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The Construction of the Holy Ka'bah by Quraish
During the era of the Quraish, the Holy Ka'bah was built with rows of stones, and its door was on the ground. There was no ceiling, and the kiswah hung down on the exterior of the wall and was tied from the top of the interior walls of the Holy Ka'bah. Inside it, there was a pit where donations were stored. The two homs of the ram slaughtered by Abraham (peace be upon him) were hung on the inner walls of the Holy Ka'bah. While a Quraishi woman was perfuming it, an incense spark burnt the kiswah and the walls collapsed.
| The right figure represents the sketch of the Holy Ka'bah constructed by Quraish, as conceived by the Calligrapher AI-Sheikh Muhammad Tahir AI-Kurdi. |
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This was made worse by the torrential rains which followed. Then Quraish thought of pulling down the Holy Ka'bah and rebuilding it. They came to know that a Roman ship was wrecked at AI-Shua iba, Makkah Al-Mukarramah's port. AI-Waleed lbn AIMugheera accompanied by some Quraishites went to the port and purchased the wood of the ship. They made a contract with a carpenter named Baqum who happened to be one of the passengers of the ship, to rebuild the Holy Ka'bah with them in the Shami style. They decided not to finance the building of the Holy Ka'bah with money obtained by usury, gambling, the fee of prostitutes or money obtained by illegal or unjust means, for Allah is Good and He accepts only that which is good. When they disagreed on distributing the duties of demolishing and rebuilding of the Holy Ka'bah amongst the tribes, they divided the House into four parts, and each part was further divided into four sectors. Each tribe or group of tribes was assigned a specific part.
Women contributed to the building; men carried the stones while women carried the mortar. They collected the ornaments, money, and the belongings inside the Holy Ka'bah and kept them with Abu Talha lbn Abdullah lbn Abdul Uzza Ibn Othman Ibn Abdul Dar lbn Qusai. They took Hubal out of the Holy Ka'bah and erected it at Abraham's Station. Allah's Messenger (blessings and peace be upon him) carried the stones with them when he was thirty-five years of age. The demolition was completed down to the foundations, but when they started using iron bars. Makkah's mountains shook and trembled, so they did not go further.
The rebuilding of the Holy Ka'bah then started, but when it reached the stage of laying the Black Stone at its position, there was a quarrel over who was to have the honour of restoring it to its place. This dispute was on the verge of causing a civil war. At this point, Abu Ummayya Hudhaifa 16n AI-Mugheera AI-Makhzumi suggested that they should agree upon the judgement of the first person coming through the door of Bani Shaiba.
The first to come was the Messenger of Peace, the man most renowned for honesty in all of Makkah, Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him). He put the Black Stone in the middle of a piece of cloth, anti asked a representative of each tribe to hold one of the edges of the cloth and raise it close to its place. Then the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) picked up the Black Stone with his noble hands and restored it to its place. Afterwards, they built to the height of four cubits and one hand span. At that point, they filled up the interior of the Holy Ka'bah with earth. Then they set up a door at this point, and resumed building by laying a layer of wood followed by a layer of stones. They increased its height from nine cubits to eighteen, and roofed it over. Inside, they erected six columns to support its ceiling, in two rows, each row was formed of three pillars from the Shami side to the Yemeni side. It consisted of fifteen strata of wood and sixteen layers of stones. The waterspout was made to pour into Hijir Ismail. They also made wooden stairs inside the Holy Ka'bah, in the Shami corner at the same side of the door wall, leading to its roof.
The ceiling, the interior walls and the pillarswere decorated. The Prophets' portraits were fixed to the pillars, and the portrait of Abraham (peace be upon him) stood there in the form of an old man divining by arrows. The portraits of the Angels (peace be upon them) and the pictures of trees were fitted to the pillars.The portrait of Mary (peace be upon her) was fixed there with Jesus (peace be upon him) sitting on her lap. They erected one door that could be locked up and opened. And after they had finished building the Holy Ka'bah, they restored the money to the pit, and hung on it ornaments and the two horns of the ram. The pit was restored to its original position, and Hubal was erected on the top of it, as it had stood there before. After the building had been completed, the Holy Ka'bah was covered in Yemeni cloaks.
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