As an example of the lack of factual precision on the Internet I deplore, I pointed out in an earlier post how a typographical error on one blogger’s post took on a life of its own and is now found on a number of carpet blogs that should know better.   I found  myself longing for a return to the grand old days of yore when you could believe what you read because it was in a book and books had been fact-checked for errors by professional editors before publication.  And then I stumbled across this paragraph in a real, old-fashioned paper-and-print book that I had just paid good money for: Green–as elsewhere signifies renewal and growth, but, more importantly for Muslims, holiness, as it was the color of Mohammed’s coat, and therefore not suitable to be walked upon and not used by them in rugs for that reason. While I make no claim to any great reservoir of knowledge on the subject of Islam, I knew I’d read

From Muslimmatters.org: Seeing a scene of impeccable beauty, we often hear the term “Heaven on Earth!” But there is only one place that literally has the right to proclaim itself heaven on Earth. There, deep in the mosque of the Prophet (masjid Nabawi), covered by green carpets and the tears of millions, lies a “garden from the gardens of paradise.

somewhere that there were green rugs on the floor of Islam’s second holiest shrine, The Mosque of The Prophet. Still, what did I know? Maybe they were not to be walked upon…I took the book to a friend of mine, a lovely, well-educated Muslim lady from Egypt who is temporarily in the US and showed her the paragraph. She couldn’t believe what she was reading. She had never heard of such a thing. Nonsense!

So much for my faith in paper books…and here is a beautiful green prayer rug to further prove my point…and, to further prove the point, even Amazon sells green prayer rugs. You can find several listed at the bottom of this post.