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Expansions of Al-Haram |
City in Saudi
Arabia with 1.4 million inhabitants (2003
estimate). Makkah
is located about 80 km from the Red Sea
Coast, around a natural well.
Makkah
is the most holy city in Islam. The city is
revered from being the first place created
on earth, as well as the place where Ibrahim
(AS) together with his son Isma'il (AS),
built the Ka'ba. The Ka'ba, the centre of
Islam, is a rectangular building made of
bricks. Around the Ka'ba is the great
mosque, Al-Haram, and around the mosque, in
between the mountains, are the houses that
make up Makkah.
Makkah
was a central point on the caravan routes
running over the Arabian peninsula at the
time of Muhammad (PBUH).
Makkah was
revered as a holy city even before the first
revelations came to Muhammad (PBUH). |
Makkah's
importance as a centre of religious teaching
must not be exaggerated. Very soon in the
beginning of the Muslim expansion, religious
teaching moved to other places in the Muslim
world. Makkah is
important in two points: Centre of the
compulsory pilgrimage, and a focal point for
all Muslims.
Today,
many of the people living in
Makkah are
pilgrims wanting to study Islam in the very
centre of the world. But this learning is
primarily aimed at normal people, and even
today Muslim theology is exercised other
places. But for Saudi Arabia,
Makkah is the
centre of religious teaching.
Apart
from the services for pilgrimage there are
only modest economical activities going on.
Every year some 2 million pilgrims attend
the Hajj, and this number is now regulated,
where each country can send a fixed number
of adherents. The numbers of Muslims coming
to Makkah for
the Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage are far
less, and not regulated.
Source :
http://i-cias.com/e.o
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