Pearl Carpet of Baroda
According to a BBC News story,* a 150 year old carpet dating from the late 1860’s was auctioned by Sotheby’s in the capital city of Doha in Qatar. Bids were expected to begin around $5,000,000 with auctioneers predicting the rug could fetch as much as $20,000,000. What is this carpet’s claim to fame?
Known as the Pearl Carpet of Baroda, it was made in India and decorated with around two million natural seed pearls, along with hundreds of precious stones, including emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. More importantly — if tradition is right — the carpet was commissioned by India’s Maharaja of Baroda to be sent as a gift to decorate the tomb of the “prophet” Muhammad (who died A.D. 632) in Medina. But the Maharaja died and the carpet was never delivered to Muhammad’s tomb, remaining instead in India, taken later to Monaco.
Likely, none of us will ever have a multi-million dollar rug to hang on our wall. What the carpet can remind us of is the fact that Islam’s founder was a human being overcome by death. Muhammad’s tomb still exists. His tomb can be found. His tomb is still occupied.
Contrast that with two significant burials in the Bible. First, there was Moses. At the end of an illustrious career, Moses climbed Mount Nebo and died. Through him God had established a law for his people which would last all the way to Calvary. God himself buried Moses, and no one ever knew exactly where (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). Moses’ tomb could never have become a shrine or object of worship. No one could have ever laid a jeweled carpet at the tomb of Moses. God saw to it that the tomb of the man who was given on Sinai the divinely written tablets of stone could never be located.
Second, of course, there was the tomb of Jesus Christ. We are not sure today exactly where it was, though more than one location vies for the honor. Why the incertitude about Christ’s tomb? There were definitely many who knew its precise location when he was buried. But Jesus’ resurrection on the third day left an empty tomb, which became less important than what emerged from it when the stone rolled away.
So, Moses’ tomb was occupied, but its location never known. Christ’s tomb was only momentarily occupied, which is why its exact spot was only temporarily known for certain. Even if we could pinpoint Jesus’ gravesite, there would be no remains of Jesus inside. Which underscores one (of many) striking differences between Islam and Christianity. Muhammad lived six hundred years after the church of Christ was established. Muhammad founded his own religion, but it was not powerful enough to prevent his death, or to raise him from the grave, or to grant him eternal life. Christ, on the other hand, founded a religion based on the fact of his own deity — an identity so unique and powerful that he could conquer death both for himself and his disciples (1 Corinthians 15:20). And that’s worth more than all the diamonds that could be woven into any rug.
Death found all three. Moses’ body is a mystery. Christ’s body is missing. Muhammad’s is still in Medina. The first two cases are unparalleled because God’s hand was involved. The third typifies the fate of ordinary men. The auction of the Pearl Carpet of Baroda serves as a multi-million dollar reminder that there is a towering difference between eternal life and eternal lie.
*Julia Wheeler, “‘Prophet carpet’ set for auction”, 19 March 2009 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7952003.stm).
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3 Comments
November 10, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Thanks Weylan! Great article!
November 10, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Excellent!
November 19, 2009 at 2:05 am
Excellent article!