Word: ka'ba
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During the hajj, pilgrims throng Mecca, the men clad in two seamless white garments and sandals, the women in white head-to-toe covering. The pilgrims walk seven times around the Ka'ba, a cubical stone building covered by a gold-embroidered black canopy, in the exterior wall of which is set the Black Stone. The interior, now empty, once housed pagan idols, which Muhammad destroyed. The pilgrims also visit other holy sites, act out the search for water by Hagar, the mother of the Arab nation, perform a vigil on Mount 'Arafat (site of the Prophet...
...rather small town embedded in a range of harsh volcanic mountains. Modern tall buildings dwarf older houses, and the markets wind along narrow streets and alleys. In the heart of the city lies the huge star-shaped Haram Mosque, and in the middle of its courtyard stands the Ka'ba, the holiest shrine of Islam. Given the honorific title of "House of God" by God Himself in the Koran, the Ka'ba has thus been venerated by Moslems. It is a simple four-walled structure of black, cemented stone, empty from the inside. Believed by Muslims to have been built...
...first of these traditions is the circumambulation of the Ka'ba. Starting at a certain corner, the worshipper completes seven rounds while reciting prayers, calling for mercy and forgiveness and professing total submission to God. Hundreds of thousands of people flow in circles around the Ka'ba each day and night during the whole year, for this practice is not limited to the period of the pilgrimage. During the night the crowds thin out and the worshipper can pray in close vicinity to the Ka'ba. Moslems sit under the endless arches of the mosque reading the Koran, but starting...
Yesterday, on the ninth of Dhu'l-Hijja, the Ka'ba was virtually deserted. It was the principal day of the pilgrimage, when all pilgrims assemble in the Valley of Arafat, 14 miles east of Mecca, between noon and sunset. The road to Arafat is inevitably blocked by heavy traffic and many pilgrims prefer to go on foot. The Saudi Arabian government enlists extra help to manage the traffic for this hectic day, and each year the road is widened in an attempt to ease the jamming...
Whenever the time for prayer occurs, the haaj and haaja stand facing the direction of Mecca and feel transported beyond time and space to those days when they stood in the Haram Mosque close to the Ka'ba, part of a multitude of worshippers bowing in acquiesence to the call...