It Was Sent From Constantinople About
100 Years Ago, By Sultan Sulayman The Magnificent.
He built the
Sulaymaniyah minaret, and has immortalised his name at Al-Madinah, as
well as at Meccah, by the number of his donations to the shrine.
[FN#17] Here is supposed to have been one of the Prophet's favourite
stations of prayer.
It is commonly called the Musalla Hanafi, because
now appropriated by that school.
[FN#18] This tradition, like most others referring to events posterior
to the Prophet's death, is differently given, and so important are the
variations, that I only admire how all Al-Islam does not follow Wahhabi
example, and summarily consign them to oblivion. Some read "Between my
dwelling-house (in the Mosque) and my place of Prayer (in the Barr
al-Manakhah) is a Garden of the Gardens of Paradise." Others again,
"Between my house and my pulpit is a Garden of the Gardens of
Paradise." A third tradition-"Between my tomb and my pulpit is a Garden
of the Gardens of Paradise, and verily my pulpit is in my Full
Cistern," or "upon a Full Cistern of the Cisterns of Paradise," has
given rise to a new superstition. "Tara," according to some
commentators, alludes especially to the cistern Al-Kausar; consequently
this Rauzah is, like the black stone at Meccah, bona fide, a bit of
Paradise, and on the day of resurrection, it shall return bodily to the
place whence it came. Be this as it may, all Moslems are warned that
the Rauzah is a most holy spot. None but the Prophet and his son-in-law
Ali ever entered it, when ceremonially impure, without being guilty of
deadly sin. The Mohammedan of the present day is especially informed
that on no account must he here tell lies, or even perjure himself.
Thus the Rauzah must be respected as much as the interior of the Bayt
Allah at Meccah.
[FN#19] This is a stone desk on four pillars, where the Muballighs (or
clerks) recite the Ikamah, the call to divine service. It was presented
to the Mosque by Kaid-Bey, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.
[FN#20] I shall have something to say about this pulpit when entering
into the history of the Harim.
[FN#21] The afternoon prayers being Farz, or obligatory, were recited,
because we feared that evening might come on before the ceremony of
Ziyarat (visitation) concluded, and thus the time for Al-Asr (afternoon
prayers) might pass away. The reader may think this rather a curious
forethought in a man who, like Hamid, never prayed except when he found
the case urgent. Such, however, is the strict order, and my Muzawwir
was right to see it executed.
[FN#22]. This two-bow prayer, which generally is recited in honour of
the Mosque, is here, say divines, addressed especially to the Deity by
the visitor who intends to beg the intercession of his Prophet. It is
only just to confess that the Moslems have done their best by all means
in human power, here as well as elsewhere, to inculcate the doctrine of
eternal distinction between the creature and the Creator.
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