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Monday 19 November 2012

Holy Kaaba



Each numbered item in the following list corresponds to features called out in the diagram image.
  1. Al-Ħajaru l-Aswad, "the Black Stone", is located in the Kaaba's eastern corner. Its northern corner is known as the Ruknu l-ˤĪrāqī, "the Iraqi corner", its western as the Ruknu sh-Shāmī, "the Levantine corner", and its southern as Ruknu l-Yamanī "the Yemeni corner".The four corners of the Kaaba roughly point toward the four Cardinal Directions of the compass.Its major (long) axis is aligned with the rising of the star canopus toward which its southern wall is directed, while its minor axis (its east-west facades) roughly align with the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of winter solstice.
  2. The entrance is a door set 2.13 m (7 ft) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade. In 1979 the 300 kg gold doors made by chief artist Ahmad Bin Ibrahim Badr, replaced the old silver doors made by his father, Ibrahim Badr in 1942.[8] There is a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored in the mosque between the arch-shaped gate of Banū Shaybah and the Zamzam well.
  3. Rainwater spout made of gold. This was added in the rebuilding of 1627 after the previous year's rain caused three of the four walls to collapse.
  4. Gutter, also added in 1627 to protect the foundation from groundwater.
  5. Hatim, a low wall originally part of the Kaaba. It is a semi-circular wall opposite, but not connected to, the north-west wall of the Kaaba known as the hatīm. 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 hatīm and the Kaaba belonged to the Kaaba itself, and for this reason it is not entered during the Tawaf. Some believe that the graves of Ismail and his mother Hajar are located in this space. Pilgrims do not walk in the area between this wall and the Kaaba.
  6. Al-Multazam, the part of the wall between the Black Stone and the entry door.
  7. The Station of Abraham, a glass and metal enclosure with what is said to be an imprint of Abraham's foot. Abraham is said to have stood on this stone during the construction of the upper parts of the Kaaba, raising Ismail on his shoulders for the uppermost parts.
  8. Corner of the Black Stone (East).
  9. Corner of Yemen (South-West). Pilgrims traditionally acknowledge a large vertical stone that forms this corner.
  10. Corner of Syria (North-West).
  11. Corner of Iraq(North-East).
  12. Kiswa, the embroidered covering. Kiswa is a black silk and gold curtain which is replaced annually during the Hajj pilgrimage.Two-thirds of the way up is a band of gold-embroidered Quranic text, including the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith.
  13. Marble stripe marking the beginning and end of each circumperambulation.
  14. The station of Gabriel.

The Quran states that Ibrahim, together with his son Ishmael, raised the foundations of the holy house (Holy Qur'an 2-127).GOD had shown Ibrahim the exact site, very near to the Well of Zamzam, where Ibrahim and Ishmael began work on the Kaaba's construction in circa 2130 BCE. After Ibrahim had built the Kaaba, an angel brought to him the Black Stone, a celestial stone that, according to tradition, had fallen from Heaven on the nearby hill Abu Qubays.According to a saying attributed to Prophet Muhammed(PBUH), the Black Stone had "descended from Paradise whiter than milk but the sins of the sons of Adam had made it black".The Black Stone is believed to be the only remnant of the original structure made by Ibrahim.

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