According To Others, The
Ka’Abah Key Was Committed To The Charge Of Osman Bin Talhah By The
Prophet.
[FN#6] The Moslem In Circumambulation Presents His Left Shoulder; The
Hindu’S Pradakshina Consists In Walking Round With The Right Side Towards
The Fane Or Idol.
Possibly the former may be a modification of the
latter, which would appear to be the original form of the rite.
Its
conjectural significance is an imitation of the procession of the
heavenly bodies, the motions of the spheres, and the dances of the
angels. These are also imitated in the circular whirlings of the
Darwayshes. And Al-Shahristani informs us that the Arab philosophers
believed this sevenfold circumambulation to be symbolical of the motion
of the planets round the sun. It was adopted by the Greeks and Romans,
whose Ambarvalia and Amburbalia appear to be eastern superstitions,
introduced by Numa, or by the priestly line of princes, into their
pantheism. And our processions round the parish preserve the form of
the ancient rites, whose life is long since fled. Moslem moralists have
not failed to draw spiritual food from this mass of materialism. “To
circuit the Bayt Ullah,” said the Pir Raukhan (As. Soc. vol. xi. and
Dabistan, vol. iii., “Miyan Bayazid”), “and to be free from wickedness, and
crime, and quarrels, is the duty enjoined by religion. But to circuit
the house of the friend of Allah (i.e. the heart), to combat bodily
propensities, and to worship the Angels, is the business of the
(mystic) path.” Thus Sa’adi, in his sermons,—which remind the Englishman of
“poor Yorick,”—“He who travels to the Ka’abah on foot makes a circuit of the
Ka’abah, but he who performs the pilgrimage of the Ka’abah in his heart is
encircled by the Ka’abah.” And the greatest Moslem divines sanction this
visible representation of an invisible and heavenly shrine, by
declaring that, without a material medium, it is impossible for man to
worship the Eternal Spirit.
[FN#7] The Mutawwif, or Dalil, is the guide at Meccah.
[FN#8] In A.D. 1674 some wretch smeared the Black Stone with impurity,
and every one who kissed it retired with a sullied beard.
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