Sunday, August 2, 2020

Islam Critiqued plays the sceptic; no reason to link becca and mecca?

In answer to the video "Abraham and the Kaaba: From Borrowed Stories to Sacred Scripture"

The Arabs identified Mecca originally as Becca as corroborated in the Quran in addition that it is the first monument of worship of the One God and that it will remain so 3:95-99. 
When asked 
"which mosque was set up first on the earth? He said: Al-Masjid al-Haram".
The name itself "kaaba" is attested in ancient south Arabian epigraphy as a word used to describe a shrine for divinities. 

It is also mentionned several times as the Ancient/Atiq House because it was so old that it came to be known throughout Arabia by that name 22:29,33 and its history went back to the days of Ibrahim and Ismail 2:125. The word Atiq conveys also the meaning of honor and reverance since it had been made sacred by God 27:91. The root word rataqa conveys also the deeper sense of freedom from bondage and the Kaaba effectively has always been free from the bond of ownership of the mortals and in no time it had a possessor, save Allah. It is to be noted, had there been any doubt as to Becca being a synonym for Mecca, one would have seen a variant interpretative reading replacing the B with M. Exegetical readings are known among the accepted qira'at. Given the importance Becca is given, one would have at least seen interpretive glosses inserted into the text, clarifying its meaning. And yet, just as with other geographical synonyms, we see none of all that in the Quran. This is because the location it refers to has never been disputed. Besides, Arab historians have recorded other names to the holy city than Mecca and Becca, each describing come of its characteristics. For example because of its position between valleys, causing it to be prone to flash floods, it was called Sayl meaning heavy rain (Al-Zahraniy). It was also called Tihama because it lies between Hijaz and Yemen.

Only one location is said to be dedicated to those performing the ritual prayers, as well as the pilgrimage and it is the Kaaba, Becca, the Ancient House and al masjid al haram, all names referring to one same place with the definite article and with almost identical wording 2:125,158,196,3:96-7,9:19,22:26,29, all connecting the Abrahamic legacy to one and the same place. This unquestionably links the Kaaba, Becca, Mecca with some of the most important rituals of Islam.

The revisionist argument that these locations are disconnected and unrelated is based upon the faulty mehtodology of isolating statements out of their direct and wider context. The requirement that a particular Quranic statement needs to be fully detailed in each context is unnecessary. Any type of literary research, especially historical, is done by piecing together related information. Conjecture is stripping statements out of their direct and larger context and ignoring surrounding indicators, then drawing clumsy conclusions.

Interestingly, when Moses had fled Egypt where he was wanted for man slaughter, and hid in Midian/Madyan, which is nowhere else than in the Arabian Peninsula, a "foreign land" in Moses' own words, from where he had to "return to Egypt" to free the Israelites Ex2:22,4:18, the Quran mentions his encounter with a righteous man in that land of Arabia, saying to him
28:27"I desire to marry one of these two daughters of mine to you on condition that you should serve me for eight hijaj/pilgrimages; but if you complete ten, it will be of your own free will, and I do not wish to be hard to you; if Allah please, you will find me one of the good".
This righteous Arabian man, whom tradition identifies with Shuayb, is quoted as counting the years in terms of pilgrimage, as it happened every year. Also, the valley where God first spoke to Moses is called Tuwa 20:12. The word tuwa means to fold, from the root ta-waw-ya, it is used as a name of the valley because a valley is by definition folded between higher ground, and in this case, figuratively folded with holiness. Dhi tuwa, which is near Mecca might very well be this same Tuwa of Moses where he had been dwelling with his Madian or Arab family prior to his return to Egypt and confrontation with Pharao.

Another interesting observation, linguistically is that Makka and bakka are used once in the Quran, and not randomly; in the context of hajj which involves the mass ingathering of populations, bakka is used since it stems from a word meaning crowd, while makka is employed outside that context.

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