The Kaaba and its surroundings must be the center of the Islamic conception of quality and esthetics
Harun Yahya
The Islamic world has recently completed the obligation of the hajj in order to earn the approval of Almighty Allah. Mecca and the surrounding area, where the hajj is performed, is a holy land where our Prophet (saas) strove on Allah’s path and where he told the local peoples of the existence and Oneness of Allah, a home to numerous sacred sites. During the hajj, Muslims from all over the world worship together and remember Allah as Muslims, no matter how different their ethnic origins, languages and cultures.
This sacred land, that allows Muslims who perform the hajj to love and respect one another by bringing them together, must also be somewhere that reflects the Islamic conception of esthetics and quality in the finest manner. However, this region which is home to Muslims and sacred sites, where the foundations of love and peace were laid, has recently begun being mentioned in terms of lost historic architecture and lack of beauty. The Kaaba built by the Prophet Abraham (pbuh) and the Prophet Ishmael (pbuh) and a witness to the lovely life of our Prophet (saas), a role model for all mankind, is losing its historical fabric among rapidly rising skyscrapers.
Not only Muslims, but the entire world is watching in amazement as buildings that were home to leading figures of the Islamic world are torn down. Example of this include the flattening of Mount Umar, where the home of Hazrat Umar (pbuh) stands, and the construction of skyscraper hotels, the demolition of the Mosque of Bilal from the time of our Prophet (saas), the demolition of Ottoman houses with their elegant adornments and detailed window decorations and stunning wooden doors and their replacement with houses of no esthetic value at all, the construction of the Royal Mecca Clock Tower Hotel, completed in 2012, on the site of 400 graves of historical and cultural importance, a hotel being built on the site of the home of Hazrat Abu Bakr (as) and the conversion of the area where the house in which the Prophet Muhammed (saas) is thought to have been born, in Mawlid Street next to the Kaaba, into a car park.
The same underlying causes are also behind the way the Kaaba, Muslims’ most sacred site, today literally has the air of a tourist attraction and is surrounded by tall masses of concrete, hotels and workplaces: a fanatical mindset that has nothing to do with the Islam of the Qur’an and that is far removed from any conception of quality and esthetics being represented as the true Islam. That mindset sees absolutely nothing wrong in the shameless desecration of the Kaaba. Yet these sacred lands for which our Muslim brothers and forebears laid down their lives in order to protect were entrusted by our Prophet (saas) to the entire Islamic world.
Muslims must develop this area, bequeathed by our Prophet (saas), in the light of the esthetic conception of the Qur’an, and must be responsible for turning it into a glorious city, like the kingdom of Andalusia from the golden age of Islam in Europe. The skyscrapers that literally hide the Kaaba must be torn down. The surrounding buildings must be moved to at least 50 kilometers away. The area must be adorned with lovely fruit trees, flowers and greenery, and even a natural river, bestowing on it a bright and immaculate appearance. The Kaaba itself must be restored to its original appearance, when it shone like a star.
The existing picture of the Kaaba, under the current construction plans, actually emphasizes the spiritual emptiness affecting the entire Islamic world. That emptiness clearly stems from the Islamic world’s failure to be united, as Allah commands.
Let us not forget that the whole Islamic world has a responsibility to scrupulously protect these lands bequeathed by our Prophet (saas). It is perfectly natural and right for Muslims to restructure this area, sacred to Islam, and to be united on this subject in the interests of the faith. The essence of the relationship between Muslim communities is for them to act in union, as brothers, as revealed in the Qur’an. Muslims are one another’s helpers and guardians. They must therefore act in solidarity and a spirit of mutual aid on all matters.
When the Kaaba is redesigned in its original form, Muslims will be able to perform their religious obligations in peace and will show the whole world the Islamic world’s conception of quality and beauty.
Adnan Oktar's piece on Muslim Mirror:
