Every Mohammedan is enjoined to perform this pilgrimage, or if unable to go, to send a proxy, or an offering.
“Verily, the first house appointed unto men to worship in, was that which is in Mecca, blessed, and a direction to all creatures.”
For there was the Kubla, or point to which they were to turn their faces in prayer.
“And proclaim unto the people a solemn pilgrimage; let them come unto thee on foot, and on every lean camel, arriving from every distant road; that they may be witnesses of the advantages which accrue to them from the visiting this holy place, and may commemorate the name of God, on the appointed days, in gratitude for the brute cattle which he hath bestowed on them.”
According to the traditions of the Arabs, the city of Mecca has been the place of religious veneration, from the earliest times. Near this city, on a mountain, Adam is said to have met his wife Eve, two hundred years after the expulsion from Paradise.
Here when Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son Ishmael (not Isaac), the identical ram, which had been offered by Abel many years before, was substituted in his place, sent expressly from Paradise.
Here also, in the days of idolatry, was a temple dedicated to Saturn, now the holy temple of Mecca. So that Mohammed found this place already consecrated by sacred and ancient associations.
Mecca, the birth-place, and Medina, the tomb of the Prophet, are situated near each other; and not far from the coast of the Red Sea. Mecca is in a valley surrounded by barren hills, which produce nothing but the stones of which the houses are constructed. Water, so essential to life, and most especially to all Mussulmans, is only supplied by rain which is collected in cisterns; no streams flowing from the adjacent mountains. Doubtless, the exceeding value all Mohammedans attach to the pure element, is owing to its scarcity in these regions, where their religion was promulgated, and the Koran revealed from heaven. Their Paradise is represented as abounding in fountains.
There is “the water of Keafeeree, or camphor,” a fountain at which the people of God shall drink, so likened from the aromatic freshness of this gum, and its snowy whiteness. The waters of zengefeel or ginger, and the fountain of zelzebil, whose streams glide softly down the throat; and the fountain of Taz-nim, which flows from the highest regions of Paradise, and whereof those shall drink who approach the Divine presence.
Notwithstanding the barrenness of the soil and the unfavorable situation of the city of Mecca, the wealth of its inhabitants is very great.