The Life of Muhammad ﷺ Chapter 2: A Great Loss (2021-12-06) #

0:00:05 a reading from muhammad his life based
0:00:08 on the earliest sources by martin lings
0:00:12 chapter 2
0:00:13 a great loss
0:00:16 abraham's prayer was answered and rich
0:00:19 gifts were continually brought to mecca
0:00:22 by the pilgrims who came to visit the
0:00:24 holy house in increasing numbers from
0:00:27 all parts of arabia and beyond
0:00:31 the greater pilgrimage was made once a
0:00:34 year
0:00:35 but the kaaba could also be honored
0:00:37 through a lesser pilgrimage at any time
0:00:40 and these rights continue to be
0:00:42 performed with fervor and devotion
0:00:45 according to the rules which abraham and
0:00:48 ishmael had established
0:00:51 the descendants of isaac also venerated
0:00:54 the kaaba
0:00:56 as a temple that had been raised by
0:00:58 abraham
0:00:59 for them it counted as one of the
0:01:02 outlying tabernacles of the lord
0:01:06 but as the centuries passed the purity
0:01:09 of the worship of the one god came to be
0:01:12 contaminated
0:01:14 the descendants of ishmael became too
0:01:17 numerous to live all in the valley of
0:01:19 mecca
0:01:20 and those who went to settle elsewhere
0:01:23 took with them stones from the holy
0:01:26 precinct and performed rights in honor
0:01:29 of them
0:01:31 later through the influence of
0:01:33 neighbouring pagan tribes
0:01:35 idols came to be added to the stones and
0:01:39 finally pilgrims began to bring idols to
0:01:42 mecca
0:01:44 these were set up in the vicinity of the
0:01:46 kaaba and it was then that the jews
0:01:50 ceased to visit the temple of
0:01:52 abraham
0:01:54 the idolaters claimed that their idols
0:01:57 were powers which acted as mediators
0:02:00 between god and men
0:02:02 as a result their approach to god became
0:02:05 less and less direct and the remoter he
0:02:09 seemed the dimmer became their sense of
0:02:12 the reality of the world to come
0:02:14 until many of them ceased to believe in
0:02:17 life after death
0:02:19 but in their midst for those who could
0:02:22 interpret it there was a clear sign that
0:02:26 they had fallen away from the truth
0:02:29 they no longer had access to the well of
0:02:32 zamzam
0:02:34 and they had even forgotten
0:02:36 where it lay
0:02:39 the juhamites who had come from the
0:02:41 yemen were directly responsible
0:02:44 they had established themselves in
0:02:46 control of mecca and the descendants of
0:02:49 abraham had tolerated this because
0:02:52 ishmael's second wife was a kinswoman of
0:02:56 the gerham
0:02:57 but the time came when the juhamites
0:03:00 began to commit all sorts of injustices
0:03:04 for which they were finally driven out
0:03:07 and before they left they buried the
0:03:10 well of zamzam
0:03:14 no doubt they did this by way of
0:03:16 revenge but it was also likely that they
0:03:19 hoped to return and enrich themselves
0:03:22 from it
0:03:23 for they filled it up with part of the
0:03:26 treasure of the sanctuary
0:03:29 offerings of pilgrims which had
0:03:31 accumulated
0:03:32 in the kaaba over the years
0:03:35 then they covered it with sand
0:03:39 their place as lords of mecca was taken
0:03:42 by the kuza
0:03:44 an arab tribe descended from ishmael
0:03:47 which had migrated to yemen and then
0:03:49 returned northwards
0:03:52 but the kuza heights now made no attempt
0:03:55 to find the waters that had been
0:03:57 miraculously given to their ancestor
0:04:01 since his day other worlds have been dug
0:04:04 in mecca
0:04:05 god's gift was no longer a necessity and
0:04:08 the holy well became a half-forgotten
0:04:12 memory
0:04:14 the kuzaha thus shared the guilt of the
0:04:18 germ
0:04:19 they were also to blame in other
0:04:21 respects
0:04:23 a chieftain of theirs on his way back
0:04:25 from a journey to syria had asked the
0:04:28 moabites to give him one of their idols
0:04:32 they gave him hubal
0:04:34 which he brought back to the sanctuary
0:04:37 setting it up within the kaaba itself
0:04:41 and it became the chief idol of mecca
0:04:47 and that is this chapter two a great
0:04:50 loss
0:04:51 till next time