The Kaʻah: Its Changes and Its History

The Kaʻah that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم knew in his youth was not the same shape as the Kaʻah of Ibrāhīm عليه السلام. The Kaʻah of Ibrāhīm was a rectangle, the front and back (the door side and the rear) were nearly double the width of the two short sides. When the Quraysh rebuilt it in the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم thirty-fifth year, they lacked the imported Roman marble and wood to build a foundation that large; so they made it a square and marked the extra section of the original rectangle with a low curved wall. This is the Ḥaṭim, the semicircular enclosure you see beside the Kaʻah today. The Ḥaṭim is technically inside the Kaʻah of Ibrāhīm, which is why scholars say that one who prays inside the Ḥaṭim has prayed inside the Kaʻah.

They also doubled the height of the Kaʻah at that time, it had previously been only about the height of a man seated on a camel. They raised the door well off the ground, accessible only by a ladder they controlled, so as to regulate entry. And they added a water spout to drain the roof and prevent future flood damage. These four changes, the smaller footprint, the doubled height, the elevated door, and the spout, all date to that rebuilding.

After the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم conquered Makkah he told ʿAisha: “Were it not that your people are still new to Islam, I would destroy this Kaʻah and rebuild it on the original pillars of Ibrāhīm.” This ḥadīth (Bukhārī) became the basis for a later action. ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr, the companion who ruled Makkah during the first Umayyad civil wars, tore down the Kaʻah and rebuilt it as Ibrāhīm’s original rectangle, with the door at ground level. He was following the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم own wish.

Then came al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, the Umayyad governor, the most tyrannical ruler the Ummah has seen. He besieged Makkah and had catapults thrown at the Kaʻah to reach Ibn al-Zubayr inside. When he captured Makkah, he killed ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr and crucified his body before the Kaʻah, a companion’s son, a man both of whose parents were companions. Then Hajjāj rebuilt the Kaʻah in the Jāhilī square form, undoing Ibn al-Zubayr’s restoration.

Later a caliph asked Imām Mālik whether he should rebuild it on Ibn al-Zubayr’s rectangular foundations as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had wished. Imām Mālik said: No. “I do not want the Kaʻah to become a toy that kings come along and reshape according to their whims.” This is fiqh, genuine juristic wisdom. A ruling correct in principle may be set aside when the greater harm of opening a door outweighs the benefit. The Kaʻah has remained on the Jāhilī square foundations ever since.