Kaaba

The cube-shaped sanctuary at the center of the Grand Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site and the focal point (qibla) toward which all Muslims worldwide turn in prayer. Islamic tradition holds that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba as the first house of monotheistic worship.

The Quran describes God’s command to Abraham: “Purify My House for those who perform Tawaf and those who stand [in prayer] and those who bow and prostrate” (Quran 2:125). Abraham and Ishmael are said to have raised the foundations of the Kaaba, praying: “Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing” (Quran 2:127). This construction occurred after Hagar and Ishmael were sent into the wilderness, where God provided the spring of Zamzam near the site where the Kaaba would stand.

The structure stands approximately 50 feet high and 40 feet wide, draped in a black silk cloth (kiswa) embroidered with Quranic verses in gold. Embedded in its eastern corner is the Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad), a dark rock traditionally believed to have been sent from heaven. During the Hajj pilgrimage, Muslims perform tawaf—circumambulating the Kaaba seven times counter-clockwise—as Abraham and the early believers did.

In pre-Islamic times, the Kaaba housed numerous idols and served as a pilgrimage site for polytheistic Arab tribes. When Muhammad conquered Mecca in 630 CE, he cleansed the Kaaba of its 360 idols, restoring it to pure monotheistic worship as originally established by Abraham. He declared: “Truth has come, and falsehood has departed. Indeed is falsehood, [by nature], ever bound to depart” (Quran 17:81). The Kaaba thus represents Islam’s claim to be the restoration of Abraham’s original faith, purified from both polytheism and what Muslims see as later corruptions in Judaism and Christianity.