This, However, Is Seldom Done, As The Ceremonies
Of The Towaf And Say Are Sufficiently Fatiguing To Render Repose
Desirable
On their completion the visitor, therefore, dresses in his
usual clothes; but the next or any following day, (the sooner
The
better,) he resumes the ihram, with the same ceremonies as are observed
on first assuming it, and then proceeds to the Omra, a place one hour
and a half from Mekka. Here he repeats two rikats in a small chapel, and
returns to the city, chanting all the way the pious ejaculations called
Telby, beginning with the words, "Lebeyk, Alla humma, Lebeyk." He must
now again perform the Towaf and the Say, have his head completely
shaved, and lay aside the ihram, which closes those ceremonies. A visit
to the Omra is enjoined by the law as absolutely necessary; but many
individuals, notwithstanding, dispense with it. I went thither, on the
third day after my arrival in the city, performing the walk in the
night-time, which is the fashion during the hot season.
At the time of the Hadj, all these ceremonies must be repeated
[p.98] after returning from Wady Muna, and again on taking leave of
Mekka. The Towaf, or walk round the Kaaba, should also be performed as
often as convenient; and few foreigners live at Mekka, who do not make
it a point to execute it twice daily; in the evening and before day-
break.
Prior to the age of Mohammed, when idolatry prevailed in Arabia, the
Kaaba was regarded as a sacred object, and visited with religious
veneration by persons who performed the Towaf nearly in the same manner
as their descendants do at present.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 137 of 669
Words from 37369 to 37650
of 182297
