Baqi, A Blot on Muslim Conscience

Date: 30 May 2020 - 21:54

News ID: ۷۹۱۰۰

By: Kayhan Int’l Cultural Desk

Reports are rife these days of the betrayal of the Palestinian cause and gifting of Islam’s first qibla, the al-Aqsa Mosque, to its Zionist occupiers by oil-rich Arab reactionary regimes, led by Saudi Arabia.
This is not a matter of surprise for Muslims familiar with the recent history of the region and how the Land of Revelation, Hijaz, was occupied with bloodshed and its Islamic sites desecrated by heretical hordes from Najd who were rewarded by their masters in London in 1932 with a spurious kingdom called Saudi Arabia.
Today, the 8th of Shawwal is the tragic day on which 97 lunar years ago in 1344 AH (21 April 1926), Wahhabi terrorists sacrileged the sanctity of the sacred cemetery of Jannat al-Baqi in the holy city of Medina. They demolished the tombs of the elders of Islam, especially the blessed shrine where reposed in peace, Four of the Twelve Infallible Heirs of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) – Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS), and Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS).
According to eyewitness accounts, a strange spectacle unfolded. To the shock and horror of pilgrims thronging the holy site, an unruly and uncouth mob with unkempt beards burst upon the scene with shovels, pickaxes and truncheons and started demolishing the domes and canopies that shaded the tombs including the resting places of two of the Prophet’s aunts, an uncle, several cousins, and the Prophet’s infant son, Ibrahim.
In frenzied mood, the heretics then struck with savage vengeance at the grand mausoleum that towered over all other edifices and hammered down its dome on the heads of pilgrims. This was the most blessed spot in Baqi. It housed the holy graves of the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Imams of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.
It is a tragedy of story that these desecrators of Islamic sanctity are called ‘puritanical’ Muslims by the pro Zionist western media. A great misnomer indeed, since the seditious Saudi clan that leads the Wahhabis and their vandalism, funds terrorist outfits throughout the Muslim world!
Literally "Jannat al-Baqi” means a tree garden. It is a sanctified place, since in it are buried many of our Prophet’s relatives and companions, the first of whom was Othman bin Maz’oun who died in the 3rd year of Hijra.
It was the habit of the Prophet to greet those buried in Baqi with the words: "Peace upon you, O abode of the faithful! God willing, we should soon join you. O Allah, forgive the fellows of al-Baqi".
Baqi also had the "Bayt al-Hozn” or House of Grief, built by Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (AS) for his bereaved wife, the Noblest Lady of all times, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), to lament in solitude for her departed father, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA). At this place, following the heartrending tragedy of Karbala, ladies of the Prophet’s household, including his granddaughters, Hazrat Zainab (SA) and Hazrat Omm Kolthoum (SA), used to assemble to lament for Imam Husain (AS), joined by the latter’s wife, Rabab, the mother of the infant martyr, Hazrat Ali Asghar (AS). They would be joined by the womenfolk of Medina in wailings.
Thus, for over a millennium and two centuries, the Jannat al-Baqi Cemetery remained a sacred site with renovations being carried out as and when needed till the Wahhabis rose to power in the early 19th century. They desecrated the tombs and showed disrespect to the martyrs and the companions of the Prophet. Muslims who disagreed with them were branded "infidels” and were killed.
In 1802, they violated the sanctity of Mecca and destroyed all sacred places and domes there, including the canopy over the well of Zamzam. In 1804, the Wahhabis entered Medina to desecrate Jannat al-Baqi as well as every mosque and religious site they came across. An abortive attempt was made to demolish the Prophet’s tomb as well, but because of uproar by world Muslims, they backed off.
Muslims all over the world denounced this blasphemy and savagery of the Wahhabis and exhorted the Ottoman Sultan to save the sacred shrines from total destruction. The Sultan ordered his governor of Egypt, Mohammad Ali Pasha, to punish the Wahhabis. Mohammad Ali Pasha landed at Jeddah and with the support of local tribes, restored law and order in Medina and Mecca by driving out the Wahhabis. The entire Muslim world celebrated this victory. In Cairo, the celebrations continued for five days. He then sent his son, Ibrahim Pasha, in hot pursuit of the fleeing Wahhabis, who were totally defeated and their stronghold Diriyah in Najd near modern Riyadh, was razed to the ground.
In 1818 AD, the Ottomans carried out reconstruction and restored the Islamic heritage. Between 1848 and 1860 AD, further renovations were made, adding to the splendour of Medina and Mecca. World War 1, however, saw the defeat of the Ottomans by the British and their exit from all Arab lands.
In 1925, with British help, the Wahhabis, led by the desert brigand Abdel-Aziz entered Hijaz and carried out merciless massacre, even killing Muslims in the sacred precincts of the Holy Ka’ba.
In 1926 Medina fell to the Wahhabi onslaught. The Islamic heritage including Baqi was destroyed. The only shrine that remained intact was that of the Prophet and that too not because of any respect for him but because of fear of reaction from the whole Muslim world.
In Ohad, outside Medina, tombs of the martyrs of the famous Battle of Ohad, including the Prophet’s uncle Hamza were desecrated and demolished, while in Mecca, the Wahhabis destroyed the house where the Prophet and the tombs of the Bani Hashem in the equally sacred Jannat al-Mu’alla Cemetery, such as those of the Prophet’s grandfather Hazrat Abdul-Muttaleb, uncle and guardian Hazrat Abu Taleb, and the Prophet’s loyal wife of over 25-long years Umm al-Momineen (Mother of Believers), Hazrat Khadija (SA).
The Wahhabis also destroyed the tomb of the Prophet’s father Abdullah near Medina, the tomb in Abwa of the Prophet’s mother, Amina bint Wahb, and the tomb in the port city of Jeddah of the Mother of Mankind, Hazrat Hawwa (Eve).
As a reward for his massacre of Muslims and blasphemy against Islam, Britain created for Abdel-Aziz a kingdom called Saudi Arabia in the name of his tribe.
The ruins of Baqi continue to remain a blot on Muslim conscience. As long as this open wound that lies opposite the Prophet’s shrine is not healed, Islamic solidarity and the goal of world Muslims to liberate al-Aqsa and the Palestinians, will remain nothing more than a dream – a dream, which the enemies of Islam are trying to turn into a nightmare through the sedition of the Saudis.