There is a blog post on Ihsan this week called The Last Moments of Makkah, detailing the Saudi regime’s plans to demolish most of the historical buildings, including the Prophet’s own house, around Masjid al-Haram in Makkah.
It is well known what they did to the cemetary, Jannatul-Baqi and other significant landmarks in Madinah. Now, they want to bulldoze the Prophet’s house to construct tall buildings, parking lots, shopping malls, and, no doubt, more western businesses.
People often ask, why do you have to “celebrate” the Prophet’s birthday, the birthdays of all 12 imams, the dates of their deaths, ‘ashura, al-isra wal-mi’raj, 15th of Sha’ban, Ghadir-khumm, etc.? Well, it actually has nothing to do with celebrating (and certainly not the death-dates) and everything to do with our heritage. We must commemorate these days because, if we do not, who will we entrust with retelling our history? Oxford? Harvard?
We, as Muslims must preserve what is left of our heritage so that our children will not forget what happened. If only Muslims in Afghanistan had studied our history and what happened when Muslims divided and fought, they might have avoided the bloodshed that they caused after defeating the Soviet Union. If only Muslims would learn from the past instead of pretending like it did not happen, we would see the clear path to our success.
I cannot count the number times I’ve heard Muslims debating issues that were solved 1000 years ago in historical debates. Had they bothered to read the history, they would know. I also can remember numerous times when Muslims have brushed off the incident at Karbala and the personality of Imam Husayn as though it were John Dough killed at the 7-11. It is odd that Muslims are almost belligerent in their denial of history, while our enemies study our history and use it against us. I firmly believe that the unity of Muslims will ultimately depend on how willing we are to accept our past, learn from it, and plan for a better future…insha’Allah.
