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The Kaaba (al building located inside the Mosque known as Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca , Saudi Arabia . The mosque was built around the original Kaaba. pilgrims around the Kaaba performing Umrah (lesser pilgrimage)]] The Kaaba is the Holiest Place in Islam .Wensinck, A. J; Ka`ba. Encyclopaedia Of Islam IV p. 317 The Qibla , the direction Muslims face during Prayer , is the direction from their location on Earth towards the Kaaba. It is around the Kaaba that Ritual Circumambulation is performed by Muslim s during the Hajj ( Pilgrimage ) season as well as during the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage). LOCATION AND PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES The Kaaba is a large masonry structure roughly the shape of a or ''al-Ħajaru l-Aswad''), generally thought to be a Meteorite remnant; at the northern corner is the "''Rukn-al-Iraqi''" ('The Iraqi corner'); at the west lies "''Rukn-al-Shami''" ('The Levantine corner') and at the south "''Rukn-al-Yamani''" ('The Yemeni corner'). It is covered by a black silk curtain decorated with gold-embroidered calligraphy. This cloth is known as the Kiswah ; it is replaced yearly.23 The Shahada is outlined in the weave of the fabric. About two-thirds of the way up runs a gold embroidered band covered with Qur'an ic text. Entrance to the inside of the Kaaba is gained through a door set 2 m (7 feet) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade. It is accessed by a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored between the arch-shaped gate of Banu Shaybah and the well of Zamzam . Inside the Kaaba, there is a marble floor. The interior walls are clad with marble half-way to the roof; tablets with Qur'anic inscriptions are inset in the marble. The top part of the walls are covered with a green cloth decorated with gold embroidered Qur'an ic verses. The building is believed to be otherwise empty. Caretakers perfume the marble cladding with scented oil, the same oil used to anoint the Black Stone outside. ]] Although not directly connected to it, there is a semi-circular wall opposite the north-west wall of the Kaaba, known as the ''hatīm''. It is 90 cm (3 ft) in height and 1.5 m (5 ft) in length, and is composed of White Marble . The space between the ''hatīm'' and the Kaaba was for a time belonging to the Kaaba itself, and so is generally not entered during the '' Tawaf '' (ritual circumambulation). It is also thought by some that this space bears the graves of prophet Ishmael and his mother Hagar . Muslims throughout the world face the Kaaba during prayers, which are five times a day. For most places around the world, coordinates for Mecca suffice. In The Sacred Mosque , worshippers pray in Concentric Circles radiating outwards around the Kaaba. Therefore, the focus point is in the middle of the Kaaba. BLACK STONE See Also: Black Stone A significant feature of the Kaaba is the Black Stone, also called ''al-Hajar-ul-Aswad'', which is believed by some Muslims to date back to the time of Adam And Eve .4 It is about 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter, is located on the Eastern corner of the Kaaba, and is surrounded by a silver frame. When Muslims come to Mecca to perform the Hajj, one of the tasks which they try to accomplish is to kiss the Black Stone, as Muhammad once kissed it.5 Because of the large crowds this is not always possible, and so as pilgrims walk around the Kaaba, they are to point to the Black Stone on each circuit.6 Tradition has it that when the Black Stone on the corner of the shrine came to earth, it was white. It turned black under the burden of millions of sins. Kaaba Colloquium HISTORY Before Islam Little is known of the Pre-Islamic history of the Kaaba. Wensinck, writing in the Encyclopedia of Islam, identifies it with a place called ''Macoraba'' mentioned by the Roman geographer Ptolemy . His text is believed to date from the Second Century AD ., before the rise of Islam.Wensinck, A. J; Ka`ba. Encyclopaedia of Islam IV p. 318 According to , a Nabatean deity, and contained 360 idols which probably represented the days of the year.7 According to the '' Boston Globe '', the Kaaba was a shrine for the Daughters of God ( Al-Lat , Al-Uzza , and Manat ) and Hubal.8 According to the Pakistani book ''Muhammad The Holy Prophet'', about four hundred years before the birth of Muhammad, a man named Amr bin Lahyo bin Harath bin Amr ul-Qais bin Thalaba bin Azd bin Khalan bin Babalyun bin Saba, who was descended from Qahtan and king of Hijaz (the northwestern section of Saudi Arabia, which encompassed the cities of Mecca and Medina), had placed a Hubal idol onto the roof of the Kaaba, and this idol was one of the chief deities of the ruling Quraysh tribe (into which Muhammad was born). The idol was made of red agate, and shaped like a human, but with the right hand broken off and replaced with a golden hand. When the idol was moved inside the Kaaba, it had seven arrows in front of it, which were used for Divination .910 Patricia Crone disagrees with most academic historians on most issues concerning the history of early Islam, including the history of the Kaaba. In ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'', Crone writes that she believes that the identification of Macoraba with the Kaaba is false, and that Macoraba was a town in southern Arabia, in what was then known as ''Arabia Felix''.11 pp. 134-137 Many accounts, including Muslim accounts, and some accounts written by academic historians, stress the power and importance of the pre-Islamic Mecca. They depict it as a city grown rich on the proceeds of the Spice Trade . Crone believes that this is an exaggeration and that Mecca may only have been an outpost trading with nomads for leather, cloth, and camel butter. Crone argues that if Mecca had been a well-known center of trade, it would have been mentioned by later authors such as Procopius, Nonnosus, and the Syrian church chroniclers writing in Syriac. However, the town is absent from any geographies or histories written in the last three centuries before the rise of Islam.12 p. 137 According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica , "before the rise of Islam it was revered as a sacred sanctuary and was a site of pilgrimage."Britannica 2002 Deluxe Edition CD-ROM , "Ka'bah." According to the German historian Eduard Glaser, the name "''Kaaba''" may have been related to the southern Arabian or Ethiopia n word "''mikrab''", signifying a temple. Again, Crone disputes this etymology. Islamic tradition According to the . Ibrahim and Ismail rebuilt the Kaaba on the old foundations. Azraqi, ''Akhbar Makkah'', vol. 1, pp. 58-66 When Muhammad conquered Mecca, he destroyed the 360 idols around Kaaba which the Meccan pagans possessed. Islam, iconography and the Taliban Conquest of Makkah - USC MSA There was one god for each day of the year. Islam, iconography and the Taliban While destroying each idol, Muhammad recited which says "Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish." Islam, iconography and the Taliban Conquest of Makkah - USC MSA Muhammad then entered the Ka`abah and ordered all the pictures to be destroyed. Conquest of Makkah - USC MSA At the time of Muhammad into place, when the Kaaba was rebuilt in the early 600s14.]] Islamic histories also mention a reconstruction of the Kaaba around 600 AD. A story found in Ibn Ishaq 's ''Sirat Rasul Allah'' (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume) shows Muhammad settling a quarrel between Meccan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone cornerstone in place. His solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, and then Muhammad set the stone into its final place with his own hands.16 pp. 84-871718 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. It is also claimed by the Shi'a that the Kaaba is the birth place of Ali Ibn Abi Talib , the fourth Caliph and the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Since Muhammad's time The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times since Muhammad's day.
Apart from repair work, the basic shape and structure of the Kaaba have not changed since then., Al-Mawrid CLEANING The building is opened twice a year for a ceremony known as "the cleaning of the Kaaba." This ceremony takes place roughly fifteen days before the start of the month of Ramadan and the same period of time before the start of the annual pilgrimage. The keys to the Kaaba are held by the Banī Shaybat (بني شيبة) tribe. Members of the tribe greet visitors to the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of the cleaning ceremony. A small number of dignitaries and foreign diplomats are invited to participate in the ceremony. The governor of Mecca leads the honored guests who ritually clean the structure, using simple brooms. Washing of the Kaaba is done with a mixture of Zamzam and Rosewater . Islam Online.net - Saudi Arabia Readies for Hajj Emergencies (December 29 2005) , Retrieved November 30 2006. QIBLA AND PRAYER See Also: Qibla For any the Kaaba, the Kaaba is simply the focal point for prayer. Like Jews, the earliest Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem. According to Islamic tradition, when Muhammad was praying in the Al-Qiblatain Mosque (in Medina ), he was ordered by God to change the qibla direction from Jerusalem to Mecca and the Kaaba. Various theories are advanced as to the reason for the change, and most historians find it was the reluctance of the Jews of Medina to convert to his religion that prompted the move.[http://www.time.com/time/2001/jerusalem/islam.html Muslim groups in the United States differ as to how the qibla should be oriented - some believe that the direction should be calculated as a straight line drawn on a flat map, like the familiar Mercator Projection of the globe; others say that the direction is determined by the shortest line on the globe of the earth, or a Great Circle . At times this controversy has led to heated disputes. Flat-map Muslims in the United States pray east and slightly south; great-circle Muslims face in a north-easterly direction. In both cases, the ''exact'' orientation will vary from city to city. {Link without Title} Some Muslims carry Qibla Compass es that tell them which direction to face no matter where they are. This method requires one to align the north arrow with a particular point on the compass corresponding to one's location. Once so aligned, one simply turns toward the direction indicated by the compass's Qibla pointer, which is often in the shape of a minaret. "Qibla numbers" for various locations are listed in an accompanying booklet and also indexed online . REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS Muslim articles on the Kaaba
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