Jalal Abualrub
I am surprised at David Wood for insisting on his sick joke that Muslims bow to the Ka’bah, insinuating that Muslims worship the Ka’bah. I and other Muslims have repeatedly refuted this utter lie and in various ways over the years, but these people just can’t stop repeating false claims about Islam. Here I repost my original response after editing it.
The vast majority of Christians pray to statues and pictures, as in invoking statues and pictures, as in worshipping statues and pictures. Here, for example, is the decision of the seventh session of Nicaea II, “We define … with all certainty and care that both the figure of the sacred and life-giving Cross, as also the venerable and holy images … are to be placed suitably in the holy churches of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, on walls and pictures, in houses and by roads; that is to say, the images of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our immaculate Lady the holy Mother of God, of the honourable angels and all saints and holy men. … For honour paid to an image passes on to its prototype; he who worships … an image worships the reality of him who is painted in it. … That is still the
David Wood seems to act like other protestant evangelicals, who arrogantly act as if they are the only true representatives of Christianity when they are but a minority sect which started fifteen centuries after the early era during which Jesus lived. He should make Dhikr of the fact that much of his views are not mainstream Christian, but in fact minority sectarian. I have not heard about a single protestant evangelical leader or enthusiast who stated that Catholic and Orthodox Christians as true Christians.
Catholics and Orthodox comprise the vast majority of Christians, and they worship statues, icons, and pictures, as I clearly and scientifically proved in my book, 50 Righteous and Humane Concepts Brought by Muhammad. Wood seems to dislike these practices and falsely insinuates that Muslims worship objects other than Allah, when he knows for a fact that Muslims do not worship the
Most Christians would not find a single problem with this fallacy about Islam
In contrast to the pagan practice which most Christians consider an essential aspect to worship, Muslims do not pray to the Ka’bah. It is the direction of prayer as Allah clearly stated in the Quran, {Verily, We have seen the turning of your (Muhammad’s) face towards
Thus, the Quran clearly designates the Ka’bah as the direction of prayer, the Qiblah, not as the object that is receiving the bowing. David Wood is welcome to consult Arabi dictionaries, even those written by Arab Christians, to find out what Qiblah means.
I refuted this utter lie that Wood keeps repeating when I and the Muslims present then prayed where we had the debate in California. I then reminded all those present that the Ka’bah was not there when we prayed, how then can we bow to it? If unavoidable, Muslims pray while flying in
Wood doesn’t seem to have a problem with his own holy book that calls upon him to kneel before a man like him, a man who was created, who was weak, who needed to eat, drink, sleep and relieve the call of nature, who had fears and hopes, who, according to Christians, was so helpless that he supposedly died by the hands of some of his creation, i.e., the Jews. Wood surely read this passage in his book, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:10-1). This is perfect
Wood does not seem to have a problem with the fact that Muslims used to take the direction of Jerusalem’s Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, may Allah return it to Muslims soon, as the direction of prayer before the Ka’bah became their Qiblah instead of Jerusalem. Were Muslims bowing to the Temple during that era? Was this a pagan practice or a righteous practice? To make his a perfect lie, why doesn’t Wood claim that taking Jerusalem’s sacred place of worship as the direction of prayer is a pagan practice? If he does that, he will not be only offending the Jews, but also his claimed lord and savior.
How the Ka’bah Was Built
David Wood hides the truth about the Ka’bah from his readers and audience. He, being a Christianexpert on Islam, and the earth is full of them nowadays, should know what the Quran says about the story behind building the Ka’bah, since he claims that he studied or at least read the Quran. His choice, as horrible as it is, was to be an enemy to Muhammad, salla Allahu alaihi wa-sallam (blessings and mercy be on him). But, he could still be honorable in his enmity by not hiding the truth about, among many other things, how the Ka’bah was built. Instead, Wood continues to spread the utter lie about the Ka’bah being a pagan house of worship, thus insinuating that when Muslims pray to its direction, they are simply practicing paganism.
Here is the story of the
The Arabs changed the religion of their two righteous fathers, Prophet Ibrahim and his son Prophet Isma’eel, and placed hundreds of idols in and around the Ka’bah as hadeeth scholars Bukhari and Muslim reported from Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud, the Prophet’s Companion. After the Prophet Muhammad, peace be on him, was sent as Allah’s Last and Final Prophet and Messenger, he remained in Makkah for thirteen years calling the Arabs back to the Islamic Monotheism started by their father Ibrahim. In the early era of Islam, Muslims were ordered to pray in the direction of the Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, the sacred place of worship, in Jerusalem. The Qiblah, direction of prayer, was then changed to Al-Ka’bah at Makkah.
The thirteen years the Prophet spent in Makkah before he immigrated to Madinah were full of violent opposition from his own people, the Quraish, who oppressed and tortured Muslims, killed some of them, and tried to kill the Prophet himself, their own cousin. Muslims had no power to remove the idols from around the Ka’bah or to destroy them. They prayed to the
For Wood to claim that bowing in the direction of the Ka’bah is a pagan tradition that Muslims imitate and which is an act of worship to the
To truly dissipate the lie that claims that Muslims imitate pagan traditions, we remind the readers of what happened when the Prophet of Allah finally was able to retake the
Another house of worship built on Monotheism from the first day went through a similar transformation to that which happened to the Ka’bah. Idols and pagan practices were also introduced to that house. This did not stop the believers from taking that house as the direction of prayer. The believers who came afterwards cannot be accused of imitating pagan practices just because the generations that came before them had introduced idols into the house of worship which was started on monotheism.
Surely, David Wood knows that Jesus frequently entered the Temple in Jerusalem to worship Allah in it. Of course, Jesus never knew the word God nor ever used it to describe the Creator, but that’s another story. When he, peace be upon him, entered the Temple to worship Allah, he must have bowed to the direction of prayer inside it, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple … And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer” (Matthew 21:12-13).
Surely, David knows that the Temple that Jesus prayed in was the direction of prayer for the Children of Israel (1 Kings 8:44). Surely, Wood and his likes must have heard about the Mizrah and must have seen the Jews of the current era and also the Christians who visit Jerusalem nod their heads repeatedly and cry while praying towards the wall of the Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa.
Using Wood’s sick logic, Jesus must have bowed to the walls of the Temple and also to the east, thus worshipping the Temple’s walls and the sun. Hopefully, Wood remembers that when Jesus prayed, he usually bowed down as the NewTestament testifies, “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). The Temple was the place of worship for the Children of Israel during the era Jesus lived in, as it was before that, including when the Jews erected idols inside the Temple (2 Chronicles 33).
Clearly, the method of prayer
The Qiblah direction of prayer is not unique to Muslims. The prophets of old also had a direction of prayer, as these examples testify in the clearest of terms.
1- “And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them” (Numbers 20:6).
The Prophets Moses and Aaron prostrated before the door of the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them!
2- “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. … And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.” (1 Kings 18:39, 42).
Elijah prostrated down upon the earth, as Muslims do, on the top of a mountain. Do Wood and his brand of Christians prostrate as Elijah prostrated?
3- “If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chose, and toward the house that I have built for thy name.” (1 Kings 8:44).
The ‘Lord’s people’ prayed toward Jerusalem, toward the Temple. Is there a need for any comment here, except to emphasize the hypocrisy of the bashers of Islam?
4- “Daniel … went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.” (Daniel 6:10-1) .
Daniel prostrated facing Jerusalem, meaning, towards the Temple. Muslims too prostrated to Allah facing Jerusalem’s Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, before Allah ordered them to change the direction of prayer towards the Ka’bah at Makkah. The first direction of prayer for Muslims before the Ka’bah was the same that Daniel faced when he prayed.
Do Wood and his brand of Christians face the Qiblah of biblical prophets? Of course, nothing Allah commanded in the Old Testament seems to apply to Christians, only Jews were meant to obey them! All Christians need to do is love Jesus, and they will end up in heaven, no obedience necessary!
I hereby challenge David Wood to bring evidence that when Muslims take the Ka’bah as the direction of prayer they in fact bow to the Ka’bah itself rather than pray to Allah in the Ka’bah’s direction. This evidence can be in the form of what Muslims says in their prayer, such as, if they invoke the Ka’bah, or admire how high and beautiful it is, or say anything in the prayer that indicates they are bowing or praying to the Ka’bah.
Proof that Wood Simply Lies
David, why don’t you stop? You know Muslims do not worship the Ka’bah; it is the direction of prayer whether Muslims face it directly or face its general direction from ten thousand miles away. Wood knows that Muslims do not bow to the Ka’bah, but to Allah, {And from wheresoever you start forth (for prayers), turn your face in the direction of Al-Masjid Al-Harâm (the Ka`bah at Makkah), and wheresoever you are, turn your faces towards it (when you pray) so that men may have no argument against you except those of them that are wrongdoers, so fear them not, but fear Me! And so that I may complete My Blessings on you and that you may be guided.} (2:150)
This ayah proves that Wood continually repeats a lie, committing wrongdoing. Indeed, and as Allah commanded Muslims in it, Muslims do not fear Wood or his likes, nor do they fear their lies about Islam. Ayah 2:150 explicitly orders Muslims that when they start praying they are required to face the direction of the Ka’bah.
Muslims face the Ka’bah in prayer, but pray to Allah Alone, prostrate to Him Alone, bow down to Him Alone, invoke Him Alone, seek His forgiveness Alone, seek refuge with Him Alone, from His and their shameless enemies, {And (remember; mention) when We showed Ibrâhîm (Abraham) the site of the (Sacred) House (the Ka‘bah at Makkah) (saying): “Associate not anything (in worship) with Me, [Lâ ilâha illallâh (none has the right to be worshipped but Allâh) ¾ Islâmic Monotheism], and sanctify My House for those who circumambulate it, and those who stand up (for prayer), and those who bow (submit themselves with humility and obedience to Allâh), and make prostration (in prayer)} (22:26).