Surah Al-Baqarah Verse 158

160 The virtue of patient perseverance in faith leads to the mention of two symbolic monuments of that virtue. These are the two little hills of Safa and Marwah now absorbed in the city of Makkah , and close to the well of Zamzam. Here, according to tradition, the lady Hajar, mother of the infant Isma'il, prayed for water in the parched desert, and in her eager quest round these hills, she found her prayer answered and saw the Zamzam spring. Unfortunately the Pagan Arabs had placed a male and a female idol here, and their gross and superstitious rites caused offense to the early Muslims. They felt some hesitation in going round these places during the Pilgrimage. As a matter of fact they should have known that the Ka'bah (the House of Allah) had been itself defiled with idols, and was sanctified again by the purity of Muhammad's life and teaching. The lesson is that the most sacred things may be turned to the basest uses; that we are not therefore necessarily to ban a thing misused; that if our intentions and life are pure, Allah will recognise them even if the world cast stones at us because of some evil associations which they join with what we do, or with the people we associate with, or with the places which claim our reverence. 161 The House = the Sacred Mosque, the Ka'bah. The Season of regular Hajj culminates in the visit to Arafat on the ninth day of the month of Dhual Hijj ah, followed by the circumambulation of Ka'bah. A visit to the Sacred Mosque and the performance of the rites of pilgrimage at any other time is called an 'Umrah. The symbolic rites are the same in either case, except that the 'Arafat rites are omitted in the 'Umrah. The Safa and Marwah are included among the Monuments, as pointing to one of the highest of Muslim virtues. ( Cf. 5:2). 162 The impulse should be to Good; if once we are sure of this, we must obey it without hesitation, whatever people may say.