PURIFICATION OF THE KAABA

PURIFICATION OF THE KAABA

Umro ibne Lahi Qazaee had seen the Amalaqa worshiping idols in the year 207 A.D.in Egypt and Syria. He didn’t find any advantage in idolworship, but he liked the art of carving of the iols. He brought some of the idols to Makka and installed them in the Kaaba. In time Makka became a centre of idolatory. The biggest idol of the Qureish was Habal which was installed at the highest point in the Kaaba. Around it there were kept hundreds of idols tied to each other. Out of the 360 days of the year, one day was earmarked for the veneration of one particular idol. In emulation of the people of Makka, the people in the surrounding areas too were attracted to idol worship. When they visited the Kaaba during the Haj, they would take home stones from there and carve out idols for themselves.in the shape of the idols in Makka. This way every tribe of Arabia had it’s own idols. About one stage away from Makka, a place called Naqla had an idol by name Uzza. This place was venerated by the Qureish and Bani Kanana. In Taef there was the idol of Laat. At some distance from Madina there was Manaat that was the god of Aus, Khazraj and Ghasan. For the Hamadan tribe of Najran the idol for worship was Yaqooq. In Yanbu and its environs the idol of Hazeel, Sawah was installed. In Domat al Jundal

Bani Kalab’s god, Wud was installed. Some idolaotrs considered these idols as the representatives of one and only God. They used to pray and ask for boons from these inanimate idols! They were unable to understand that those inanimate pieces of stone had no power to grant their wishes or save them from the natural calamities! They used to say that through them they were able to reach closer to God! The Holy Quran also records their thoughts:

“We worship these idols

because they take us closer to Allah.

The purpose for annexing Makka wasn’t that the Prophet (s.a.) wanted to expand his territory.and get termed as a conqurer. The main purpose was to abolish idolatory and spread the message of Unity of Allah. After subduing Makka the first step was to give attention to the destruction of the idols in the Kaaba. Although there was the risk of the Qureish rising against this step, the Prophet (s.a.) decided to go aheaded with the performance of his duty against all possible odds. First he erased the paintings of the prophets and the angels from the walls of Kaaba. Then, along with Hazrat Ali (a.s.) he destroyed the idols put at the lower levels of the Kaaba. Now was the turn of the bigger idols at higher level. The Prophet (s.a.) told Ali (a.s.) that he would climb on his shoulders to reach the idols. He did climb but he felt weakness and came down. He now asked Ali (a.s.) to climb on his shoulders and perform the task. Ali (a.s.) went up the shoulders of the Prophet (s.a.) and besides the smaller idols he destroyed the big Habal that was installed on a foundation of steel rods. He pulled it with such strength that it crashed to the ground and shattered to pieces. It would have been such a pathetic scene for the Qureish that till the other day they were worshiping the idol that was lying today shattered on the ground!

Hazrat Ali (a.s.), after breaking this big idol, dropped down to the ground and smilingly told to the Prophet (s.a.), “I have jumped form such height but wasn’t hurt a little!” The Prophet (s.a.) replied, “How could you get hurt when Mohammed (s.a.) raised you and Jibraeel helped you down! “This was the greatness of Ali (a.s.)! In other words this was the Meraj (Accension) on the shoulders of the one who had the privilege of the Real Meraj. Hazrat Ali (a.s.) himself has said:

“If I wished,

I could have touched

the heights of the sky!

There were other people too with the Prophet (s.a.) at that time. This task could have been entrusted to any other person by the Prophet (s.a.). But the Prophet (s.a.) didn’t want any one else to be associated with the work of the purification of the Kaaba. The reason was that Ali (a.s.) had never bowed down before the idols in the past and always prostrated before Allah, the Real Creator! Other persons, at some time in their past lives, were idolators! If they were asked to destroy the idols, they might have hesitated in performing the task. One example is the people of Taef, who, even after embracing Islam, didn’t like to break the idol with their own hands. Therefore, when they embraced Islam at the hands of the Prophet (s.a.), they requested him to leave their idols untouched for one year. When the Prophet (s.a.) turned down their request, they refused to break the idols with their own hands and wanted someone else to do the task!