Medina is a city eclipsed only by Mecca in the Muslim's sacred imagination.

Every year, millions of pilgrims descend on Medina's Great Mosque, usually before or after the hajj pilgrimage, or during the last ten nights ofRamadan, keen to visit the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed, to pray in his mosque, to sit where he once sat, in this holiest time of year.

That very same mosque was attacked by a suicide bomber in these last nights of Ramadan.

Though there is yet no claim of responsibility, it seems hard to imagine that anyone but ISIS was behind the attack. Al Qaeda is vile, but Al Qaeda also rejected the forerunner of ISIS for being too violent. There's no doubt that this was an unprecedented assault on the world's Muslims, many of whom come from all corners of the world to Medina. But it was also an assault on Islam itself.

The Islamic faith holds three cities most sacred. The third is Jerusalem, our first direction of prayer, the site of the Dome of the Rock, an octagonal building from which Mohammed ascended to heaven to be received before God. 

In Jerusalem, Mohammed also led all the prophets in prayer, an appropriate choice of venue. Moses and Joshua tried to reach the city. David ruled it, and his son Solomon after him. Jesus and John the Baptist lived in the shadow of Jerusalem.

Mecca is the most sacred. It's our current direction of prayer.

We believe Mecca was founded where, ages ago, Adam and Eve reunited after their exile from the garden. They built the first mosque, or place to worship God, where the Ka'ba is today, a cubical structure -- it literally means"cube" -- the original form of which we date to Abraham. With his son Ishmael, who was also a prophet, Abraham erected a simple stone structure, the first House of God, and called humanity to come worship the Divine.

It is that call that Muslims honor with the hajj pilgrimage. Traveling in the millions -- thanks to jet aircraft and the rise of middle classes worldwide -- to circle the Ka'ba and follow in the footsteps of our spiritual ancestors. Besides making the hajj pilgrimage, many Muslims make it a point to visit Medina, which is Islam's second sacred city.

(Source: CNN)

July 5, 2016