The Kaaba, Mecca

Kaaba, Mecca
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kaaba#/media/File:Kaaba,_Makkah3.jpg
Author: معتز توفيق اغبارية


The Kaaba is a cube-shaped structure located within the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is regarded as the most sacred site in Islam. Muslims all around the world face in the direction of the Kaaba when they pray.

The Kaaba measures 11.03 m (36.2 ft) by 12.86 , (42.2 ft) and stands at a height of 13.1 m (43 ft). Its four corners of point roughly to the four cardinal directions. On the eastern corner is the Black Stone, the ancient stone which forms the centerpiece to which Muslims face in their daily prayers.

During the Hajj pilgrimage, a Muslim is required to walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction. This is also performed during the Umrah, or lesser pilgrimage, conducted outside the pilgrimage month.

The Kaaba predates Islam. It is traditionally believed to have been built by Adam, the first man on earth, and was the first building ever built. According to the Quran, it was rebuilt by Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael).

The Prophet Muhammad was from the Quraysh tribe which was in charged of the Kaaba. Until that time, the Kaaba was used to house hundreds of idols representing various Arabian deities. Muhammad claimed it for the new religion of Islam which he preached, and dedicated it to the worship of the Allah, evicting all the other idols. As a result, he faced persecution anhd harassment from his fellow Quraysh tribespeople, forcing him and his followers to relocated to Medina in AD 622.

In AD 630 Muhammad defeated the Meccan Quraysh. This allowed Muhammad to return to Mecca and re-dedicated the Kaaba as an Islamic house of worship. The annual Hajj pilgrimage was begun since then.

Since the time of Muhammad, the Kaaba has been renovated, damaged and reconstructed several times. It was demolished by Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr (624-692) and rebuilt to include the hatim, a semi-circular wall now located outside the Kaaba, on its northwest side. This was done on the basis of a tradition found in several hadith collections.

The Kaaba was damaged in 683 following the war between al-Zubayr and the Umayyad forces of Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef. It was rebuilt in 693 on the foundations set by the Qurasyh, and returned to the cube shape from Muhammad's lifetime.

In AD 930, the Qarmatians attacked Mecca during the Hajj season. They killed many pilgrims, defiled the Zamzam Well, and removed the Black Stone from the Kaaba, taking it to the al-Ahsa oasis in eastern Arabia. The stone was eventually ransomed back in AD 952.

The Kaaba is said to have been rebuilt once more in 1627 after rainwater caused three of its four walls to collapse the year before. New rainwater spouts of gold were then installed, along with a gutter. The hatim is now a low wall of white marble which according to some believe, marks the site of the graves of Hagar and Ishmael.

The Kaaba is usually not opened except on rare occasions. Its entrance is a door located 2 meters (7 feet) above ground on its north-eastern side. In 1979, a gold door weighing 300 kg was made by Ahmad bin Ibrahim Badr. It replaces the silver door made in 1942 by his father Ibrahim Bahr. A wooden staircase on wheels is used to reach the door.

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