Why non muslims cannot enter mecca

It is also a focusing mechanism, a central point on the globe toward which all Muslims, in a symbol of unity, direct their thoughts and prayers to God. According to Islamic tradition, the site of the Kaaba was originally a sacred place where angels would worship God in the days before man was created.

Later, Adam yes, that Adam, partner to Eve built a shrine to God on that spot, but it too was destroyed by the ravages of time. The structure consists of four walls and a roof, all made from stone from the hills surrounding Mecca. The four corners roughly face the four points of the compass.

To be a true geometric cube , all its edges must have the same length, and every corner in the cube must have an angle of 90 degrees.

This cloth is known as the kiswah, and it is replaced yearly, on the second day of the hajj. While Abraham was building the Kaaba, so the legend goes, the angel Gabriel came down and gave Abraham the famous Black Stone, which he placed in the eastern corner of the structure.

There is another squarish stone on the ground a few feet away from the Kaaba with what look like two footprints in it. This is known as the Station of Abraham and is said to be the stone where Abraham stood while watching over the construction of the Kaaba. Today it is encased in a beautifully ornate golden glass-and-metal structure.

There is a famous story in Islam about Mohammed and the Black Stone. The story goes that when construction was finished and it came time to place the Black Stone back in the eastern corner, the final step, the tribes of Mecca argued fiercely over who would get to do the honors.

They decided to ask the next man who walked by to decide for them, and that man happened to be Mohammed. His solution was to put the stone on a large cloth and have each of the leaders of the four tribes hold a corner of the cloth and carry the stone to its place. Mohammed himself then placed the stone into its final position.

This was back before Mohammed had received his first revelation from God. The next time Mohammed was involved with the Kaaba, though, would prove to be much less One particularly popular idol was a figure of Hubal, a moon deity worshipped by many in Mecca at the time.

Access to the Kaaba and thus the idol was controlled by the powerful Quraysh tribe, of which Mohammed was a member, and they basically capitalized on this to get rich, charging fees and selling wares to pilgrims coming to worship the idol. When Mohammed began receiving revelations from God he received his first one about five years after the incident with the Black Stone and preaching his message of monotheism, the rich Qurayshi merchants started getting a little antsy.

Worried that the growing popularity of his decidedly anti-idol worshiping message could potentially hurt business, they ran Mohammed and his small band of followers out of town. Ten years later, Mohammed and his now much larger and more powerful army of followers defeated the Quraysh tribe and took control of Mecca.

Today, the Kaaba is kept closed during the hajj because of the overwhelming number of people, but those who visit the Kaaba during other times of the year are sometimes allowed to go inside. There is very little inside it, though — just three tall stone pillars, a small table, some hanging lamp—looking things, and a staircase to the roof.

Seven is also a prominent number associated with the divine in many religions, including Christianity and Judaism. Other rituals include a ceremony where pilgrims throw small pebbles at three large stone walls, called jamarat, to symbolize the stoning the devil that tempted Abraham to defy God, and the slaughtering of an animal usually a sheep to honor the animal Abraham slaughtered instead of his son.

The meat is then given to feed the poor and needy. These days, pilgrims frequently elect to purchase tokens to have an animal slaughtered for them.

Today, both hills are enclosed within the Masjid al-Haram Sacred Mosque complex which also houses the Kaaba , and the path between the hills is a long, beautiful indoor gallery with marble floors and air conditioning.

Many also drink from the Zamzam well located there. The only ritual that is solely related to Mohammed is the climbing of Mount Arafat, which is where Mohammed preached his last sermon. On the second day of hajj, pilgrims wake at dawn and walk a short distance to Mount Arafat, where they spend the remainder of the day on or near the mountain in quiet worship and contemplation of God. Although Christians and Jews believe in the God of Abraham, they are not allowed to perform the hajj.

Indeed, the government of Saudi Arabia forbids all non-Muslims from entering the holy city of Mecca at all. The Saudi government takes this very seriously, so the odds that a non-Muslim would be able to slip in unnoticed among the throngs of pilgrims undetected or pretend to be Muslim and get in that way are extremely small.

Legal entry into the country is extremely tightly controlled, and the paperwork required to get a hajj visa is incredibly detailed. Pilgrims must book their hajj trip through a Saudi government—approved hajj travel agent. For a Western Muslim convert to be allowed to go on hajj, he or she must present documentation from an imam Muslim religious leader.

The imam must testify in writing that he knows the person in question and that the person is a true convert. Trying to come in on a regular tourist visa and then stealthily making your way to Mecca is also a nonstarter.

Getting a tourist visa as a Westerner is notoriously hard, and the likelihood of you being able to just slip away from your Saudi government minder and travel undetected all the way from the capital Riyadh to Mecca — more than miles away, on the other side of a vast desert — is basically laughable.

That has happened before: In , WND published a three-part series written pseudonymously by someone who claimed to be a white British non-Muslim man who successfully fake-converted to Islam and went on hajj.

Women are also allowed — indeed, required, just like every other physically and financially able Muslim is — to perform the hajj. However, they have to be accompanied by an appropriate male guardian called a mahram. Here are the rules, per the US State Department:. Women must be met by their sponsor upon arrival. Women who are traveling alone and not met by sponsors have experienced delays before being allowed to enter the country or to continue on other flights.

Women over 45 may travel without a mahram in an organized group, provided they submit a notarized letter of no objection from the husband, son, or brother, authorizing travel for Hajj with the named group. Violators face deportation. This is likely because Shia scholars have, unlike Sunni scholars, ruled that a woman may travel alone on hajj if she feels that she will be safe. Some have also come up with rather creative workarounds, such as wearing large, darkly tinted sunglasses and those paper face masks doctors wear.

So why the prohibition? Men also wear special clothing during hajj. Male pilgrims wear two pieces of clean, unstitched cloth usually plain white — one wrapped around their waist and one wrapped around their torso — and plain sandals. Non-Muslim travelers attempting to enter either of the two sites will be stopped at the checkpoints, and if caught removed, fined and even deported.

However, in spite of the ban, there are schools of thought who argue that Non-Muslims should be allowed to enter the Haram Mosques of both cities provided it is only for work, that they are physically clean and that they respect the peace and holiness of the two mosques.

See the link for a written explanation. In Islam, the cities of Mecca and Madinah are considered as places of peace, refuge, and sanctuary for Muslims only. Non-Muslims termed Mushriks are prohibited in order to keep it that way.

Both Mecca and Madinah are overwhelmingly religious not tourist destinations for Islamic pilgrimage. Both cities get very overcrowded and the current infrastructure can only just barely meet the demand for food, housing, and services by the millions of Muslims who visit each year. Opening the city to international tourists and the curious visitors would cause unsustainable stress, congestion, and a host of other problems.

The decision to only allow Muslims is a wise one and above all is made for very practical considerations. However, this prohibition often concerns Muslims and greatly upsets those people to whom the ban normally applies. They argue Muslims are not stopped in places like at the Catholic Vatican and other Christian or Jewish religious sites, so why should they be prevented from going inside in Mecca and Madinah?

On the contrary, a nation is free to impose any law it wishes. For example today, in France and other places, they ban the Islamic niqab for women. Also, in India, there are cantons reserved only for specific people and non-Hindus are expressly not allowed into Hindu temples. See video above of Zakir Naik. The basis of Saudi law is Islamic Sharia and the government acts accordingly.

Specifically, the ban is on the Mushrikeen or polytheists. In essence, a Mushrik is a polytheist. It is someone who believes in, prays to and ascribes the attributes of Allah One God to anything or anyone who is clearly not.

A person who rejects the notion of the one God Allah and believes in a multiplicity of Gods is considered a Mushrik. For example, Hindus believe that Brahma is one and many.

It also means impure when applied to Muslims. In this state of temporary impurity or Mutanajis, as it is termed in Arabic, a Muslim cannot perform any of the five compulsory Islamic prayers. No amount of washing or ritual ablutions can ever make them clean. The list above represents the things that cannot be purified.

They are considered Najis in their essence. Ritual washing can never make them pure Tahr again. The exceptions are wine which becomes pure when it is changed to vinegar and animal hide when it is tanned. Best Audio products you can buy for Diwali Opinion Huge crowds in markets may lead to third wave of Covid. Kurukshetra: By-election results precursor to polls?

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