Page 45 - Perished Nations

are told that the Ka’bah was constructed by Ibrahim (as) and his son
Isma'il (as). Today, the only thing known by historians about the past of
the Ka’bah is that it is accepted to have been a sacred place since very
ancient times. The placing of idols in the Ka’bah during the Age of
Ignorance prior to the Prophet Muhammad (saas), is a consequence of the
degeneration and distortion of the divine religion once revealed to Ibrahim
(as).

Ibrahim's (as) Place of Birth According
to the Old Testament

The place of Ibrahim’s (as) birth has always been an issue of debate.
While Christians and Jews say that Ibrahim (as) was born in South
Mesopotamia, the prevalent thought in the Islamic world is that his place
of birth is around Urfa-Harran. Some new finds show that the Jewish and
Christian thesis does not reflect the truth completely.
Jews and Christians depend on the distorted Old Testament for their
assertion, because in it, Ibrahim (as) is said to have been born in the city
of Ur in South Mesopotamia. After Ibrahim (as) was born and brought up
in that city, he is said to have set out on the way to Egypt and to have
reached Egypt at the end of a long journey in which he passed through
the Harran region of Turkey.
However, a recently found manuscript of the Old Testament generated
serious doubts about the validity of this information. In this Greek manu-
script from the third century BC, which is accepted to be the oldest copy
of the Old Testament yet found, "Ur" is never mentioned. Today, many Old
Testament researchers say that the word of "Ur" is inaccurate or a subse-
quent addition. This implies that Ibrahim (as) was not born in the city of
Ur, and may never have been to the Mesopotamian region in his life.
Besides, the names of some locations, and the regions they imply,
change by time. In our day, the Mesopotamia plains generally refer to the
south banks of the Iraqi land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Yet
two millennia earlier, Mesopotamia implied a region more northerly, even

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