Page 18 - Demo

Muhammad in the Bible David Benjamin KeldaniEdited & Annotated by: Prof. Dawud M. R. Alhanbali & Prof, Dr. Kaseb A. Albadran ( 18 )IThe mystery of the Mispan this article ‘asthe title shows’ Ishall try to give an exposition of the ancient Hebrew Cult of Stone, which they inherited from Abraham (pbuh),their great progenitor, and to show thatthis Stone-Cult wasinstituted at Makkah by that Patriarch and hisson Ishmael (pbuh), in the land of Canaan by Isaac and Jacob, and in Moab and elsewhere by the other descendants of Abraham(pbuh).By the term “Stone-Cult,” letit be understood, I do notmean stoneworship, which isidolatry; by this, I understand the worship of God at a specially consecrated stone meant for that purpose. In those days of yore, when the chosen family wasleading a nomadic and pastoral life, it had no settled habitation where to build a house, especially dedicated to the worship of God; it used to erect a particularstone around which it used to make a hajj;thatisto say,to turn round seven timesin the form of a dancing-ring. The word hajj might frighten the Christian readers and they might shrink at its sight because of its Arabic form and because of its being at present a Muslim religious performance. The word hajj is identical in meaning and etymology with the same in the Hebrew and other Semitic languages. The Hebrew verb hagag is the same as the Arabic hajaj, the difference being only in the pronunciation of the third letter of the Semitic alphabet gamal, which the Arabs pronounce as j. The Law of Moses(pbuh) uses this very word hagag