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The Master was the only one who noticed one significant fact: that now the kiblah, or direction of prayer, was not to the north-west, where lay Mecca, but judging by the sun was almost due west, toward the spot where lay the Black Stone. This reassured him once more. "They recognize the Stone, right enough," thought he. "As long as nothing happens to that, we hold the whip-hand of them.
Shut into his cabin, with the door locked against intrusion, he was lying face downward on the metal floor, praying. For the first time in the world's history, a Moslem's kiblah, or direction of prayer, was directly downward! "Reverse!" ordered the Master. Nissr hovered exactly above the Haram enclosure. "Lower to five hundred feet, then hold her!"
While it is undoubtedly the case that he did much to improve the position of women in Arabia, the absence of any high ideal in this matter is very apparent. Conquest of Mecca. In giving his followers a new kiblah and bidding them turn their faces towards Mecca at their prayers, Mahomet declared that city to be the religious capital of Arabia.
Here the devout passers-by occasionally stop and pray. The desert mosques are some of them of these shapes The places projecting in squares or recesses are the kiblah, upon which the Faithful prostrate themselves towards the east, or Mecca . Our course is through an undulating country of hills and valleys. We made a short day, for we began to fear we might lose many of the slaves.
The wall over the entrance is covered with texts from the Korán, forming an elegant design, and on either side are niches of lesser merit, but serving to set off the central one which formed the kiblah. Eleven centuries have elapsed since the hands of the workmen left it, and still it stands a witness of the pitch of art attained by the Berbers in Spain.
This doubtless formed the spot reserved for the Ameer and his Court, screened off on three sides to prevent the curiosity of the worshippers overcoming their devotion, as is still arranged in the mosques which the Sultan of Morocco attends in his capitals. Until a few years ago this rich work in arabesque and tiles was hidden by plaster. The kiblah niche is a gem of its kind.
But first, grant me time for my isha, my evening prayer!" "It is granted. And, Rrisa, there is the kiblah, the direction of Mecca!" The Master pointed exactly east. Rrisa faced that way, knelt, prostrated himself. He made ablution with sand, as Mohammed allows when water cannot be found. Even as he poured it down his face, the strangely gusting wind flicked it away in little whirls.
The blowing hot and cold with the same breath is here a reality, or thereabouts. Adapted from an anonymous piece, called "The Dying Negro." "But we will cause thee to turn towards a Kiblah that will please thee. Turn, therefore, thy face towards the holy temple of Mecca; and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that place." Surat ii. Another Range of Black Mountains.
He also visited the resting-place of his hero, Burckhardt; indeed, in whatever town he sojourned, he sought out the places associated with the illustrious dead. It was now the Ramazan, and he observed it by fasting, reading the Koran, and saying countless prayers with his face turned devoutly to the Kiblah.
Q "What are the conditions, the pillars or essentials, and the traditional statutes of prayer?" "The conditions are five: purification of the members; covering of the privy parts; observing the proper hours, either of certainty or to the best of one's belief; fronting the Kiblah; and standing on a clean place. Q "On what is the Zakat or obligatory poor-rate taxable?"
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