My friends and I spent hours at the prophet’s tomb and the rawdah — a space between his original pulpit and grave considered by Muslims to be some of the hottest spiritual real estate on earth. The moving experience was tempered by the awareness that most Muslims long to offer their “salaams” (prayers of peace) to the prophet, but cannot afford to visit his mosque. Also, women are often unable to properly perform the “ziyarat” (religious visitation) there because they’re allowed only limited access.

In Mecca, I hiked nearly an hour under the remorseless afternoon sun to visit the Cave of Hira, where the prophet is believed to have received his first revelation: “Recite!” There are no golden signs, air-conditioning, wheelchair ramps or video presentations here. The austere cave used to offer a clear line of sight to the Kaaba, but now the view is now obscured by that monstrous, $15 billion, Saudi-government-funded clock tower and the accompanying world’s tallest hotel.

That tableau is a perfect symbol of the strained marriage between the house of God — the Kaaba, in Mecca — and the House of Saud, which controls everything related to the sacred mosques. In adherence to the reactionary religious ideology it embraces, the government has allowed the prophet’s house to fall into decrepitude. It has flattened the home of his first wife, Khadija, and installed public toilets where it used to stand. But it has no objection to the construction of extravagant hotels not far away.