مكة المكرمة Mecca

قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ – الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ – وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ

مكة المكرمة

M E C C A

المسجد الحرام

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām

The Sacred Mosque - Mecca - Saudi Arabia

Mecca is a city in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia.

Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants. In the 7th century, the Islamic prophet Muhammad proclaimed Islam in the city which was by then an important trading center.

After 966, Mecca was led by local sharifs.

When the authority of the Ottoman Empire in the area collapsed in 1916, the local rulers established the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz.The Hejaz kingdom, including Mecca, was absorbed by the Saudis in 1925.

In its modern period, Mecca has seen tremendous expansion in size and infrastructure.

The modern day city is the capital of Saudi Arabia's Makkah Province, in the historic Hejaz region.

With a population of 1.7 million (2008), the city is located 73 km (45 mi) inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of 277 m (909 ft) above sea level.

Mecca is regarded as the holiest city in Islam.

Every year more than 13 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million who perform the Hajj (pilgrimage).

As a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse cities in the Muslim world.

Non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city.

Mecca and Medina are the only two places where the Quran was revealed.

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

The Kaaba - (English: The Cube) is a cube-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam.

The Qur'an states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham and his son Ishmael, after Ishmael had settled in Arabia.

The building has a mosque built around it, the Masjid al-Haram.

All Muslims around the world face the Kaaba during prayers, no matter where they are.

One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if they are able to do so.

Multiple parts of the Hajj require pilgrims to walk seven times around the Kaaba in a anticlockwise direction (as viewed from above).

This circumambulation, the Tawaf, is also performed by pilgrims during the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage).However, the most dramatic times are during the Hajj, when about 6 million (officially) pilgrims simultaneously gather to circle the building on the same day.

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

The Kaaba is a large masonry structure roughly the shape of a cube. It is made of granite from the hills near Mecca, and stands upon a 25 cm (10 in) marble base, which projects outwards about 35 cm (14 in).[2] It is approximately 13.1 m (43 ft) high, with sides measuring 11.03 m (36.2 ft) by 12.86 m (42.2 ft).[6][7]

The four corners of the Kaaba roughly point toward the four doors of the school and cardinal directions of the compass.

In the eastern corner of the Kaaba is the Ruknu l-Aswad "the Black Corner"" or al-Hajaru l-Aswad "the Black Stone".

At the northern corner is the Ruknu l-?Iraqi "the Iraqi corner".

The western corner is the Ruknu sh-Shami "the Levantine corner" and the southern is Ruknu l-Yamani "the Yemeni corner".

The Kaaba is covered by a black silk and gold curtain known as the kiswah, which is replaced annually.

About two-thirds of the way up runs a band of gold-embroidered calligraphy with Qur'anic text, including the Islamic declaration of faith, the Shahada.

المسجد الحرام

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām

The Sacred Mosque - Mecca - Saudi Arabia

In modern times, entry to the Kaaba's interior is generally not permitted except for certain rare occasions and for a limited number of guests.

The entrance is a door set 2 m (7 ft) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade.

In 1979 the gold door set weighing 300 kg, made by the chief artist Ahmad bin Ibrahim Badr, replaced the old silver door set which was made in 1942 by his father, Ibrahim Badr.

There is a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored in the mosque between the arch-shaped gate of Banu Shaybah and the well of Zamzam.

Inside the Kaaba, there is a marble and limestone floor. The interior walls are clad with marble halfway to the roof; tablets with Qur'anic inscriptions are inset in the marble. The top part of the walls are covered with a green cloth decorated with gold embroidered Qur'anic verses. Caretakers perfume the marble cladding with scented oil, the same oil used to anoint the Black Stone outside.

There is also a semi-circular wall opposite, but unconnected to, the north-west wall of the Kaaba known as the hatim. This is 90 cm (35 in) in height and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in width, and is composed of white marble.

At one time the space lying between the hatim and the Kaaba belonged to the Kaaba itself, and for this reason it is not entered during the tawaf (ritual circumambulation).

Some believe that the graves of the prophet Ishmael and his mother Hagar are located in this space.

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Interior

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

The building is opened twice a year for a ceremony known as "the cleaning of the Ka'ba." This ceremony takes place roughly thirty days before the start of the month of Ramadan and the same period of time before the start of the annual pilgrimage.

The keys to the Ka'ba are held by the Bani Shayba tribe. Members of the tribe greet visitors to the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of the cleaning ceremony.

A small number of dignitaries and foreign diplomats are invited to participate in the ceremony.

The governor of Mecca leads the honoured guests who ritually clean the structure, using simple brooms.

Washing of the Ka'ba is done with a mixture of water from the Zamzam Well and Persian rosewater.

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Plan

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Cutaway View

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

الحجر الأسود

al-Ħajaru l-Aswad

(The Black Stone)

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Interior

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

The Black Stone is a Muslim relic, which according to Islamic tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.

Historical research claims that the Black Stone marked the Kaaba as a place of worship during pre-Islamic pagan times.

It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The Stone is a dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of millions of pilgrims, that has been broken into a number of fragments cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Although it has often been described as a meteorite, this hypothesis is still under consideration.

Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as part of the Tawaf ritual of the Hajj.

Many of them try, if possible, to stop and kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from the Prophet Muhammad.

If they cannot reach it, they point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba.

The Black Stone was revered well before the preaching of Islam by Muhammad.

By the time of Muhammad, it was already associated with the Kaaba, a pre-Islamic shrine that was revered as a sacred sanctuary and a site of pilgrimage.

Islamic tradition holds that the Stone fell from Heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar, which became the first temple on Earth.

Muslims believe that the stone was originally pure and dazzling white, but has since turned black because of the sins of the people.

Adam's altar and the stone were said to have been lost during Noah's Flood and forgotten.

Ibrahim was said to have later found the Black Stone at the original site of Adam's altar when the angel Jibrail revealed it to him.

Ibrahim ordered his son Ismail - who was an ancestor of Muhammad - to build a new temple, the Kaaba, in which to embed the Stone.

Muhammad is credited with setting the Black Stone in place in the wall of the Kaaba.

A story found in Ibn Ishaq's Sirah Rasul Allah tells how the clans of Mecca renovated the Kaaba following a major fire which had partly destroyed the structure.

The Black Stone had been temporarily removed to facilitate the rebuilding work.

The clans could not agree on which one of them should have the honour of setting the Black Stone back in its place. They decided to wait for the next man to come through the gate and ask him to make the decision. That individual happened to be the 35-year-old Muhammad, five years before his prophethood. He asked the elders of the clans to bring him a cloth and put the Black Stone in its centre. Each of the clan leaders held the corners of the cloth and carried the Black Stone to the right spot. Then Muhammad himself set the stone in place, satisfying the honour of all of the clans.

الكعبة‎

al-Kaʿbah - Gold Doors

Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām - Mecca

The entrance is a door set 2 m (7 ft) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade.

In 1979 the gold door set weighing 300 kg, made by the chief artist Ahmad bin Ibrahim Badr, replaced the old silver door set which was made in 1942 by his father, Ibrahim Badr.