Kaaba

The Kaaba is considered by Muslims to be the Bayt Allah and is the qibla for Muslims around the world when performing salah. Circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf, is an obligatory rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The literal meaning of the word Ka’bah is cube.

About Kaaba in brief

The Kaaba is a building at the center of Islam’s most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is considered by Muslims to be the Bayt Allah and is the qibla for Muslims around the world when performing salah. Circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf, is an obligatory rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The literal meaning of the word Ka’bah is cube. In the Qur’an, the Ka’bah is also mentioned by the following names: The masjid surrounding theKaaba is called al-Masjid Al- Haram. Prior to Islam throughout the Arabian Peninsula, the. Kaaba was a holy site for the various Bedouin tribes of the area. A statue of Hubal, a Nabatean deity, and statues of other pagan deities are known to have been placed in or around the Ka.aba. A picture of ‘Isa and his mother Maryam was situated inside the Ka and later found by Muhammad after his conquest of Mecca. The iconography portrayed a seated Maryam with her child on her lap. The Kaaba also included paintings of other prophets and angels. Undefined decorations, money and a pair of ram’s horns were recorded to have belonged to the ram sacrificed by Ibrahim in place of his son Ishmael as held by Islamic tradition. Once a year, tribes from all around the Arabian. Peninsula, whether Christian or pagan, would converge on Mecca to perform the HajJ pilgrimage, marking the widespread conviction that Allah was the same deity worshipped by monotheists.

It seems that by the time of Muhammad’s era, it seems that the Kaabas was venerated as the shrine of Allah, the High God. Circumambulation was often performed naked by men and women, and it is disputed whether Allah and Hubal were same deity or different. Per a hypothesis by Christian Uri Rubin and Christian Robin Rubin, Hubal was only venerated by the Quraysh, a supreme god of individuals belonging to tribes, while the pantheon of the gods of Qurayhaba was installed in Kaaba after they conquered Mecca a century before Muhammad’s time. There was also a Black Stone of the South of the Arabian city, but this was the only one built in one time, but there were numerous others of different counterparts in Arabia at the time, including the Black Ghaba of South Arabian city of Al-Ummayad, which is now in Saudi Arabia, and the Red Ghaba in South Arabian City, which was built in the 7th century. There were also a number of other Stone of Black Ghuarafahs in the city of South Arabia, but they were all built before Muhammad’s time, and only one of them is known to be of this type. The Red Ghuurafah is said to have contained 360 idols which probably represented the days of the year.