first published 2016
now part of chapter 8 of Sacred Number: Language of the Angels (2021)
The prophet Mohammad declared he was the last prophet of Allah, a name resembling the El Shaddai (trans. Lord God, KJV), the god of Abraham in the Bible. Mohammad galvanised the Arabs and nearby nations with an original religion, branching off from the start of the Patriarchs found in the Bible’s first book, Genesis. His story follows Ishmael, the first son of Abraham, from whom the Arabs believe themselves descended.

Mohammad’s religion of Islam (“salvation”) started in Mecca where he received visions of angels and spontaneously recited suras (verses) which became the Quran and associated texts. An unknown history of Abraham and Ishmael emerged, intimate with Mecca, long a spiritual center for the Arabic world. Mecca’s principle monument, the Kaaba or “cube”, has taken a number of forms. Adam located it as a dolmen created by God when Adam was formed; Ishmael built the next design for his father, “open to the sky”, using surface stones from nearby mountains; and Mohammad’s dispensation adds ancient stories about cubic arks and located these as a renewed Kaaba, the prime center, or Pole of redemption for the world.
The three keys here will be the Kaaba as an Ark, the Pole (Qutub) and model of Great Time.
Continue reading “Three Keys to the Kaaba”