Page 159 - World Religions I - Islam

o "Behold! We gave the site, to Abraham, of the (Sacred) House, (saying): "Associate not anything
(in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round, or stand up, or
bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer), and proclaim the Pilgrimage among men. They
will come to thee on foot and (mounted) on every kind of camel, lean on account of journeys
through deep and distant mountain highways." - Al-Hajj (Pilgrimage) 22:26-27
• The Ka'aba is identified as the "Ancient House".
o "Then let them complete the rites prescribed for them, perform their vows, and (again)
circumambulate the Ancient House." - Al-Hajj (Pilgrimage) 22:29
• The Ka'aba was not the initial Qibla (direction of prayer). Rather it was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca
about 15 years into Muhammad's ministry (Al-Baqara [The Cow] 2:142-144).
• Non-believers are not allowed to enter the Ka'aba.
o "O ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Sacred
Mosque after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall
pre-serve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise." -At-Tawba (Repentance) 9:28

The Ka'aba According to Islamic Tradition
• The Ka'aba was originally built by Adam.
o It was rebuilt after the flood by Noah.
• God showed Abraham the exact site of the Ka'aba (near the Well of Zamzam) for it's reconstruction. The
traditions offer no explanation of how the Ka'aba was destroyed between the times of Noah and
Abraham. If Abraham instituted Hajj, why is it not recorded to have been performed by Isaac,
Jacob, or Joseph (all prophets in Islam)? Why wasn't Moses instructed to make a pilgrimage in the
Torah? Why did Solomon, also a venerated prophet of Islam, build the Temple in Jerusalem instead
of worshipping at the Ka'aba? And why was Muhammad commanded to prefer Jerusalem as the
direction for prayer during the first 14 years of his ministry?
o Once Abraham had completed the Ka'aba, an angel brought to him the Black Stone to place in
the eastern corner.
o Muslim scholars date the Abrahamic construction of the Ka'aba around 2,130 BC - older than
Solomon's Temple (1,007 BC) -and therefore the oldest mosque in history.
o The pilgrimage established by Abraham is believed by Muslim scholars to have remained
uncorrupted in its early years. Gradually over time it became a place of idol worship as people
turned away from God, although a few are said to have continued to maintain Abraham's
teachings.
• The Ka'aba in Muhammad's time was not built upon the original foundation established by Abraham (Al-
Bukhari 2:26:654-56).
• Muhammad would have made additions and modifications to the Ka'aba, but he held back out of fear of
what the Meccan converts to Islam would think (Al-Bukhari 2:26:654; 1:3:128).
• Upon the conquest of Mecca, Muhammad had the Ka'aba cleared of idols, but he never prayed inside
(Al-Bukhari 2:26:671).

Did Abraham Build the Ka'aba?
• The Ka'aba is not unique.
o Similar shrines existed all over Arabia at the time of Muhammad.
• One such strikingly similar shrine still stands at the al-Kabir mosque in Yemen.
• Secular history does not support the Qur'an's claim that the Ka'aba was ever a place of
monotheistic, non-idolatrous worship before Muhammad's conquest of Mecca in AD 630

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