This is a selection of relevant stories relating to Mecca, the Kaaba and the Quraysh from the time before Muhammad.

Muhammad's pure descent from Adam

Sirat p. 3

Muhammad was the son of Abdallah, b. Abdul-Muttalib, b. Hisham, b. Abdu Manaf, b. Qusayy, b. Kilab, b. Murra, b. Kab, b. Luayy, b. Ghalib, b. Fihr, b. Malik, b. al-Nadr, b. Kinana, b. Khuzayma, b. Mudrika, b. Ilyas, b. Mudar, b. Nizar, b. Maadd, b. Adnan, b. Udd, b. Muqawwam, b. Hanur, b. Tayrah, b. Yarub, b. Yashjub, b. Nabit, b. Ismail, b. Ibrahim, b. Tarih, b. Nahur, b. Sarugh, b. Rau, b. Falikh, b. Aybar, b. Shalikh, b. Arfakhshadh, b. Sam, b. Nuh, b. Lamk, b. Mattushalakh, b. Akhnukh (prophet Idris?), b. Yard, b. Mahlil, b. Qaynan, b. Yanish, b. Shith, b. Adam. In a male dominated society, and in order to draw authority from Abraham, it is important to show a purely male descent from Abraham, then Noah and Adam. The part from Ismail back to Adam is copied from Genesis. The number of generations from Ibrahim (Abraham) to Muhammad is 30, which gives an average lifetime of some 200 years. Something seems to be missing here, which is probably due to the lack of written records. Qusayy, Luayy and Kinana play particular important roles in Mecca.

The story of Amr b. Luhayy

Sirat p. 35

Muhammad said: "I saw Amr b. Luhayy dragging his intestines in hell, and when I asked him about those who had lived beftween his time and mine, he said that they had perished." This is a serious matter. An elaboration follows: Muhammad said: "Oh Aktham, I saw Amr b. Luhayy dragging his intestines in hell, and never did I see a man so much alike as you and he!" "Will this resemblance injure me?", asked Aktham. "No," said Muhammad, "for you are a believer and he is an infidel. He was the first to change the religion of Ishmael, to set up idols, and institute the custom of bahira, saiba, wasila and hami." There's a lot of important material here. One of the tenets of Islam is that it is the original Jewish and Christian religion, but was later corrupted to remove Allah, Kaaba, Mecca, Hajj, Umra, Jihad and the other Islamic concepts with the Jewish / Christian God, temple, Jerusalem, devotion, compassion etc. This explains why Luhayy is condemned to this rather unpleasent existance in Hell. The terms bahira, saiba, wasila and hami are not explained in detail here. A very obscure section a few pages later attempt to elaborate on these terms. Wasila is the veneration of saints, a practice known to the Catholic church and used by the Shia branch of Islam as well. Luhayy, as we saw, was the 9th generation ancestor of Muhammad, and an inhabitant of Mecca, dating him possibly to the 4th century AD. The religion of Ishmael would either be the Jewish religion, or a separate branch of it now lost to history. Since the Jewish and Christian religions are well documented, archeologically and scripturally, and are known not to have undergone any significant change at the time of Luhayy, we should assume that what he changed was local, as Luhayy was clearly not in a position to change Jewish and Christian traditions throughout the known world. That Luhayy changed the religion from Christianity to paganism fits an interesting piece of archeology described in the Sirat, namely the Bible quote found in the Ka'aba during a renovation in the early years of Muhammad. The Ka'aba might have been a Christian church, converted by Luhayy back to paganism and stone worship. Muhammad, as we all know, later discarded all stone idols except the black one representing Allah.

The beginning of stone worship

Sirat p. 35

They say that the beginning of stone worship among the sons of Ishmael was when Mecca became too small for them, and they wanted more room in the country. Everyone who left the town took with him a stone from the sacred area to do honour to it. Wherever they settled they set it up and walked around it as they went around the Ka'aba. This led them to worship what stones they pleased and those which made an impression on them. The similar practice of Buddhist to walk around stone monuments, known as stupas, comes to mind here. Thus as generations passed, they forgot their primitive faith and adopted another religion for that of Abraham and Ishmael. They worshipped idols and adopted the same errors as the peoples before them. This is a little confusing. We don't have that many (9) generations between Luhayy and Muhammad. Yet, they retained and held fast practices going back to the time of Abraham, such as honouring the temple and going round it, the great and the little pilgrimage, and the standing on Arafat and Muzdalifa, sacrificing the victims and the pilgrim cry at the great and little pilgrimage, while introducing elements which had no place in the religion of Abraham. There is no archeological or scriptural evidence to support the notion that these were ever Jewish or Christian rituals, or that Jews or Christians were ever traveling to Mecca, performing the Hajj or the Umra, standing on Arafat and Muzdalifa, or the other Islamic rituals described here. Actually, there is much evidence that today's Jewish rituals are largely unchanged for milleniums. One is tempted to quote Marx here: "Who are you going to believe - me or your own eyes?" Thus, Kinana and Quraysh used the pilgrim cry: "At Thy service, Oh God, at Thy service! At Thy service, Though without an associate but the associate Thou hast. Thou ownest him and what he owns." They used to acknowledge his unity in their cry and then include their idols with Allah, putting the ownership of them in His hand. A reference to this Quran verse: Allah said to Muhammad: "Most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others with him," A reference to this Quran verse: Quran 12:106: And most of them believe not in Allâh except that they attribute partners to Him (i.e. they are Mushrikûn, i.e. polytheists.) It is clear that the Meccans are not faulted for not worshipping Allah. Instead, their fault is to set him on an equal level as the other idols of the Ka'aba, embracing polytheism rather than monotheism. "Invoking anyone in the Universe other than the One and Only True Lord of the Worlds would be a clear and manifest form of the unforgivable crime of ‘shirk’ in Islam." This is a serious matter. As Allah is described as 'oft-forgiving, merciful' and is frequently seen forgiving quite serious crimes, such as rape, plunder and murder, this is bad indeed. A clear example of how important Islam is, and how it supercedes natural morality. More details of old traditions follow. One reads: Khaulan had an idol called Ammanas in the Khaulan country. According to their own acount, they used to divide their crops and cattle between it and Allah. If any of Allah's portion which they had earmarked for him came into Ammanas' portion, they left it to him; but if any of Ammanas' portion was in Allah's portion, they returned it to him. Some say that it was concerning them that Allah revealed: Quran 6:136: And they assign to Allâh a share of the tilth and cattle which He has created, and they say: "This is for Allâh" according to their claim, "and this is for our (Allâh's so-called) partners." But the share of their (Allâh's so-called) "partners" reaches not Allâh, while the share of Allâh reaches their (Allâh's so-called) "partners"! Evil is the way they judge! This looks strange, though. Allah should have no need for worldly goods, and much less suffer jealousy over not getting his fair share. This also shows some details about Arab religion before Muhammad. Each town or settlement could have their own idols, but in common was the reverence of Allah being important to everyone. A comment on the word 'Allah' might be in order here. It has been debated wether it means 'god' (but 'illah' should do for that. It is in common use, and should not be confused with 'Allah'), the Judeo-Christian God, or a distinct god from Arabia. Allah just might be a contraction of Al-Ilah, meaning 'The god' or 'The highest god', and thus referring to the most important of the idols of the Ka'aba, the black stone. This matches also the meaning of 'Allahu-Akbar', namely 'Allah is greater' or 'Allah is the greatest'. This cry was in use for generations before Muhammad, and is quoted as having been exclaimed at his birth. Not everyone were happy with the stone worship, though: The B. Milkan [tribe] had image called Sad, a lofty rock in a desert plain in their country. They have a story that one of their tribesmen took some of his stock camels to the rock to stand by it as to aquire its blessing. When the camels saw the rock and smelt the blood which had been shed on it, they shied from it and fled in all directions. No wonder, actually, that the stench of camel blood scares the camels. This so angered the Milkanite that he seized a stone and threw it at the idol saying: "Curse you. You have scared away my camels!" He went in search of them, and when he had collected them together once more, he said: We came to Sad to improve our fortunes But Sad dissipated them. We have nothing to do with Sad. Sad is nothing but a rock on a bare height. It cannot put one right and send one wrong. No doubt there was potential in Arabia for a religion that went beyond stone worship and mindless ritualism. Every household had an idol in their house which they used to worship. When a man was about to set out on a journey, he would rub himself against it, as he was about to ride off; and when he returned from his journey, the fist thing he did was to rub himself against it before he went in to his family. This ritual was adopted by Muhammad, but only for the black stone representing Allah. It is still being done by Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca. When Allah sent Muhammad with the message of monotheism, Quraysh said: "Would he make the gods into one God? That is indeed a strange undertaking. The free-spirited Arabs didn't quite like the notion of centralizing their religion. Now along with the Ka'aba, the Arabs had adopted Tawaghit, which were temples which they venerated as they venerated the Ka'aba. They had their guardians and overseers, and they used to make offerings to them as they did to the Ka'aba and to circumambulate them and sacrifice at them. Yet, they recognized the supeiority of the Ka'aba because it was the temple and mosque of Abraham the friend (of God). Quite a clear description of ancient Arabic religion. Noteable that the temples themselves were venerated, not merely the gods inside them. This is also reflected in personal names such as Abd-al-Dar ("Slave to the House"). The reference to Abraham is possibly symbolic, as Abraham himself, as far as is known, never came anywhere near to Mecca. It would be a fitting attribution in the case that the Ka'aba had originally been a church, actually. More descriptions of the religion and temples of ancient Arabia follows. The Ka'aba and the (profitable) right to service the pilgrims change hands a few times, usually in violent ways. This interesting note has future implications for Muhammad, as this would happen to him: Now, in the time of paganism, Mecca did not tolerate injustice and wrong within its borders, and if anyone did wrong therein, it expelled him. Unfortunately, the nature of 'wrong' is not explained in detail. There can of course be all kinds of good reasons for expelling people from a place like this - drunkenness, violence, etc. - but a set of clear rules is essential if one is to ascertain if an expulsion is justified or not.

Al-Ghauth's authority over men on pilgrimage

Sirat p. 49

Al-Ghauth b. Murr used to give the permission to men on pilgrimage to leave Arafat, and this function descended to his children after him. He and his sons used to be called Sufa. [...] His sons carried on the practice until they were cut off. Sufa used to send the people away from Arafat and give them permission to depart when they left Mina. When the day of departure arrived, they used to come to throw pebbles, and a man of Sufa used to throw for the men, none throwing before he had thrown. Those who had urgent business used to come and say to him: "Get up and throw so that we may throw with you," and he would say: "No, by Allah, not until the sun goes down", and those who wanted to leave quickly used to throw stones at him to hurry him, saying: "Confound you, get up there and throw." But he refused until the sun went down, and then he would get up and throw while the men threw stones with him. When they had finished the stoning and wanted to leave Mina, Sufa held both sides of the hill and kept the men back. They said: "Give the order to depart, Sufa." No one left until they had gone first. When Sufa left and had passedon, men were left to go their own way and followed them. This was the practice until they were cut off. After them the next of kin inherited. They were of B. Sad in the family of Safwan b. al-Harith. It was Safwan who gave permission to the pilgrims to depart from Arafat, and this right was maintened by them up to Islam, the last being Karib b. Safwan. Aus b. Tamim said: The Pilgrims do not quit their halting-place at Arafat Until it is said: "Give permission, Oh family of Safwan." In Tabari, we find that at least one of the pilgrimage rituals were invented by Qusayy: Tabari VI:31: “Qusayy instituted the lighting of the fire at al-Muzdalifah when the wuquf took place so that those being driven away from Arafat could see it. This fire continued to be lit in this place throughout the Jahiliyyah. This fire was also lit in the time of the Messenger, and of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman.” The Hajj is still performed today in the same manner. See for example Islamic Voice for a detailed description. One may wonder why people are performing these rituals. The explanation is simple, as quoted from Islamic Voice: "It is the Sunnah [example] of the Prophet." It is being done because Muhammad did so.

The truth. Nothing but the truth

Before Muhammad

Muhammad's pure descent from Adam

The story of Amr b. Luhayy

The beginning of stone worship

Al-Ghauth's authority over men on pilgrimage

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