In 1802, AN ARMY LED BY THE SONS of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd
al-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism) and Muhammad ibn Saud occupied Taif
and began a bloody massacre. A year later, the forces occupied the holy
city of Mecca. They executed a campaign of destruction in many sacred
places and leveled all the existing domes, even those built over the
well of Zamzam. However, after the army left, Sharif Ghalib breached the
truce, inciting the Wahhabis to reoccupy Mecca in 1805.
In 1806, the Wahhabi army occupied Medina. They did not leave any
religious building, including mosques, without demolishing it, whether
inside or outside the Baqi’ (graveyard). They intended to demolish the
grave of the Prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of God be
upon him, many times, but would repeatedly change their minds. At this
time, non-Wahhabi Muslims were prevented from performing the Hajj
(pilgrimage). In 1805, Iraqi and Iranian Muslims were refused permission
to perform Hajj, as were the Syrians in 1806 and Egyptians the
following year. The Saudi leader at the time wanted the pilgrims to
embrace his Wahhabi beliefs and accept his Wahhabi mission. If they
refused, he denied them permission to perform the Hajj and considered
them heretics and infidels – ignoring the word of God in Sura al-Baqara:
And who is more unjust than he who forbids that in places for the
worship of God, His name should be celebrated? Whose zeal is (in fact)
to ruin them? It was not fitting that such should themselves enter them
except in fear. For them there is nothing but disgrace in this world,
and the world to come, an exceeding torment. (Qur’an 2:114)
The Wahhabi army’s destruction campaign targeted the graves of the
martyrs of Uhud, the mosque at the grave of Sayyid al-Shuhada’ Hamza bin
Abdul Muttalib and the mosques outside the Baqi’: the Mosque of Fatima
al-Zahra, the Mosque of al-Manaratain, and Qubbat’ al-Thanaya (the
burial site of the Prophet’s incisor that was broken in the battle of
Uhud). The structures in the Baqi’ were also leveled to the ground and
not a single dome was left standing. This great place that was visited
by millions of Muslims over many centuries became a garbage dump, such
that it was not possible to recognize any grave or know whom it
embraced.
The occupation of the holy places by the army and their preventing
Muslims from performing Hajj led thousands of people to flee Mecca and
Medina to escape religious persecution. The Muslims started to complain
and express their concerns, and public opinion put pressure on the
Ottoman Caliph to liberate and rebuild the two holy places and once
again permit the Muslims to perform the pilgrimage. Accordingly, an army
led by Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Caliph’s viceroy in Egypt, was sent.
When the forces arrived in the Hijaz, a number of tribes marched in
support of the army, which regained control over Medina and then Mecca.
In 1818, the Wahhabis were defeated and they withdrew from the holy
places. The Prophet’s Mosque, the Baqi’ and the monuments at Uhud were
rebuilt during the reigns of the Ottoman sultans ‘Abd al-Majid I, ‘Abd
al-Hamid II and Mahmud II. From 1848 to i860, the buildings were
renovated and the Ottomans built the domes and mosques in splendid
aesthetic style. They also rebuilt the Baqi’ with a large dome over the
graves of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima al-Zahra, Imam Zainul ‘Abidin
(‘Ali bin al-Hussain), Imam Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Baqir and Imam Ja’far
al-Sadiq.
The graves of others related to the Prophet found at the Baqi’
include those belonging to Ibrahim (son), ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (Companion
and son-in-law), Saffia bint Abdul Muttalib (aunt), Atika bint ‘Abd
al-Muttalib (aunt), Al-’Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib (uncle), Fatima bint
Assad (Imam Ali’s mother), ‘Abd Allah ibn Ja’far bin Abi Talib (cousin)
and Aqil ibn Abi Talib (The Prophet’s cousin).
The grave of the Prophet’s father ‘Abd Allah was in Dar al-Nabigha of
the Bani Najjar, the house of where the Prophet learned to swim.
However, his father’s grave was exhumed 17 years ago and transferred to
the Baqi’. The area of the house today lies under the marble covering
the plaza surrounding the mosque.
A number of the Prophet’s wives (the Mothers of the Faithful) were
buried in the Baqi’: ‘A’isha, Hafsa, Juwayriya, Saffia, Sawda, Zaynab
bint Khuzaima, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Umm Habiba and Umm Salama. The tomb of
Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, is in Mecca because she died before
the Hijra (migration of Muslims to Medina). Her grave is in the Hajun
cemetery, known as Maqbarat’al-Ma’la. The tomb of Maimouna, another
wife, is also in Mecca in an area known as Sarif, which lies on the side
of the Hijra Road, nearly 13 miles (20 kilometers) outside Mecca.
On April 21, 1925, the domes in the Baqi’ were demolished once more
along with the tombs of the holy personalities in Maqbarat’al-Ma’la in
Mecca, where the Holy Prophet’s mother, wife Khadija, grandfather and
other ancestors are buried. Destruction of the sacred sites in the Hijaz
continues till this day. Wahhabis say they are trying to rescue Islam
from what they consider innovations, déviances and idolatries. Among the
practices they believe are contrary to Islam are constructing elaborate
monuments over graves and making supplications there.
The Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim – which was built to mark the location of
the house where the Prophet’s son, Ibrahim, was born to Mariah, his
Egyptian wife – also contained the grave of Hamida al-Barbariyya, the
mother of Imam Musa al-Kazim. These sites were destroyed over the past
few years.
I recently met with one of the leading political leaders of Medina
and took the opportunity to speak to him about the destruction of these
holy sites. He told me that the sites were not being demolished, but
that torrential rain in Medina was washing away the old buildings! I
told him the mosque and tomb of Sayyid Imam al-Uraidhi ibn Ja’far
al-Sadiq, four miles from the Prophet’s Mosque, was destroyed by
dynamite and flattened on August 13, 2002. Imam al-Uraidhi is ninth in
line from the Prophet. I also asked him about the plan to demolish the
last remnant of the historical vestiges of the Messenger of God, namely
his noble birthplace, which has been converted into a library, “Maktabat
Makka al-Mukarrama.” There was no answer.
Within the last 10 years, Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi’i, a student at the
University of Medina, wrote a thesis titled “About the Dome Built over
the Grave of the Messenger,” sponsored by Sheikh Hammad al-Ansari. In
this paper, the student demands that the noble grave be brought out of
the Mosque. He says the presence of the holy grave and noble dome are
major innovations and that they both need to be destroyed! His thesis
received very high marks. Last year, the city planning board of Medina
painted the famous green dome of the Prophet’s Holy Mosque silver. After
intense protests by the citizens of Medina, the board restored the dome
to its original color.
In the Ottoman part of the Prophet’s Mosque, at the center of the three
sections raised a bit from the ground level are three circles. The
first, toward the west, corresponds to the grave of the Prophet. The
next two toward the east correspond to the graves of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq
and ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. Above the circles are invocations including ”
Ya Allah” and “Ya Muhammad.” The latter was removed and replaced it with
” Ya Majid” by adding the dot under the ‘ha of Muhammad to make itjim
and two dots under the second mint of Muhammad to make it ya. There are
qasidas written by rulers of the Muslim world, such as Sultan ‘Abd
alHamid. Many verses of the famous Burda of al-Busayri had also been
painted over. On the Qibla side, the brass partition that is divided
into three sections between two columns, the authorities have also tried
to cover the famous two verses inscribed in the east from the story of
al-’Utbi as mentioned by Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir. “O best of those
whose bones are buried in the deep earth, and from whose fragrance the
depth and height have become sweet! May I be the ransom for a grave in
which you dwell, where purity, bounty and munificence.”
If one raises his head a bit, he will see on the first section of
this partition a green banner, on which the words of the Almighty are
framed in yellow:
O you who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the
Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him and his family, nor speak
aloud to him in talk, as you speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds
be rendered fruitless while you perceive not. (Qur’an 49:2)
The Sacred Chamber has four exterior doors: on the south, Bab
al-Tawba (The Door of Repentance), on the north, Bab al-Tahajjud (The
Door of Night Prayer), on the east, Bab Fatima (the Door of Fatima), and
on the west, Bab al-Nabi (The Door of the Prophet) – also known as Bab
alWufud (The Door of Delegations). These gates have been present since
the year 668 AH except for the Gate of the Night Prayer, which was
installed in 729 ah. Inside there are two gates, one on either side of
the triangular part of the interior compartment. All of these doors are
covered by brass shelves holding Qur’ans, an attempt to prevent the
public from looking inside the Sacred chamber.
The Wahhabi religious authorities are, unfortunately, on a fast track.
In 1998, the grave of Amina bint Wahb, the Prophet’s mother, was
bulldozed in Abwa and gasoline was poured on it. Even though thousands
of petitions throughout the Muslim world were sent to Saudi Arabia,
nothing stopped this action. One of my late teachers, Sheikh Sayyid
Muhammad ibn ‘Alawi al-Maliki, a Meccan who was a great historian on the
holy sites and inherited his knowledge from his father and forefathers
who were all teachers of the holy Haram, showed me pictures of the grave
of Sayyida Amina marked with a pile of stones after the destruction.
The House of Khadija was excavated during the Haram extensions, then
hurriedly covered over so as to obliterate any trace of it. This was the
house where the Prophet received some of his first revelations and it
is also where his children Umm Kulthum, Ruqqaya, Zaynab, Fatima, and
Qasim were born. Dar al-Arqam, the first school in Islam where the
Prophet taught has also been demolished. It was in the area of Shi’b
‘Ali near the Bab ‘Ali door opposite the king’s palace. It is now part
of the extension of the Haram.
The authorities plan to demolish the house of Mawlid, where the
Prophet was born. About 60 years ago, this house, which used to have a
dome over it, was turned into a cattle market. Some people then worked
together to transform it into a library, which it is today. It is lined
with shelves of books about Mecca, most of them written by Meccans. But
the library is under threat again because of the new Jabal ‘Umar
project, one of the largest real estate development projects near the
Grand Mosque. The birthplace of the Prophet is to make way for a car
park and hotels. About 99% of real estate owners in the Jabal ‘Umar area
are shareholders in this company. The owners have been provided with
financial incentives, including what they used to receive as rents,
combining five-star facilities under the luxurious Le Meridien banner.
The Meridien Towers will allow several thousand housing units in Mecca
to be available during specified periods of time, for a one-off, fixed
fee, giving the towers 25 years of shared ownership in Mecca. This
scheme allow outsiders, whether Muslim or not, to invest in the city;
they will be allowed to buy from a range of properties that can be used,
sublet, resold or given as a gift.
For the holy month of Ramadan in Mecca, authorities built a wall
enclosure in the Haram for women to pray there so men will not be able
to see them. However, this has also blocked women’s visibility of the
Ka’ba while they perform their prayers. The tawaf (circumambulation) for
women has also been restricted to certain times. We don’t know if these
changes are permanent or just for Ramadan.
In Medina, of the seven mosques at the site of the Battle of the
Trench (Jabal al-Khandaq), where Sura al-Ahzab was revealed, only two
remain. The others have been demolished and a Saudi bank’s cashpoint
machine has been built in the area. The remaining mosques will be
demolished as soon as the new mosque being constructed is ready. One of
the mosques slated for destruction is Masjid Fath, the mosque and rock
of victory, where the Prophet stood during the battle of the trench
praying for victory. On the rock is where he received God’s promises of
victory and of the conquest of Mecca.
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