The Stones of the Kaba

It is always the simple ideas that are the most powerful. 

For our Messenger (saw) did not say:

The life on one believer is more precious than one stone from the Kaba. 

However, he (saw) did say:

The honour or dignity of one Muslim is more dignified than the whole of it*1. 

Then wonder at the superficiality of our scholars that have taken us too a place where they call on us to defend Al-Aqsa. 

For Al-Aqsa is in need of no defence.*2

Where the true mortar and bricks of our religion are our people.  

Then wonder at the superficiality of our scholars that broadcasts our shame thinking that it sends a message of the corruption and inhumanity of the World. 

Indeed God is sufficient as witness. 

And we are the ignore ones. 

For the shame is that whilst this Prophetic Nation was sent with a Divine Writ to fight against oppression wherever it might be. Then our scholars have allowed us to descend so low, that we allow others to oppress, and decimate our own people. 

Indeed Islam is God’s gift to the whole of humanity, and each Nation within it *3, and belief is something far more powerful and far more deep *4. 

For when God directs that none has the right to be served except him, and for us to be perfectly kind to both parents *5, most of our shuyook only scratch at the surface. 

He does not ask you to serve them as well as Him, but to treat them with an exemplary kindness. 

That all of our institutions, thoughts, ideals and beliefs are laid waste by the true belief in One God. 

That that when you allow the power of that ideal to mould your thought and action, then everything else is an addendum.  

And therefore here He places the manner of your treatment of our parents in the same verse to emphasise that to you, that even that primary and first institutions of parenthood … even that is subject to the rules of belief *6 … and even then treat them with excellent kindness. 

It is like the gibbous moon nearing the horizon, how because of our ability to compare it with something close, appears all the more splendid and huge. 

So God tells you how to treat your parents there to emphasise the nature of true belief … that it destroys all false beliefs, ideals and ideas in its path. 

He is the One about which there is no doubt. The Moral and Most Kind. 

Lord of all of the Worlds. 

And He sent Muhammed (saw) with a true message to all of the Nations of this World. That each has the opportunity to hold aloft the banner of Islam. 

So contemplate who the blamers are who are mentioned in this verse (*7 v54, Al-Maedah), if they are not us, Arab, Turkish, Asian and African? 

The ideal of this religion does not belong to us but to all the people. 

*O Allah raise a Nation that will fight against injustice in your way, and with your help, who will not fear the blame of our current Nations who have exited from your path.*

Knowledge is sought through study, and study is an action that takes place within you - do you accept its precepts and why- not by listening to a lecture or talk and not deliberating. That is why I write as I do, to leave spaces that you might seek to fill their voids. And indeed the continual search for meaning is a blessed endeavour. 

END. 

*1

Abdullah ibn Umar reported: I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, circling around the Ka’bah and saying, “How pure you are and how pure is your fragrance! How great you are and how great is your sanctity! By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the sanctity of the believer is greater to Allah than your sanctity, in his wealth, his life, and to assume nothing of him but good.”

Source: Sunan Ibn Mājah 3932

Indeed the honour of a believer is that he does not allow oppression, neither upon himself, nor on any other. 

*2 vis a vis when Hashim dealt with Abrahah who came with an Elephant to destroy the Kaba, in the year in which our Messenger (saw) was born. 

*3 Al-Maedah v3

*4 Hadith of the Messenger that recommends entering into it with gentleness. 

*5 V23, Al-Israa:

وَقَضَىٰ رَبُّكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا إِمَّا يَبْلُغَنَّ عِندَكَ الْكِبَرَ أَحَدُهُمَا أَوْ كِلَاهُمَا فَلَا تَقُل لَّهُمَا أُفٍّ وَلَا تَنْهَرْهُمَاوَقُل لَّهُمَا قَوْلًا كَرِيمًا

And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them but address them in terms of honour.

*6 v29 Al-Ankabut 

وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حُسْنًا وَإِن جَاهَدَاكَ لِتُشْرِكَ بِي مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ فَلَا تُطِعْهُمَا إِلَيَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَأُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْتَعْمَلُونَ

And We have enjoined on man to be good and dutiful to his parents, but if they strive to make you join with Me (in worship) anything (as a partner) of which you have no knowledge, then obey them not. Unto Me is your return, and I shall tell you what you used to do.

*6

V54, am-Maedah

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَن يَرْتَدَّ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَيُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

O ye who believe! Whoever from amongst you turn back from your religion, (know that in his stead) Allah will bring a people* whom He loveth and who love Him, humble toward believers, stern toward disbelievers, striving in the way of Allah, and fearing not the blame of any blamer. Such is the grace of Allah which He giveth unto whom He will. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing.

• people here is Qawm, as in a Nation of People.