Aditi Chaturvedi
Vedic Past of Pre-Islamic Arabia - Part 6

"Ashriq thabir kaima nughir"

"Enter the light of morning O Thabir so
that we may hasten on (with the daily work)"

These were the prayerful words that would greet the Dawn at Arabia during the days of pilgrimage, before the dark clouds of Islam had settled on Mount Thabir in the horizon. Mount Thabir and Mount Quzah were situated in Muzdalifah, a place between Mina and Arafat in Arabia. Muzdalifah was a place of fire worship. Great Yagnas used to be performed there. Even Muslim historians refer to this hill as the hill of the holy fire. The god of Muzdalifah was Quzah, the thunder god who brought life giving rain to the parched lands of Arabia. Quzah apparently represented the Vajra (Thunderbolt) of Indra, the Vedic god of rain. The forces of nature have always been worshipped in Vedic culture, so it was quite natural for the Meccans to indulge in this form of worship.

The Prophet, who was apparently not very creative, subverted the meaning and purpose of the Hajj or pilgrimage in his usual fashion. Muhammad in a deliberate attempt to suppress this association with the Hindu solar rites changed the time of prayer to after sunset and before sunrise, when the sun was not visible! Thus what used to be a time of prayer inundated with love for nature and reverence for existence, was distorted into a fear-filled ceremony of throwing stones at imagined devils and insidiously connected to falsified historical accounts about the Semitic Prophet Abraham.

Figure 1.
The Pleaides Constellation

Every morning, in complete accordance with their Vedic heritage , the Quraysh and other Meccan tribes would pay reverential homage to the sun, moon, planets, stars and all the heavenly bodies that made up the visible universe. The Kaaba temple, which was the heart of Mecca was their biggest testament to astral worship. It was a shrine devoted to the Sun, Moon, Planets and Galaxies. Besides the shrines of Shams (Surya or Sun), Manat (SoManath or Moon), Uzza (Oorja, Shakti as Venus), Dharrih (Suryoday or rising sun), etc. There were many shrines dedicated to stars and constellations such as the Krittikas (the Pleaides). There were 24 doorways to the temple, these doorways represented the 24 hours of the day. The 360 shrines represented the days of the year and each image was made to symbolically represent the ruling planet, in astrological terms. The seven circambulations (parikrama) symbolized the orbiting of the seven major planets. The first three circuits were done fast and the remaining four slowly, in exact imitation of the planetary movements around the sun.

Figure 2.
The six celestial sisters called Krittikas
represented a cluster of six stars, called
the Pleaides by the Greeks
Source: Amar Chitra Katha

This beautiful Vedic temple was a cosmological representation of the visible natural universe. It was made in the same tradition of ancient Indian temples such as Someshwar (Somnath), in Prabhas Patan, Gujarat, which also contained 360 shrines and was built by the Moon God SoManath, (Manat to the Arabs).

One of the shrines in the Kaaba was also dedicated to the Hindu Creator God, Brahma, which is why the illiterate Prophet of Islam claimed it was dedicated to Abraham. The word "Abraham" is none other than a malpronounciation of the word Brahma This can be clearly proven if one investigates the root meanings of both words.

Abraham is said to be one of the oldest Semitic Prophets.His name is supposed to be derived from the two Semitic words "Ab" meaning "Father" and "Raam/Raham" meaning "of the exalted", In the book of Genesis, Abraham simply means "Multitude". The word Abraham is derived from the Sanskrit word "Brahma". The root of Brahma is "Brah"which means -"to grow or multiply in number". In addition Lord Brahma, the Creator God of Hinduism is said to be the Father of all Men and Exalted of all the Gods, for it is from him that all beings were generated. Thus again we come to the meaning "Exalted Father". This is a clear pointer to the fact that Abraham is none other than the heavenly father Brahma .

In fact the Abraham story about the origin of the Kaaba was a fabrication invented by the Prophet, after he had quarreled with the Jews of Medinah. He took an ancient Jewish legend about the heavenly and earthly Jerusalem and conveniently twisted it into a false myth about Abraham. Respected Jewish scholars such as Snouck Hurgronje and Aloys Sprenger agree that the association of Abraham with the Kaaba was Muhammad's personal invention and it served as a means to liberate Islam from Judaism. Sprenger comments:" By this lie Muhammad gave to Islam all that man needs and which differentiates religion from philosophy: a nationality, ceremonies, historical memories, mysteries, an assurance of entering heaven, all the while deceiving his own conscience and those of others."

Earlier, we have already seen how thorough Muhammad was in his destruction and desecration of this grand center of worship. He deliberately tried to destroy all traces of the Vedic origins of the temple. The day after the destruction of the Kaaba was the darkest dawn in the history of Mecca. The darkest moment came when Bilal, one of Muhammad's henchmen, stood on top of the roof of the Kaaba and called out the Muslim Azan of prayer.

The Prophet of Islam had finally achieved the ultimate ambition of his greed and hatred. He had desecrated the sacred religion that threatened his very existence and seized the richest treasure in the country all in one attempt. Besides the hundreds of rubies, diamonds, silver, pearls and precious stones that had ornamented the idols, the Prophet's loot also consisted of the Seventy Thousand Ounces of Gold contained in the storehouse of the Kaaba. A new twisted mythology was substituted for the old and all the previous ceremonies and rites of the people were subverted and distorted through Islamization. Such immense wealth and political control immediately made Muhammad the most powerful man in Arabia. He was now free to unleash the final and most brutal assault against the culture that had plagued him throughout his life.

Figure 3.
One of the few remaining Vedic temples in Petra.
It was built by the Nabataeans. Note the conical
shape of the rooftops which is so typical of Hindu
temple architecture
Source: "Art of Jordan" by Piotr Bienkowski

The Prophet immediately gave orders to leave no stone unturned, any place that had the slightest trace of Vedic culture was to be razed to the ground and destroyed. The most sacred idols were to be turned into footstones or buried under entrances of mosques, so that every time a Muslim stepped into his place of worship, the idols of the Hindus would be desecrated and insulted again and again. This Islamic tradition is alive even today in India, where under the doorstep of every Mosque, lie the remains or portions of images of innumerable Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

"Leave no idol unbroken! In whatever settlement you do not hear the Azan or see no mosque, SLAUGHTER the people of that place." , the Prophet's words rang out amongst his zealous followers. Drunk with power and the dizzying piles of loot they had acquired, they set out in a frenzy of bloodthirstiness to the sorrounding tribes and their shrines. One of Muhammad's favorite followers, Khalid ibn al Waleed went to the Beni Jadheema clan of Beni Kinana on the coastal plain south west of Mecca. Upon reaching the settlement Khalid told them to lay down their arms as the war was over and everyone had now accepted Islam . When they had done so, he rounded up the Men and had them tied up in a group. The women were raped in front of their helpless relatives. Children had their limbs hacked off. Then one by one the Men were beheaded in the exact manner as the "Apostle of Peace" had done at "The Pit" of Medinah.

An Arab horseman related how one of the men shouted to his beloved amongst the frightened women, "Goodbye my love Hubaisha, my life is at an end now". At this the poor girl lost control and broke her bindings, she ran screaming to her love and bent over him to protect him. The Muslims hacked her to pieces and then beheaded her horrified lover.

Thousands were killed as they defended their beloved gods. Muhammad's message was clear: destroy all the Vedic temples or images, become a Muslim or die, build mosques using remains of the temples & pay a sizeable tax, any defiance would mean slaughter. When some tribes like the Bani Tamim refused to pay Zakat, the men were slaughtered, & the women and children were bound and dragged across the blazing sands all the way to Medinah. One of the favorite characteristics Muslims attribute to Muhammad is his immense love for children. Indeed one wonders just where his love for the innocent children went, when he had so many of them mercilessly tortured and slaughtered to death.

Innumerable temples were destroyed and their remains used to build mosques. There were many others besides the Kaaba around Mecca itself. Here is a list of some of them:

1.Temple of Isaf & Naila:
Isaf was an image in the shape of a man & Naila in the shape of a dark skinned woman. The images of the divine couple were shattered to bits.

2.Temple of Uzza(Oorja or Shakti) in Nakhla:
When the disheartened priest heard the Muslims coming with Khalid as their leader, he hung his sword on her, and cried out:

"O Uzza make an annihilating attack on Khalid Throw aside your Veil & Gird up your train O Uzza, if you do not kill this man Khalid Then bear a swift punishment, or become a Christian"

Khalid cut the idol into bits with his sword and grabbed all the gold and jewels in the temple, then he chopped off the head of the Priest with the same sword, that still had fragments of Uzza's image on it.

3.Temple of Suva (Shiva) of the Hudayl:
The Apostle sent Amr Bint al As to this temple. Upon his arrival the Priest asked Amr why he was there, to which Amr replied that he had come to destroy the image. At this the brave priest calmly said "Go back! For you cannot harm a hair on his head!" "Why not?", fumed Amr, "Because there is none so well- protected as he" said the faithful priest. An enraged Amr screamed "You still believe in this evil! Greet your death!" He then proceeded to smash the idol and the Priest's skull. The temple was demolished when Amr found no treasures there.

4.Temple of Manat (Somnath or Shiva):
This was a beautiful temple of Black stone It had a crescent pinnacle and a Shivling made of reddish volcanic rock. Upon seeing the Muslims, the priests were moved to pray "O Manat, please display your might!" They too were cut down & the Shivling smashed. Once again however, the Muslims could not find any of the treasures that were supposed to be in the temple.

In the coming days, many more such temples would be destroyed, thousands more innocents would be murdered, for the Prophet had the power and might of his ill-gotten gains and loot behind him. Although the Prophet had reached his ultimate ambition, his bitterness and hatred against the Vedic culture had hardened so much within him, that ultimately it would consume him. The same man who had so confidently declared his divinity whilst alive would die an agonizingly painful death. His last words were a prayer of fear begging for forgiveness for all the sins he had committed in his lifetime.

Indeed the Prophet of Islam was successful in his attempt at genocide. The Vedic culture of the Arabs was mercilessly eradicated through the use of the sword. Let us not forget the bravery of those who fought in the face of such despair, as that which surrounded those who dared to oppose Islam.

Men of such mettle as that of the Tribe of Tai, defied the advent of Islam bravely. Although their chief Zaid Al Khair was one of Muhammad's favorite followers, when the tribesmen were forced to greet Muhammad and listen to his sermon, one of them proudly stood up among the packed crowd of Muslims and declared :

"I see here a man who wishes to gain ascendancy over all people and even the gods through his trickery, but by my ancestors and the religion they have left me, NOBODY shall rule over me but MY SELF!"

Only a man who has discovered true spirituality and enrichment of his soul through his religion could utter these words in its defense. Only a religion which shows a man the divinity in his own SELF can foster such strength. Although the traces of Vedic culture among the pre-Islamic Arabs were wiped out by the bloody sword of Muhammad, the message of the Vedas and the conviction displayed by its followers in the land of Arvasthan can never be forgotten.

In my next article I will further describe the unfolding of Prophet Muhammad's genocidal plan against the Vedic culture of the Pre-Islamic Arabs.

Note: The Works "The Life & times of Muhammad" by Sir John Glubb, "Mohammed & the Rise of Islam" by D. S. Margoliouth, "The Art of Jordan" by Piotr Bienkowski, "Deities & Dolphins" by Nelson Glueck and "Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them?- Volume 2" by Sita Ram Goel have been used to compose this article.