The symbol of the centre and its religious function in Islam

• Main Author: Jan Hjärpe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Donner Institute 1979-01-01
• Series: Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
• Subjects: Symbolism, Islamic; Pilgrims and pilgrimages > Islam; Ritual; Experience (Religion) > Islam; Kaʻbah (Mecca, Saudi Arabia)
• Online Access: https://journal.fi/scripta/article/view/67116

There is a ritual orientation in the world. In this context we may speak of a Centre, the Origo in the religious orientation in the world. This concept is an essential feature of Islam. To be valid the prayers must be performed facing the kibla, which is the Ka`ba in Mecca. The kibla determines the orientation of the mosques, and thus indirectly, town plans through the Muslim world. Mecca is also the goal of the Pilgrimage.The difference between an object as a religious symbol and a neutral and profane object is the ritual behaviour: it attracts rituals and observances which are justified and explained by religious belief. In what way is the Ka`ba (and Mecca) as the Centre of the Muslim world a symbol? What is the value of the symbol today? What is the religious function of the Symbol of the Centre in Islam in the 1970's? The Symbol of the Centre in Islam is, on the one hand, the tangible object, the City and the temple, and on the other the ritual behaviour concerned with the Centre, i.e. tawaf, kibla etc. The Ka' ba' s role as an object of devotion is indicated by the fact that pictures of the temple actually serve as "devotional icons", in homes and in mosques. We can even see a tendency for a stylized image of the Kaba to replace the crescent as the symbol of Islam, i.e. the Symbol of the Centre tends to become the symbol of the religion as a whole. The symbol is efficacious, it has psychological effects, it provokes and expresses emotions, spiritual experiences, feelings of fellowship, of duties towards God and fellow-believers; not only do these emotions visualize fundamental principles in Islam, but by the experience of the Symbol these ideas are integrated in the personality of the individual, with social and political consequences for his actions. The fact that the Centre is invariably remembered as the kibla, the direction of the daily ritual behaviour, creates a profound awareness of membership of a community transcending ethnic, national and political boundaries. The pilgrimage to Mecca plays a major role in the co-operation between Muslim countries in the fields of religion, economics and politics. The Ka'ba, and Mecca, is the Centre of Islam's "topographical religiosity".