Page 86 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

Maintain the Historical

Status Quo



he only certain principle upon which to establish peace in
Tsociety is that of maintaining the status quo. If one attempts
to bring about a change in the status quo, this will almost
certainly unleash violence. On the contrary, acceptance of the
status quo brings peace to society.
The Kaaba is the holiest place for Muslims. It is believed
that the Prophet Abraham built the Kaaba in Makkah in the
second millennium BC, many centuries before the advent of
the Prophet Muhammad. The form it takes today is that of a
cube with a square base. However, when the Prophet Abraham
first laid the foundation of the building, he gave its base a
rectangular shape. The Kaaba continued in this shape until 600
AD when the people of Makkah undertook its reconstruction
after it had been damaged by floods. In the process, they
changed its shape, giving it a square base.
It was the mission of the Prophet Muhammad to revive
the traditions of the Prophet Abraham. He did not, however,
try to restore the Kaaba to the shape it had originally been
built in by the Prophet Abraham. He left the Kaaba in its
“truncated” shape.
The reason for this is given in a Hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari.
That is, had the Prophet tried to change the shape of the Kaaba,
a controversy would have erupted which might have affected
the Prophet’s peaceful mission. That is why the Prophet left
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