The Kaaba, which means cube in Arabic, is a square building, elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, it is the holiest shrine in Islam. In Islam, Muslims pray five times a day, and after 624 CE these prayers were directed to Mecca and the Kaaba rather than Jerusalem; this direction (or QI BLA in Arabic) is marked in all mosques and allows worshipers to know which direction to pray. The Qur'an established the direction of prayer.
All Muslims aspire to make the Hajj, or annual pilgrimage to the Kaaba, once in their lifetime if they are able. Praying five times a day and Hajj are two of the Five Pillars of Islam, the most fundamental tenets of the faith.
Upon arrival in Mecca, pilgrims gather in the courtyard of the AL HA RAM Mosque around the Kaaba. They then cir cum ambulate (ta w AF in Arabic) or walk around the Kaaba, during which they hope to kiss and touch the Black Stone (AL Ha jar alas wad), set in the eastern corner of the Kaaba.
The history and appearance of the Kaaba
The Kaaba was a place of refuge in pre-Islamic times. Muslims believe that Abraham (known as Ibrahim in Islamic tradition) and his son Ismail built the Kaaba. According to tradition, it was originally a simple rectangular building without a roof. The Quraish tribe that ruled Mecca rebuilt the pre-Islamic Kaaba in 608 AD with alternating layers of masonry and wood. The doors were raised above ground level to protect the sanctuary from intruders and floods.
Muhammad was exiled from Mecca in 620 AD to Ya TH r IB, which is now known as Medina. After his return to Mecca in 629/30 CE, the shrine became a focal point of Muslim worship and pilgrimage. The pre-Islamic Kaaba housed the Black Stone and statues of pagan gods. Upon his triumphant return to Mecca, Muhammad purportedly cleansed the Kaaba of idols and returned the shrine to the monotheism of Ibrahim. The Black Stone is believed to have been given to Ibrahim by the angel Gabriel and is worshiped by Muslims. Muhammad performed the last pilgrimage in 632 AD, the year of his death, thus establishing the rites of pilgrimage.
Modifications
The Kaaba has been extensively modified throughout its history. The area around the Kaaba was expanded to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims by the second caliph, Umar (reigned 634–44). Caliph U TH man (reigned 644–56) built colonnades around the open square where the Kaaba stands and incorporated other important monuments into the shrine.
During a civil war between Caliph ABD AL Mali k and IB N Zubair, who controlled Mecca, the Kaaba was set on fire in 683 AD. The Black Stone is said to have broken into three pieces, and IB N Zubair reassembled it with silver. He rebuilt the Kaaba in wood and stone according to Ibrahim's original dimensions, and also paved the area around the Kaaba. After ABD AL Mali k regained control of Mecca, he restored part of the building designed by Muhammad. None of these renovations can be confirmed by study of the building or archaeological evidence; these changes are outlined only in later literary sources. Reportedly under the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid (reigned 705–15), the mosque that surrounds the Kaaba was decorated with mosaics like the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus. In the seventh century, the Kaaba was covered with a k i s WA, a black cloth that is replaced annually during the Hajj.
Under the early Abbasid caliphs (750–1250), the mosque around the Kaaba was expanded and modified several times. According to travel writers such as IB N Zubair, who saw the Kaaba in 1183, it retained its 8th-century Abbasid form for several centuries. From 1269 to1517, the Mameluke of Egypt controlled the Hi JA z, the highlands in western Arabia where Mecca is located. Sultan QA it b aye (reigned 1468-96) built a madrasah (religious school) on one side of the mosque. Under the Ottoman sultans Sulaiman I (reigned 1520–1566) and Selim II. (reigned 1566–74) the complex was heavily reconstructed. In 1631, the Kaaba and the surrounding mosque were completely rebuilt after being destroyed by floods the previous year. This mosque that exists today consists of a large open space with colonnades on four sides and seven minarets, the largest number of any mosque in the world. In the middle of this large square sits the Kaaba, as well as many other holy buildings and monuments.
The last major modifications were made in the 1950s by the government of Saudi Arabia to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims coming for the Hajj. Today, the mosque covers nearly forty acres.
Kaaba today
Today, the Kaaba is a cubic structure, unlike almost any other religious structure. It is fifteen meters high and ten and a half meters on each side; its corners roughly align with the cardinal directions. The doors of the Kaaba are now made of solid gold; it was added in 1982. The k i s WA, a large cloth covering the Kaaba that used to be sent from Egypt with the Hajj caravan, is now made in Saudi Arabia. Until the advent of modern transportation, all pilgrims made the often dangerous hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca in a large caravan across the desert, departing from Damascus, Cairo, or other major cities in Arabia, Yemen, or Iraq. The Kaaba and its associated mosque serve as a good reminder of how often buildings, even sacred ones, have been renovated and remodeled either due to damage or the changing needs of the community.
Today, only Muslims can visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Zabardast g sis very much beautifull
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