The word “therein”
is interpreted to mean Meccah; and the “manifest signs” the Ka’abah, which
contains such marvels as the foot-prints on Abraham’s platform and the
spiritual safeguard of all who enter the Sanctuary.[FN#66] The other
“signs,” historical, psychical, and physical, are briefly these:
The
preservation of the Hajar al-Aswad and the Makam Ibrahim from many
foes, and the miracles put forth (as in the War of the Elephant), to
defend the house; the violent and terrible deaths of the sacrilegious;
and the fact that, in the Deluge, the large fish did not eat the little
fish in the Harim. A wonderful desire and love impel men from distant
regions to visit the holy spot, and the first sight of the Ka’abah causes
awe and fear, horripilation and tears. Furthermore, ravenous beasts
will not destroy their prey in the Sanctuary land, and the pigeons and
other birds never perch upon the house, except to be
[p.326] cured of sickness, for fear of defiling the roof. The Ka’abah,
though small, can contain any number of devotees; no one is ever hurt
in it,[FN#67] and invalids recover their health by rubbing themselves
against the Kiswah and the Black Stone. Finally, it is observed that
every day 100,000 mercies descend upon the house, and especially that
if rain come up from the northern corner there is plenty in Irak; if
from the south, there is plenty in Yaman; if from the east, plenty in
India; if from the western, there is plenty in Syria; and if from all
four angles, general plenty is presignified.
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