Beauty And Holiness In The Eyes And Hearts Of Believing Beholders – OpEd

All three Abrahamic religions have historical traditions that teach that their religious capital is located at the center of the world. Since Jerusalem and Mecca are 765 miles apart by air and 910 miles by auto, they can't both be the center of the world. But that is only from a human, earthbound, point of view.

From God's universal point of view; they can both be at the center of the universe; just as a pair of lungs are at the center of the respiration system that keeps all us animals alive. "The place Solomon made to worship in, called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth, water and stone, but of intention, wisdom, mystical conversation and compassionate action." Rumi "The Far Mosque" Ch. 17: Solomon Poems, p. 191 Beauty and Holiness are both in the eye of the beholder.

For example many Greek and Roman geographers visited Arabia from the 4th century B.C.E. through the 3rd century C.E. Some drewmaps of Arabia;yet none mentioned Mecca.Strabo was a famous Greek geographer and historian, who lived between64 B.C.E. and 23 C.E.He does not know about Mecca.

An important Greek historian,Theophrastos,lived in the4th century B.C.E. He wrote about the Sabaeans – their trade, their land and their marine routes. He wrote in detail about the region buthe never mentioned Mecca.

The most important geographer and historian of the 2nd century B. C.E. was Agatharchides of Alexandria, who wrote between 145-132 B.C. He wrote about locations along the Red Sea, including the temples and routes which pass through the area where Mecca was eventually built, but he never mentioned Mecca, or its temple.

In the pagan Greco-Roman Empire during the days of Prophet Jesus, the Jerusalem Temple (Beit HaMikdosh) was well known, while the Kaaba, the House of God (Baitullah) in Mecca was not known by name at all. The first Roman reference to the Baitullah is from Diodorus Siculus, a first century B.C.E. Roman historian who wrote that in Arabia there was a (pagan) temple greatly revered by the Arabs.

According to G. E. Von Grunebaum, who I studied Islam with at UCLA in 1959-60, Mecca was also mentioned by Ptolemy, a second century Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer, "The name he gives it allows us to identify it as a South Arabian foundation created around a sanctuary." (G. E. Von Grunebaum, Classical Islam: A History 600–1258, p. 19)

Yet both of these cities and their sanctuaries, one almost unknown by the Romans and the other totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE; were destined, just a few centuries after Rome itself was looted and sacked; to become widely known throughout a world much larger than that of the Roman Empire, and each of them became for millions of monotheistic believers, like the navel of the spiritual world.

To this very day Jerusalem and Mecca remain much smaller than the capitals of the great Empires of the past (Rome and Constantinople) and the recent present (London and Paris). Yet the spirit that continues to rush forth from those two geographically tiny places, provides inspiration to billions of Christians, Jews and Muslims throughout the world. These two physical places now function like a pair of lungs recycling the words and the spirit of the Abrahamic Prophets who walked their streets so many centuries ago.

Indeed, much of the ancient folklore about these two holy places is very similar; as the following fable illustrates, and shows how today these two holy places can be seen as one pair of lungs spreading the spirit of monotheistic holiness throughout the world.

"God made human beings because God loves stories." (Elie Wiesel) "There are all kinds of stories. Some are taken from reality and processed through inspiration, others rise up from an instant of inspiration; and become real after being told again and again." (Isabel Allende)

Some stories are true because they accurately describe a unique event that happened at a certain time and place. Other stories are events that once happened and have subsequently been dramatized by creative minds or faithful hearts. Archetypal stories that have been retold over the course of thousands of years are true; not because they actually occurred once; but because they continually reoccur in many places and times.

This narration was transmitted orally in both Arabic and Hebrew for many centuries, and finally written down in several versions in the 19th century; it explains how the paired lungs came to be. Some say this happened in the generation when Abraham was born.

Two brothers who inherited a 'valley to hilltop' farm from their father, divided the land in half so each one could farm his own section. Over time, the older brother married and had four children, while the younger brother was still not married.

One year there was very little rain, and the crop was very meager. This was at the beginning of a long term drought that would turn the whole valley into an arid, treeless, desert where even grain did not grow, and all the springs dried up.

The younger brother lay awake one night praying and thought. "My brother has a wife and four children to feed and I have no children. He needs more grain than I do; especially now when grain is scarce."


So that night the younger brother went to his barn, gathered a large sack of wheat, and left his wheat in his brother's barn. Then he returned home, feeling pleased with himself.

Earlier that very same night, the older brother was also lying awake praying for rain when he thought: "In my old age my wife and I will have our grown children to take care of us, as well as grandchildren to enjoy, while my brother may have no children. He should at least sell more grain from his fields now, so he can provide for himself in his old age."

So that night, the older brother also gathered a large sack of wheat, and left it in his brother's barn, and returned home, feeling pleased with himself.



The next morning, the younger brother, surprised to see the amount of grain in his barn seemed unchanged said "I did not take as much wheat as I thought. Tonight I'll take more." That same morning, the older brother standing in his barn, was thinking the same thoughts.

After night fell, each brother gathered a greater amount of wheat from his barn and in the dark, secretly delivered it to his brother's barn.

The next morning, the brothers were again puzzled and perplexed. "How can I be mistaken?" each one thought. "There's the same amount of grain here as there was before. This is impossible! Tonight I'll make no mistake - I'll take two large sacks."



The third night, more determined than ever, each brother gathered two large sacks of wheat from his barn, loaded them onto a cart, and slowly pulled his cart toward his brother's barn. In the moonlight, each brother noticed a figure in the distance. When the two brothers got closer, each recognized the form of the other and the load he was pulling, and they both realized what had happened.

Without a word, they dropped the ropes of their carts, ran to each other and embraced.

God loved the two brothers for their exemplary love and concern for each other, but a place is never holy through the choice of man, but because it has been chosen in Heaven. Thus God's prophets made the two brothers' descendants worthy to worship in a holy House rebuilt in that valley; and a holy House later built on that hill.

When all those, both near and far, who revere this place of spirit lungs as a standard, share it in love with everyone else who reveres it, then God will do as Prophet Abraham requested, and "Make this (place) a land of Peace, and provide its people with the produce of of the land". (Qur'an 2:126). Then will the children of Adam and Abraham live in Holiness, Peace and Prosperity.

Jews believe in the beauty of holiness: "Give to the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness"(Psalms 29:2).

Jews and Christians believe the hill is Jerusalem. 

Muslims believe the valley is Mecca. 

I believe that all three are correct.