{"id":1632,"date":"2012-10-16T21:06:52","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T04:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1632"},"modified":"2012-10-16T21:06:52","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T04:06:52","slug":"hearing-the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/10\/hearing-the-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing The Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of years ago the Patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim in the Arabic), upon the commandment of our Creator, traveled with his family, wife Hajar and son Ismail, south out of Palestine and into the deserts of Arabia to a barren valley known at that time as Becca (today’s modern Mecca). \u00a0He left his wife and infant son there and turned around and started to walk away. \u00a0Despite the pleas of his wife he did not answer her until she asked him, “is this what\u00a0your\u00a0Lord commanded?”. \u00a0On that question he answered in the affirmative and continued to walk. \u00a0Hajar then replied, “then we shall\u00a0persevere”.<\/p>\n

A few days later their provisions ran out. \u00a0Her milk stopped. \u00a0The baby started to cry. \u00a0Hajar runs to the top of a near by hill, now called Mount Safa, and calls out for anyone to hear her. \u00a0She then runs down and to another hill about 1\/4 of a mile away now known as Mount Marwah. \u00a0She calls out from there as well. \u00a0She runs between the two hills seven times calling out for help at each hill. \u00a0Her baby, down in the valley is crying and kicking. \u00a0Upon the completion of her seventh circuit between the two hills, she suddenly sees down by the feet of her son a spring of water had erupted and water was gushing forth. \u00a0This miraculous spring is known as Zamzam, and except for a short time when the ancient Meccans had buried it, it has flowed for thousands of years to this day providing travelers and pilgrims life sustaining water.<\/p>\n

With the flow of water in that barren valley, birds began to fly there. \u00a0Caravans following the birds also soon arrived. \u00a0The great city of Mecca is built at that site. \u00a0About nine years go by and Ibrahim returns to visit his family and see the good fortune that was promised would come their way. \u00a0He finds a small city has grown around where he left his family. \u00a0It was at this time that he was commanded to build the first sanctuary for the worship of the One God and he lays down the foundation of that house. \u00a0It was also at this time that he was commanded to\u00a0sacrifice\u00a0his son Ismail. \u00a0It was this miraculous event where as he was about to draw the blade across his son’s throat, with his eyes closed unable to bear the sight of what he was about to do, hears his young son laughing\u00a0heartily off to the side. \u00a0When he opens his\u00a0eyes, he finds a ram in the place of his son.<\/p>\n

He once again leaves his family only to return years later when his son is a young man. \u00a0At this time he and his son raise the house of worship, now known as the Ka’ba, a cubic shaped building. \u00a0Its corners are loosely aligned with one pair along the East-West line and the other pair along the North-South line. \u00a0Once they completed the house, Ibrahim calls out in supplication that the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth accept the effort that they made. \u00a0God replies to him by commanding him to make the call to all humanity to come and worship at that house. \u00a0Ibrahim then calls out in as loud a voice as he could. \u00a0It\u00a0reverberated through all the canyons and ravines and every deep crack, and still echos to this day.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0response\u00a0to that call made thousands of years ago, \u00a0on this night the faithful respond: “Hear we are in service O Lord Here we are replying to your call. \u00a0Here we are in service, there is no associate with You, Here we are! \u00a0Truly all praise is to you, all blessing from you, and to you is the dominion over all things. \u00a0There is no associate with You!”<\/p>\n

And for the next 9 days, approximately 2 million Muslims of the nearly 1.75 billion on earth, begin to congregate on Mecca to perform the largest annual religious spectacle on the planet – The Hajj.<\/p>\n

During the Hajj, Muslims sacrifice their livelihood by leaving it behind, leaving their families behind, their homes and trek out into the desert in worship of the One God, repeating the rites that were done by Hajar, Ibrahim and Ismail thousands of years ago. \u00a0Of course no human sacrifices are performed, being prohibited in Islam, but other sacrifices are made showing our devotion to God and our lack of care for material wealth. \u00a0It culminates in 9 days on the plain of Arafah 13 miles out in the desert and then back to Mecca on the 10th day where the faithful will circumambulate around the Ka’ba for 3 days during the Holiday of Sacrifice in\u00a0commemoration\u00a0of Ibrahim and what he did before they return home. \u00a0It is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year, being the second of only two holidays.<\/p>\n

The start of the Hajj coincides with the beginning of the 12th month of the year Dhul-Hijjah, the month of the pilgrimage. \u00a0The month in the Islamic calendar, as always, starts with the sighting of the new crescent moon, which was seen world round this evening. \u00a0Here is the view from Campbell California.<\/p>\n

\"Crescent<\/a>

Dhul Hijjah Moon, 1433<\/p><\/div>\n

So to all my Muslims readers, Hajj Mabrur!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The start of the Hajj coincides with the beginning of the 12th month of the year Dhul-Hijjah, the month of the pilgrimage. The month in the Islamic calendar, as always, starts with the sighting of the new crescent moon, which was seen world round this evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[445,41,216,218,17,217,232],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1632"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1636,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1632\/revisions\/1636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}