Mecca:-
It is a word borrowed from Sabaean (Makuraba) meaning Sanctuary which makes it a holy place long before Muhammad. It was the holiest place in Arabia and was controlled by the Quraysh tribe to which Muhammad was born.
Another interpretation is that it was called Macca Rabba [Dtharba Udthma] meaning Great Impact in memory of the fall of the meteorite, the later named Black Stone. This would of course give it the perfect rendering and meaning.
*** The reader should be made aware of the most ASTOUNDING fact that the name of MECCA, the holiest site of the Quraysh, is NEVER mentioned in the verses of the Quran ***
According to the Quran, Abraham and his children - Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the Tribes of Israel, etc. - already knew of Allah and were themselves Muslimoon S2:132/3.
In S22:26, Mecca was granted to Abraham and it was Abraham and Ishmael who allegedly built the foundations of the Ka'ba -
2: 125 Remember We made the house a place of assembly for men and a place of safety; and take ye the station of Abraham as a place of prayer; and We covenanted with Abraham and Isma`il that they should sanctify My House for those who compass it round or use it as a retreat or bow or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer).
126 And remember Abraham said: "My Lord make this a City of Peace and feed its people with fruits such of them as believe in Allah and the Last Day." He said: "(Yea) and such as reject faith for a while will I grant them their pleasure but will soon drive them to the torment of fire an evil destination (indeed)!"
127 And remember Abraham and Isma`il raised the foundations of the House (with this prayer): "Our Lord! accept (this service) from us for thou art the All-Hearing the All-Knowing.
128 "Our Lord! make of us Muslims [Muslimeen] bowing to Thy (Will) and of our progeny a people Muslim [Muslimata] bowing to Thy (Will) and show us our places for the celebration of (due) rites; and turn unto us (in mercy); for Thou art the Oft-Returning Most-Merciful.
*** Which would make it holy to all the Jews as descendants from Abraham and Isaac ***
3:96 The first House (of worship) appointed for men was that at Bakka full of blessing and of guidance for all kinds of beings:
#422 Bakka: same as Makkah, perhaps an older name. The foundation of the Ka'ba goes back to Abraham 423 'Alamin: all the worlds (i. 2. ii), all kinds of beings; all nations (iii. 42): all creatures (iii. 97), #
*** This is yet another enigmatic name that the interpreter had to associate with Mecca. It shows that the oral tradition of the Arabs may not have had such an appellation for Mecca; hence where did the Quran get it from?
According to the interpretation of (Martin Ling : Muhammad), it is derived from
Psalm 84: 1. To the chief Musician, according to Gittit, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.2. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts!3. My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.4. Even the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.5. Happy are those who dwell in your house, ever praising you. Selah.6. Happy is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the highways,7. Which, passing through the valley of Baca, make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with blessings.8. They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion.9. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah"
In Hebrew Baca can be either Thorn or Weeping. Either way, it needs an enormous and unrealistic stretch of imagination to connect this particular word
- from the whole anthology of Hebrew Scriptures - in this particular verse with the Arabian Peninsula especially since Solomon and David were in the land of Israel and not in Arabia ***
3:97 In it are signs manifest; (for example) the Station of Abraham [Maqam Ibrahim]; whoever enters it attains security; pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to Allah those who can afford the journey; but if any deny faith Allah stands not in need of any of his creatures.
*** Since according to the Bible, Abraham never sojourned in Arabia and especially not in Mecca (her name is never mentioned in the Bible either) all these stories associating him with both Arabia and Mecca are pure and desperately concocted fantacies and myths as none of these allegations can be substantiated either by the historical record or even through the oral tradition of the pagan Arabs.
All these 'events' were created and inserted in the Quran to give the Arabs a noble heritage and ancestry equal - if not superior from their point of view - to that of the Jews.
There is of course, not a shred of evidence except in the Quranic figments of imagination, that either Abraham or Ishmael ever lived in or anywhere near Mecca to sanctify it or put up its foundation ***
In the Qurawayoun Manuscript (MS fos 60a-62a) there is a jewel of information in a story by Muhammad ibn Ka'b as relayed to him by Ali b. abi Talib about a Jew who owned land in Mecca. This is a very rare piece of information that is not found in other Ahadith and reflects the real facts about the situation of the 'Muslims' among the pagan Quraysh of Mecca.
Another gem is found in (MS fos 33a) where in it contradicts Muhammadan theological assertions that it was Muhammad who laid the Black Stone in the newly built Ka'ba by asserting from his own secretary Hassan b Thabit who was an eye witness, that it was Abdul'Muttalib who did so "…with his own hands.."
It is a recorded fact in the Quran, that Muhammad's first Qibla was towards Jerusalem and NOT Mecca because before his break with the People of the Book, he considered Jerusalem HOLIER than Mecca.
As recorded by the Arabs in their history, the Khalifa Yazid bin Muawiya ordered Muslim forces to conquer both the Madina and Mecca and take them away from
al Zubair.
After sacking, plundering, raping the women and girls and desecrating the Medina (August 26, 683), the soldiers moved on to Mecca where al Zubair sought sanctuary. The holiest territory even before Muhammadan Islam, was then bombarded with a rain of stones from the surrounding forces.
During the siege, the Ka'ba caught fire and was burnt to the ground. Because of the enormous heat produced by the fire, the Black Stone shattered into three pieces. The Holiest of Holies in both Paganism and 'Islam' was violated by the second civil war of the Arabs.
The violators of every thing that was sacred had no fear or remorse.
The schism within the Muslim Arab tribal leaders created a situation that would have been impossible to occur in Pre Islamic Arabia.
Muhammadans exhibited and still exhibit, the same abilities to disregard sanctity and holiness - even between and amongst themselves - as those whom they themselves deride.
The Ummayad Abd Al Malik Ibn Marwan ibn al Hakam ordered al Hajjaj to destroy his rivals in Mecca. On March 25, 692, the latter laid another siege to what used to be Holy territory and for six and a half months rained on it death and destruction. In the end, al Zubair was killed and his head was sent to Damascus.
*** Muhammadan Muslims turned out to be no better than the Jews and Christians whom they criticise and denigrate for having broken Allah's ordinances.
The followers of Muhammad are just much more hypocritical and conceited.
The followers of Muhammad were even more dismissive of his ordinances than the Jews were of Moses'. They showed none of the mercy or compassion even towards their own 'brethren' that their Allah has ordained them to have ***
