Sotheby's is planning to auction off a carpet once intended to adorn the grave of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The carpet was commissioned in the 1860s by the Maharaja of Baroda (present-day Vadodara, Gujarat, India). Its name, the Pearl Carpet of Baroda, comes from the fact that it is encrusted with about "two million natural seed pearls" from the Persian Gulf.The Maharaja's death put an end to plans to send the carpet to the Prophet's (pbuh) grave. The carpet travelled from India to Monaco, and is now housed in Qatar.
Bidding is to start at US $5 million (C $6.2 million), but Sotheby's is predicting that the carpet could sell for up to US $20 million (C $24.8 million) (BBC).
In life, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) slept on a straw mat or a leather mattress stuffed with fibre. Living a life of humility and simplicity was his conscious choice. God alone knows, but I very much doubt the Prophet would have approved of the decoration of his tomb with literally millions of pearls. So I'm glad that this carpet is being treated as a work of art, rather than a religious object. And I'm certainly glad that it never did end up at the Prophet's graveside.
11 comments:
after reading this piece, i begin to ask myself question on what constitutes an act of worship intended to seek allah's pleasure and polytheism on the other hand. the reason is how some sects of islam interpretate bid'a (innovation) and polytheism.if the prophet's grave had gone though upgrade and changes, by whose permission is it done? secondly how many graves of moslems world wide recieve such an attention? if none ,isn't it possible that some innovation could be an act of worship intended to seek allahs blesssig? if not can't the attention given to the graves of prophets and pious men of god be considered polytheist? allah knows better.
There are many examples of pious Muslims' graves receiving quite lavish attention (especially, but not only, in Shi'ite areas), but I personally am against this practice, since the Prophet (pbuh) encouraged us to have simple graves.
In any case, I think the over-the-top decoration of graves, even if it should not be encouraged, should also not be considered polytheism, as long as the act is intended to please God, and as long as the person doing the decorating directs his prayers and requests for assistance to God Himself, rather than to the person whose grave it is.
And God knows best.
Update: The carpet has been sold to an anonymous buyer for US $5,458,000 (C $6,769,000).
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