Mosque: Cube and Circle

Let us visit the historic cube in Mecca to conduct a thought-experiment: Imagine you are suspended in space in a satellite directly above it. Presume also that it is night and all the lights in the world have been switched off. Now switch on the lights that shine on the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca in which the black cube is located, and also switch on the lights of all the mosques of the world. This is what you will see: directly below you will be the black square of the Ka’ba at the center of a vast concentric system of white circles that emanate from it like ripples: The innermost circles are in constant motion around it, and they are packed close together. White wheels within wheels unceasing in their motion. They are encircled by white circles that have a space between each other. These do not move around the cube but they do sway towards and away from it. Radiating away are unmoving white dots that make up bigger and bigger circles at greater distances from each other. The three sets of circles we see while being suspended in space above the Ka’ba are gatherings of people in different acts of worship. Closest to the cube, the Ka’ba, are pilgrims dressed in the stipulated white unstitched garments, akin to their shrouds, circumambulating, walking seven times around the cube chanting Labaik, allahumma labaik (“I am here, for You, I am here”). They form the first set of moving concentric circles.

Mosque_Cube_and_Circle.pdf