The Kaaba is the most important

house of worship in Islam. Many have

made the statement that

Prophet

Muhammad,

may the Peace

and

Blessings of Allah be upon him, was

the founder of Islam.

However, this

statement is far from the

truth.

Obviously if you think of the terms

Allah, Islam, Mohammed you know they

are all related. But did

you

know the

message preached by

Abraham and

Ishmael was the same as that

preached by

Muhammad?

And did

you

know

that

Abraham and his son

Ishm

el built the

Kaaba?

The message preached by Prophet

Muhammad

was the message of

Tawheed, or perfect, Islamic

monotheism.

his idea of

onotheism

was

preached by all

of the

prophets of

Allah, including

Adam,

Noah, Abraham,

Joseph, Moses,

Solomon,

Jesus, and

Muhammad.

Therefore, before discussing the life of Prophet

Muhammad, it is prudent

we give some background

the other Prophets of

Islam. The

prophets that are

most directly related to the life of

Muhammad

are

Abraham and Ishmael, the builders of the Kaaba.

Ishmael was born to Abraham’s slave Hagar.

However, at the time

Abraham

was already married

woman named Sarah.

When

Sarah

had her child,

named Isaac, life became difficult for Hagar and

Ishmael.

So, Allah inspired

Abraham to

take them to a valley in the

Arabian

Peninsula.

This valley

would later be known as Mecca.

This valley was barren and deserted. Abraham left Hagar and Ishmael,

who

was only a baby at the

time,

in the valley

with a few

provisions.

However,

the provisions ran out soon after Abraham left.

Hagar found

herself with a

crying baby

and no way to help him.

Unable to bear his cries anymore, Hagar set the child down and went in

search of help. She ran

between

two

mountains just outside the

valley

name Safa and Marwa. Hagar ran back and forth

between these

two

mountains

seven times in search of help or sustenance.

Muslims still commemorate

Hagar's action in the Haj today.

Muslims believe that when Hagar returned, she saw an angel kneeling

before her son Ishmael.

Using

either the heel

of his foot or the tip

of his

wing, the angel dug into the sand near the kicking

child, and

from that

spot

sprang a

fountain. This fountain is still in existence

today

in Makkah

, and is

known as

the well of

Zam

Zam.

In time, some Bedouins traveling nearby noticed birds flying above the

valley. They were curious as

they

knew the

birds would only be

where

there was water, and they knew there was no water in the

area.

They

were

surprised to find

Hagar and Ishmael and the

miraculous fountain.

The Bedouins settled in the valley with the fountain, and that began the

settlement that later became

known as M

cca.

The Bedouin

taught

Ishmael

Arabic, and they followed the religion of his father.

Abraham would travel to Mecca frequently to visit his family. Abraham

was

inspired by Allah to build

the Kaba

with his

son

Ishmael.

They

gathered rocks from a nearby quarry and began to

build

box

shaped

structure. This building

became known as the

Kaaba, for its cube-

shape.

The centerpiece of the

abah

was the black stone. Some say this

stone

was

meteorite that

started

out

white, but

turned black with

the sins

of man.

Abraham made this house of worship a yearly pilgrimage destination for

all

who followed his way.

The

children of

Ishmael’s brother

Isaac also

visited

the cube-shaped house as it was a house of

monotheistic

worship

built by

Abraham.

As the centuries passed, and the population of Mecca grew, people

began

to move further and

further

away from the

original settlement

and

Kaaba

, also known as the Haram, meaning sacred

. The

people who moved away brought

stones from the

House

Allah with them as keepsakes and would

incorporate

them into their

worship.

However, their descendants eventually forgot about the religion of

Abraham

and Ishmael.

So, when

they

came into

contact with other

pagan

tribes and

nations, they began to actually worship the stone

keepsakes of

their

forefathers.

Once these idols were inside the

House of Allah, the

children

Isaac

stopped making pilgrimage to Mecca.

Some of the practices of Abraham were still evident in Arab culture, even

before Muhammad was

born.

For example,

the annual

pilgrimage

, known

as the Hajj,

was a

central part of Arabian life and

central to

the Meccan

economy.

Also,

the

pagan Arabs practiced

circumcision, another

holdover

from

the life of

Abraham.

For a comprehensive, in-depth, and truly fascinating lecture series on Prophet Abrahim, Ismail, and

the other

messengers of Allah, I highly recommend Lives of the Prophets by Anway Al-Awlaki. This is a

wonderful series and

when you finish it, Inshallah, you will be a more enlightened Muslim. Lives of the

Prophets is available from Al-Basheer.

The Kaaba

Islamic Learning Materials

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Fascinating Story Surrounding the Life of Prophet Muhammad

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