next to Makam el-Ibrahim (place of Ibrahim) - a kiosk made of thick Chunzova lattice, inside which, in an iron chest covered with silk embroidered with gold, is the very stone that served Ibrahim as a stage during construction of the Kaaba. At the request of the builder, he could rise or fall.
When, according to legend, the construction of the Kaaba was almost finished, Ibrahim needed another noticeable stone to mark on the wall the place from which to begin the ritual procession around the temple. In paradise, Adam and the angels, taught by God himself, went around the temple seven times, and Ibrahim wanted the idolatry to be correct on earth as well. It was then that the angel Jabrail brought him the famous Hedger el-Eswad - the Black Stone.
According to one version, it was Adam's guardian angel, turned to stone after he allowed his ward to fall into sin. When the Black Stone was lowered from the sky, it was dazzling white and shone so that it could be seen four days' journey to Mecca. But gradually it darkened and darkened from the sins of men, until it completely turned black.
The nature of the Black Stone is still unknown. Some scientists consider it a very large meteorite, other researchers see in it a large piece of unknown volcanic rock, because rocky Arabia is replete with many extinct volcanoes.
When in 1630 Mohammed returned from Medina to Mecca, he threw out all the pagan idols from the Kaaba, but respectfully pressed his staff to the Black Stone. But even before Muhammad preached, in Mecca, they decided to repair the badly dilapidated Kaaba. When it was necessary to move the Black Stone to any other place, a dispute arose between the Koreish families as to which of them was most worthy of this sacred mission. And then Mohammed solved this problem very ingeniously: he spread his cloak on the floor of the Kaaba, put the Black Stone on it, and then the elders of all noble families raised the cloak with the stone.
"According to legend," wrote the Russian staff captain Davletshin, "in 929 the Black Stone was taken to Yemen, but in 951 it was returned to Mecca again." Now the Black Stone, set into the Kaaba above the ground and slightly below human height, is enclosed in a massive silver frame. The visible part of the stone is about 36 centimeters in diameter.
Every Muslim should perform the Hajj at least once in his life - visit Mecca. In past centuries, this was not an easy, troublesome, sometimes even dangerous business. The Hajj was performed provided there were sufficient funds to visit Mecca and to provide for the family until the return of the pilgrim. If there are all the conditions, and the Hajj is not performed, the Sharia threatens the violator with a very heavy punishment in the next world, and those who neglect this duty are equated with unbelievers. On the contrary, those who performed the hajj are promised complete absolution of sins committed before that time, and those who made this pilgrimage proudly wore their white turbans - the sign of the hajj.
In the past, everyone who came to Mecca had to find a matwaf - a guide who would provide the pilgrim not only with lodging and food, but also ensure that he did not make mistakes in performing ritual rituals and prayers. There are so many subtleties in the Hajj procedure that it is difficult for a single Muslim (even the most devout) to deal with them on his own.
The Hajj is based on tawaf - seven-fold circumambulation around the Kaaba. This procession symbolizes the divine order according to which all beings are subordinated to a single center - the solar system, embodied in God. During the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the pilgrims piously kiss the Black Stone, for they deeply believe that on the day of the Last Judgment, he will speak and name before Allah the names of all the faithful who kissed him with clean lips.
Another ritual - "sai" - obliges pilgrims to run seven times (there and back) along the main street of Mecca, which is more than 400 meters long. Sai is a repetition of the painful throwing of the Hajar across the hot desert in search of water.
On the eighth day of the hajj, a huge procession is sent from Mecca to the Arafat hill to listen to the imam's sermon and special prayers. Approaching the hill, all the pilgrims pray and incessantly exclaim: "Lyabbike!" ("I will obey you!"). In the valley, at the foot of Arafat Hill, believers must spend the night, and only pilgrims who visit this hill receive the title of "Hajj".
From the book: "Series" 100 Great ": One Hundred Great Treasures". IONIN'S HOPE