There are places in this world that speak to the heart and soul in ways no words can truly capture. Table Mountain in South Africa is one such place. But, to my mind, it is not merely a geographical wonder – a stunning flat-topped peak that towers over Cape Town.
For me, Table Mountain is far more significant; it is a sacred site, a key to a profound mystery, one that stretches back to ancient scriptures and reaches forward to a future of great cosmic importance.
The mountain has long been a symbol of Cape Town and South Africa, with historical ties to the indigenous Khoi and San peoples. It has served as a navigation landmark for sailors and as a place of both strategic and spiritual significance.
In Islamic tradition, we speak of Mountain Qaf, a vast, mysterious range described in the Quran as encircling the earth. It is said to be located between two oceans, beyond the realm of ordinary human sight.
For centuries, scholars and mystics have debated its exact location.
Many of us believe that Mountain Qaf is a symbolic space, representing the border between the known and the unknown, the earthly and the divine. But there are those who believe that Mountain Qaf is not merely a metaphor.
The Quran describes Qaf as a mountain of extraordinary significance, with the power to hold the world in balance. It is here, at Qaf, that the Mahdi – the awaited Messiah – will descend at the end of time.
And when he arrives, it is said that the angel Jibril (Gabriel) will blow his horn from the top of this mountain, signaling the end of the world as we know it.
I am not suggesting that this magnificent mountain is the only possible location of Mountain Qaf, for the world is full of mystery, and the Quran’s words are rich with metaphor.
However, when the Turkish professor of Islamic theology, Abubakr Effendi, came to South Africa in 1863, he noted that “Cape Town is settled at the edge of magnificent beauty, and that Mountain Qaf contains numerous wonders” – a sentiment that Effendi also expressed in the foreword of his famous Arabic-Afrikaans book Beyan’ud Din.
For Abubakr Effendi, Table Mountain is far more significant; it is a sacred site, a key to a profound mystery, one that stretches back to ancient scriptures and reaches forward to a future of great cosmic importance.
In the end, it is not the physical mountain that matters most, but the lessons it teaches us: that we are part of a vast and mysterious universe, that time moves in cycles, and that the end of one chapter is always the beginning of another.
As we look to the future, we must hold fast to our faith, for the Mahdi will come, the trumpet will sound, and the world will be renewed, as promised in the ancient prophecies.
Until then, we can only stand in awe of the mountain before us and listen for the echoes of the past as we await the dawn of a new and better world.
* Halim Gençoğlu is a historian with PhD from UCT and is a post-doctoral fellow at Wits University.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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