On The Monumental

The great mosque in Makkah, the Masjid al-Haram, aspires to the monumental. And like any massive project that does so it has spent much of its existence under construction - as it is at the present time. Indeed, it's so much in the process of being rebuilt that it's difficult to imagine when this current manifestation might be finished. And something similar is true about the hotel complex immediately surrounding it, which I had the impression had been largely completed when I was last here in 2016. It turns out that there are more very large hotels being built behind the very large hotels that immediately face the masjid. In fact, we are resident in one of them, with the adjoining one not completed yet.

Now I can understand the idea of honouring the Creator of All Things with something that reflects in a small measure the grandeur of that creation. I suppose the great cathedrals and temples of the past in other religious traditions are examples of the human desire to do so. There's a kind of nobility in such attempts which reflects well on the human spirit in at least some degree. But there's always the worrying question as to whether its the human aspect in its least attractive form of hubristic ambition that is being celebrated with the divine being pushed somewhere into the background. 

What I like about Makkah are the ways in which the crowds make it their own. Something akin to the anarchy of worship. They bring the monumental down to earth.