At the time of
Muhammad (570--632 AD), his tribe, the Quraysh, was in charge of the
Kaaba, which was at that time a shrine containing hundreds of idols representing
Arabian tribal gods and other religious figures. Muhammad earned the enmity of his tribe by claiming the Kaaba to be dedicated to the worship of
Allah alone and by having all the other idols evicted. The Quraysh persecuted and harassed him continuously,[citation needed] so he and his followers eventually migrated to
Medina in 622.
Islamic histories also mention a reconstruction of the Kaaba around 600
AD. A story found in
Ibn Ishaq's
Sirat Rasūl Allāh, one of the biographies of Muhammad (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume), describes Muhammad settling a quarrel between
Meccan clans as to which clan should set the
Black Stone cornerstone in place. According to Ishaq's biography, Muhammad's solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, after which Muhammad set the stone into its final place with his own hands.[40][41] Ibn Ishaq says that the timber for the reconstruction of the Kaaba came from a
Greek ship that had been wrecked on the
Red Sea coast at Shu'ayba and that the work was undertaken by a
Coptic carpenter called Baqum.[42]
After this migration, or Hijra, the
Muslim community became a political and military force, continuously repelling Meccan attacks. In 630 AD, two years after signing the
Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the Meccan Quraysh attacked the Bedouin
Khuza'a, thereby breaking the
peace treaty. The Muslims emerged as victors in the battle that followed this incident and Muhammad entered
Mecca with his followers; they proceeded to the Kaaba. He refused, however, to enter the Kaaba while there were idols in it and so sent
Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and
Mughira ibn Shu'ba to remove them.[43][44][45]
Narrated
Ibn Abbas: When
Allah's Apostle arrived in Mecca, he refused to enter the
Ka'ba while there were idols in it. So he ordered that they be taken out. The pictures of the (
Prophets)
Ibrahim and
Ishmael, holding arrows of divination in their hands, were carried out.
The Prophet said, "May Allah ruin them (i.e. the nonbelievers) for they knew very well that they (i.e. Ibrahim and Ishmael) never drew lots by these (divination arrows). Then the
Prophet entered the Ka'ba and said. "
Allahu Akbar" in all its directions and came out and not offer any prayer therein.
—
Sahih Al-Bukhari,
Book 59, Hadith 584
The Kaaba was re-dedicated as an Islamic house of worship and henceforth the annual pilgrimage was to be a Muslim rite, the
Hajj, with visits to the Kaaba and other sacred sites around Mecca.[46]
Al-Ħajaru l-Aswad, "the Black Stone", is located on the Kaaba's eastern corner. Its northern corner is known as the Ruknu l-ˤĪrāqī, "the Iraqi corner", its western as the Ruknu sh-Shāmī, "the Levantine corner", and its southern as Ruknu l-Yamanī "the Yemeni corner".[1][7] The four corners of the Kaaba roughly
point toward the four cardinal directions of the compass.[1] Its major (long) axis is aligned with the rising of the star
Canopus toward which its southern wall is directed, while its minor axis (its east-west facades) roughly align with the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of winter solstice.[8][9]
The entrance is a door set 2.13 m (7 ft) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade.[1] In
1979 the
300 kg gold doors made by chief artist
Ahmad bin Ibrahim Badr, replaced the old silver doors made by his father, Ibrahim
Badr in
1942.[10] There is a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored in the mosque between the arch-shaped gate of Banū
Shaybah and the
Zamzam Well.
Meezab-i Rahmat, rainwater spout made of gold. Added in the rebuilding of 1627 after the previous year's rain caused three of the four walls to collapse.
Gutter, added in 1627 to protect the foundation from groundwater.
Hatim, a low wall originally part of the Kaaba. It is a semi-circular wall opposite, but not connected to, the north-west wall of the Kaaba known as the hatīm. This is 90 cm (35 in) in height and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in width, and is composed of white marble. At one time the space lying between the hatīm and the Kaaba belonged to the Kaaba itself, and for this reason it is not entered during the tawaf. Some believe that the graves of
Ismail and his mother
Hagar[1] are located in this space.
Al-Multazam, the part of the wall between the Black Stone and the entry door.
The Station of
Abraham, a glass and metal enclosure with what is said to be an imprint of Abraham's foot. Abraham is said to have stood on this stone during the construction of the upper parts of the Kaaba, raising Ismail on his shoulders for the uppermost parts.[11]
- published: 21 Jun 2014
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