Melaka Is the Promised Land

Part 11 : The Perimeter of the Blessed Land In The Quran

Parts 6 to 10 have established the definition of the blessed land according to the Quran. We have identified 14 characteristics of Masyarikal Ardh, 3 primary signs and 4 attributes of the blessed land that determine the central area referred to as fiha. This analysis gives a clear picture that the blessed land in the Quran is not merely a spiritual concept but a geographical entity that can be identified. After understanding fiha as the centre of the blessed land, we now move to the next phase, which is hawlahu.

Allah Most High says:

سُبْحَـٰنَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِۦ لَيْلًۭا مِّنَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ إِلَى ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْأَقْصَا ٱلَّذِى بَـٰرَكْنَا حَوْلَهُۥ لِنُرِيَهُۥ مِنْ ءَايَـٰتِنَآ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ

Glory be to Him Who transported His servant (Muhammad) by night from Al Masjid Al Haram to Al Masjid Al Aqsa, which We have blessed around it, in order that We might show him some of Our signs. Indeed He alone is the All Hearing and the All Seeing.

QS Al Isra' 17:1

Verse 17:1 introduces the expression barakna hawlahu which carries the meaning of barakah that is given to the area surrounding that centre. Part 11 will dissect the meaning of hawlahu as a geographical perimeter that encircles the central land that is blessed by Allah.

Why must you read Part 11 until the end?

If you do not understand hawlahu you will not only fail to see the true map of the Blessed Land in the Quran, you will also repeat the mistake of earlier people who placed Masjid Al Aqsa at a location that Allah has never mentioned. You will elevate a place based on human history and on political, religious and military traditions while Allah gives guidance through the geography that is blessed fiha and hawlahu.

The mistake in reading hawlahu is the main reason why many people assume that Masjid Al Aqsa is in Palestine. They read Al Isra' 17:1 but they do not examine the true meaning of “barakna hawlahu” (بَـٰرَكْنَا حَوْلَهُۥ). They impose it on a building while Allah mentions a surrounding area that is blessed. They choose a city that was built after the time of the Companions, while Allah has never mentioned the name Palestine or Jerusalem as the blessed land. In the end, they follow human naming and not Allah’s designation.

When hawlahu is not understood, a person will repeat the historical mistakes committed by the Umayyad, Abbasid and later dynasties. They built structures upon land that does not fulfil a single characteristic of Masyarikal Ardh. They gave those structures names that they chose while Allah sets barakah upon a location that has specific signs and attributes. This mistake continues until today because people do not read hawlahu with linguistic and geographical discipline.

This part is very technical and requires a high level of focus. However, if you ignore it, you will remain trapped in a cycle of interpretation that is not anchored to the Quran. You will be holding on to a man-made map without realising that Allah has given two major formulas, namely barakna fiha and barakna hawlahu. If you reject hawlahu, you are rejecting half of the geographical guidance that Allah Himself has set.

Part 11 is not merely a linguistic analysis. It is a gateway to distinguish between the blessed land that Allah has appointed and the land that humans choose on their own. Without understanding hawlahu, you will not be able to map the perimeter of the Blessed Land and you will continue to be trapped in a man-made narrative that does not rest upon the true basis of designation in the Quran.

The Difference Between Fiha and Hawlahu In The Quran

The difference between فِيْهَا (fiha) and حَوْلَهُ (hawlahu) is not a minor difference. It determines the true location of the Blessed Land, the position of Masjid Al Aqsa and the geographical map of Masyarikal Ardh in the Quran. Both terms appear in the barokna verses and carry different functions in the structure and mapping of geography.

The linguistic meaning of fiha

The word فِيْهَا is formed from the particle of preposition في (in) and the pronoun ها (referring to the land or area mentioned earlier). It carries the meaning “inside that very area”.

The Quran frequently uses fiha in the context of the earth and regions:

فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
in the heavens and in the earth

فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ
in their hearts is a disease

فِي الْأَرْضِ
in the earth

In the context of the Blessed Land, fiha emphasises the central part of the land that Allah has designated as:

• a place of water production

• agricultural region

• the point of hijrah of the prophets

• a land that is given preference and designation

All four barokna fiha verses (21:71, 21:81, 34:18, 7:137) point to the core land that is blessed.

The primary reference is QS Al Anbiya 21:71:

إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا لِلْعَالَمِينَ

Towards the land which We have blessed in it for all mankind / all the worlds.

Excerpt of QS Al Anbiya 21:71

The word fiha here clearly indicates the central land. Please refer to Part 9 for a further explanation.

The linguistic meaning of hawlahu

The word حَوْلَهُ consists of:

• حول = surrounding, perimeter, encircling, radius

• هُ = referring to the masjid in verse 17:1

The root ح و ل in Arabic is very rich in meaning and all of them are related to change, alternation, circling and areas encircling a certain central point.

The main meanings of the root ح و ل can carry the following senses:

• A perimeter that encircles something, حول الشيء = around something.

• An outer region or neighbouring area, حول المدينة = the area surrounding the city of Madinah.

• A circle of influence, الحول = strength, the ability to revolve or move around.

• A barrier between two points, يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ = something that stands as a barrier in between.

Other Quranic evidences also strengthen the geographical meaning of the root ح و ل when Allah says in the following verse:

وَمِمَّنْ حَوْلَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ مُنَافِقُونَ

Among the Bedouin Arabs around you there are hypocrites.

Excerpt of QS At Taubah 9:101

The word hawlakum clearly refers to a surrounding area that has breadth and extent, not a building or a static point.

يَحْسَبُونَ ٱلْأَحْزَابَ لَمْ يَذْهَبُوا۟ ۖ وَإِن يَأْتِ ٱلْأَحْزَابُ يَوَدُّوا۟ لَوْ أَنَّهُم بَادُونَ فِى ٱلْأَعْرَابِ يَسْـَٔلُونَ عَنْ أَنۢبَآئِكُمْ

They think that the confederate forces have not withdrawn and if the confederates should come again, they would wish they were out in the desert among the Bedouin, asking about news concerning you.

QS Al Ahzab 33:20

This verse does not mention hawl directly but it shows that the Bedouin live in outlying regions and around the city. The same core meaning is employed in the structure of the verse hawlahu.

Hawlahu In QS 17:1

The central verse of the hawlahu analysis is:

• الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ
• “which We have blessed in its surroundings”

Allah does not say:

• بَارَكْنَا فِيهِ in order to mean
• “We blessed it from within”

rather Allah says:

• بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ in order to mean
• “We blessed what is surrounding it”.

This distinguishes two things:

• The masjid is not the centre of barakah.

• The barakah is situated in the wide perimeter surrounding it.

This alone is sufficient to show the error of the modern Aqsa location. The building in Palestine does not have a blessed geographical perimeter, it does not match the 14 characteristics of Masyarikal Ardh nor the 3 main signs and 4 attributes of the blessed land.

Comparison between fiha and hawlahu

To ensure that the reader understands the functional difference between fiha and hawlahu precisely, both must be viewed in a structured comparative form. This is because fiha functions to establish the central land while hawlahu determines the perimeter that surrounds it, and without distinguishing both, one will not be able to read the map of the Blessed Land as outlined by the Quran. The comparison below shows the specific role of each term in the framework of geographical revelation.

The difference between these two terms must be understood because fiha establishes the central land while hawlahu determines its surrounding perimeter and both together form the basis for us to read and map the Blessed Land as depicted by the Quran.

Five Barokna Verses of Geography In The Quran

Now we arrive at the most important section in understanding the map of the Blessed Land. If you read this section carefully, you will see how Allah Himself arranges the barokna verses until they form a complete geographical picture. This section is not just a list of verses. It is a map that Allah Himself has drawn and our task is only to follow its lines.

Out of the six barokna verses in the entire Quran, five of them are geographical, while the other one (37:113) is related to lineage that is still connected to the same geography. This part will focus on those five geographical verses because these verses are the ones that determine the positions of fiha and hawlahu on the blessed land.

I will take you through them one by one so that you can see their similarities, their differences and how all of them eventually merge into a single large cluster of land that Allah has blessed.

Four Barokna Fiha Verses – The Central Land That Allah Has Set

Let us first look at the four verses that use the word فِيهَا (fiha). You will notice that all of them refer to the central land, not the perimeter. This is the core, the place where the barakah resides from within.

1. QS 21:71 – The Land of Ibrahim and Luth’s Hijrah

إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا

to the land which We have blessed in it

This verse states that Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Luth were directed to a land which Allah has blessed in it. This is not a marginal land but the core or central land. It is the first harbour of barokna. If we misread this location, every subsequent map will be wrong.

2. QS 21:81 – The Region of Prophet Sulaiman’s Rule

إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا

to the land which We have blessed in it

This is interesting because it shows that the same land also became the operational region of the kingdom of Sulaiman. One central land, many eras and many prophets. This is not a small place. It is a great blessed land that is repeatedly mentioned in history.

3. QS 34:18 – The Trade Routes of the People of Saba’

بَيْنَهُمْ وَبَيْنَ الْقُرَى الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا

between them and the towns which We have blessed in it

This verse does not merely mention the blessed land but shows the connecting routes between a great kingdom (Saba’) and the blessed land. This shows that the blessed land is not isolated. It becomes a trade centre. Great trade routes must lie within a geography that is rich and stable. Once again, fiha refers to the centre.

4. QS 7:137 – Mashariq and Magharib, The Heritage After Pharaoh

مَشَارِقَ الْأَرْضِ وَمَغَارِبَهَا الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا

the eastern parts of the earth and its western parts which We have blessed in it

This is the peak barokna fiha verse. It does not mention a small specific location but “the eastern parts of the earth and its western parts” which are blessed in it. This verse places the blessed land on a very large scale. It is not a city, it is not a building and it is not a single valley. It is a large cluster of central land that became the heritage of Bani Israel after they were saved.

If you notice, fiha in this verse sets a vast central land. It must be consistent with the three previous fiha verses.

The Only Barokna Hawlahu Verse – Determining the Perimeter

After we understand the four fiha verses, then we can appreciate the force and subtlety of the fifth verse.

QS 17:1 – The Determination of the Perimeter of the Blessed Land

ٱلَّذِى بَـٰرَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ

which We have blessed around it

This verse differentiates between the centre and the edge. Here Allah does not say fiha. Allah says hawlahu, which means the surrounding area, radius, perimeter and the belt that encircles the centre.

This is where many people make a mistake. They choose a building in Palestine as the centre, then force hawlahu to refer to that building. Yet Allah has never mentioned that location. If hawlahu is the blessed perimeter, then fiha must lie at its centre. This forces us to identify the central land first before we place the masjid that is mentioned.

Conclusion From The Five Barokna Verses

Now, after we have looked at all five verses together, three major points become very clear:

• Four fiha verses set the central land that shows the land that is blessed in it.

• One hawlahu verse sets the perimeter that describes the area surrounding that central land.

• All of these verses point to one large geographical cluster in the east, not a small land in the west or the Mediterranean.

In other words:

Allah gives us the centre first through fiha, then gives us the boundary through hawlahu.

This is how Allah draws the map and we simply follow His lines. This is Allah’s own mapping in the Quran.

The Hadith of Prophet Musa a.s. and Evidence of the Perimeter of the Blessed Land

At this point, after seeing how the five barokna verses form a wide geographical cluster, there is one more important proof that we must look at. This proof is not a Quranic verse but a sahih hadith which confirms that the blessed land designated by Allah is not a small city or building. It is a large region that has a centre and a perimeter. This hadith comes from the story of Prophet Musa a.s., the prophet who is closest to the major events of Bani Israel and the prophet who received revelation about their journey to the land that was blessed.

In a sahih narration, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

From Abu Hurairah r.a., he said:

The Angel of Death was sent to Musa a.s. When the angel came to him, Musa slapped him, so the angel returned to his Lord and said:

“You have sent me to a servant who does not want to die.”

Then Allah restored the angel’s eye and said:

“Return to him and say to him: place your hand upon the back of a bull. For every hair that your hand covers, you will be granted one additional year.”

Musa said: “O my Lord, then what?”

Allah said: “Then death.”

Musa said: “In that case, now.”

Then Musa asked Allah to bring him closer to the Sacred Earth by a distance no more than a stone’s throw.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“If I were there I would show you his grave. It is by the roadside near a red sand hill.”

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, no. 1339

Notice that Prophet Musa did not ask to enter that land. He only asked to be brought closer, “ramyatan bi hajar”, that is, a distance that can be reached by a single stone’s throw. This request shows that Prophet Musa a.s. knew exactly where the boundary of the Blessed Land was and that he was still outside its perimeter when he was near death. This only makes sense if the Blessed Land is a wide region, not a small city or an area the size of the present Masjid Al Aqsa complex. If it were only a small location in today’s Palestine, Musa could have entered it easily without requiring a special request.

The narration in Muslim includes an additional clarification:

«لَوْ كُنْتُ ثَمَّ لَأَرَيْتُكُمْ قَبْرَهُ إِلَى جَانِبِ الطَّرِيقِ عِنْدَ الْكَثِيبِ الْأَحْمَرِ»

If I were there, I would certainly show you his grave. It is by the side of the road, near a red sand hill.

Reference: Sahih Muslim, no. 2372

This hadith explains that the grave of Musa is by the roadside, in a peripheral area that is near but not inside the Blessed Land. In other words, Prophet Musa died in the hawlahu zone, that is, the outer perimeter and not the fiha zone.

This supports the discussion that hawlahu refers to the broad area that encircles the central land.

This hadith becomes an important proof in two matters:

1. The Blessed Land has a wide geographical perimeter
   Musa did not die in fiha but in the surrounding part of it. This is evidence that the Blessed Land was never intended to be a narrow point such as the modern Palestinian site.

2. Musa identified the boundary of the Blessed Land physically
   If that location were the Palestine of today, there would be no reason Musa could not enter a few kilometres into it. A request such as this only makes sense if the boundary of the Blessed Land lies in a large region that cannot be entered because of the punishment upon the previous generation or due to a divine decree upon Bani Israel.

When this hadith is combined with the five barokna verses discussed earlier, we see an increasingly clear picture. The Blessed Land is not only a region that is blessed fiha but also has outer areas, marginal belts and surrounding zones that are blessed hawlahu. Musa was in that peripheral zone when he passed away.

This hadith is not merely a supporting argument. It is historical evidence that the true Blessed Land is a wide land cluster in the east that fulfils all the characteristics we have already established, and not built structures that were named by human beings in the second and third Islamic centuries. By understanding this hadith, the reader will find it easier to accept the technical analysis of hawlahu that will be discussed next.

Conclusion

Part 11 has separated a major confusion that has been rooted for more than a thousand years, namely the confusion between fiha and hawlahu in the barokna verses of the Quran. The two are not synonymous terms but two geographical markers that Allah Himself has distinguished in order to map the Blessed Land.

We summarise that fiha denotes the central land that is blessed in it. Verses 21:71, 21:81, 34:18 and 7:137 prove that this central land is a large region that serves as the area of prophetic hijrah, the domain of prophetic rule, an international trade centre and the heritage of Bani Israel after the fall of Pharaoh. All of these verses indicate barakah that lies inside the land, not at its edges.

Hawlahu in turn denotes the perimeter that encircles that central land. Only one verse mentions it, namely 17:1, yet that single verse is sufficient to open up the entire map of the Blessed Land. The root ح و ل emphasises that hawlahu has never carried the meaning of a building, a small location or a religious complex. It always means the surrounding areas, the marginal belts and the outer zones that are connected to the central blessed land.

The hadith of Prophet Musa a.s. completes these five barokna verses. Musa only asked to be brought close to the Blessed Land by the distance of a stone’s throw instead of entering it. This is proof that he knew the position of its perimeter, that he was outside fiha when near death and that Prophet Musa identified the hawlahu region as the peripheral zone of the Blessed Land.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ further confirmed that the grave of Musa is by the roadside near a red sand hill, a peripheral location that is consistent with the concept of hawlahu and not with the centre of barokna.

All of this brings us to one major conclusion:

The Blessed Land in the Quran is a wide geographical cluster which has a centre (fiha) and a perimeter (hawlahu), located in the eastern region within the band of sunrise between Sartan and Jadi, between Bangladesh and the Mariana Trench, and it has never been designated by Allah as Palestine or Jerusalem.

Part 11 has prepared the most important methodological foundation in understanding the map of the Blessed Land. We now know what the centre is and what the perimeter is. The next step is to use this foundation to map the actual shape of that region.

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