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It is the location where Muslims start their circumambulation of the Kaaba, known as the tawaf. The entrance is a door set 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, called the Bāb ar-Raḥmah (Arabic: باب الرحمة, romanized: Bāb ar-Raḥmah, lit. 'Door of Mercy'), that also acts as the façade. [4]
A typical Kaaba building is shaped like a cube or block and functions as a place for the devotees of a particular god or goddess to worship in. [1] [2] The name "Kaaba" was used by ancient Arabians to describe and label these sites because of their resemblance to the Kaaba at Mecca and the purpose of doing pilgrimage to them.
As time passes on, people begin to venerate these statues in the hope that they will intercede on their behalf. Later still, this evolves into idol worship. [ 19 ] The second version reported by Ibn al-Kalbi has been compared to a legend of the origins of idolatry in the Syriac Cave of Treasures , especially through its early Arabic translation ...
Rashid al-Din Hamadani (d. 1318), in his Jāmiʾ al-Tawārīkh, says both that Buddhist idols could be found in the Kaaba and that both Arabs and some Persians on the peninsula saw themselves as students of the Buddha. One Islamic miniature from the thirteenth century depicts Muhammad destroying Hindu and Buddhist idols at the Kaaba.
The Kaaba was originally intended as a symbolic house for the one monotheistic God. However, according to Islamic mythology, after Ibrahim's death, people started to fill the Kaaba with "pagan idols". When Muhammad conquered Mecca after his exile, he removed the idols from the Kaaba. [83] [84] The inside of the Kaaba is now empty. [85]
The Kaaba alone was said to have contained up to 100 images of many gods and goddesses. [3] Tribes, towns, clans, lineages and families had their own cults too. Christian Julien Robin suggests that this structure of the divine world reflected the society of the time. [2]
Upon Muhammad's victorious return to Mecca in 630 CE, Ali broke the idols in and around the Kaaba, [25] similar to what, according to the Quran, Abraham did in his homeland. Thus ended polytheistic use of the Kaaba, and began monotheistic rule over it and its sanctuary. [26] [27] [28] [29]
7th C. - Masjid al-Haram architectural components began. 625-629 : Pilgrim mosques built in numerous countries like (Kerala) India & in China by early disciples of Muhammad. Pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca per Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. [3] 11 December: Liberation of Mecca. 683 / 63-64 H - Siege of Mecca (683); Kaaba burnt. [5] 692 - Siege of Mecca ...