The Origin of the House

The origin of the House (also known as the Ka’bah) is inseparably connected to the origin of the Arabised Arabs. To understand this, we tell the story of Ibrahim ﵇. When Ibrahim ﵇ received the command from Allah ﷻ, he took Hajar ﵍ and their young son Ismail ﵇ to the desolate valley that would later become Makkah. There was nothing: no person, no water, no growing crops. Only a barren, silent plain under the scorching sun.

The Departure to Makkah

He ﵇ brought them to a spot under a tree, at the place where the well of Zamzam would later appear. There he ﵇ set down a bag of dates and a waterskin with a small amount of water. Without explanation, he ﵇ began to walk away.

She repeated her question several times, but he did not look back.

Ibrahim ﵇ walked on until he reached a point where they could no longer see him. There he turned towards the site of the future Sacred House, raised his hands and made a supplication that remains among the most powerful du’as to this day. This is the du’a that Allah ﷻ revealed in the Quran:

Hajar ﵍ was left alone with her child. Time passed, the water ran out, and thirst began to torment both her ﵍ and Ismail ﵇. She could not bear to watch her ﵍ son suffer and ran to the hill of Safa, hoping to see someone. She ﵍ saw no one, descended, ran through the valley to climb Marwa, the hill on the other side. There too, nothing was to be seen. Seven times she ﵍ repeated that path, a ritual now known to pilgrims around the world as the sa’i between Safa and Marwa.

When she ﵍ reached Marwa for the last time, she heard a voice. She ﵍ stood still, listened again, and called out:

Suddenly she ﵍ saw an angel at the site of Zamzam. He struck the ground with his heel, and water began to flow up from the earth. Hajar ﵍ scooped the water together and formed a basin. The Prophet ﷺ said about this:

She ﵍ drank, fed her child, and found rest.

Not long after, people from the tribe of Jurhum passed by. They saw a bird that only circles around water and sent a scout. When they discovered the spring, they asked Hajar ﵍:

From that place a community emerged. Ismail ﵇ grew up among them, learned Arabic, became beloved, and married one of their women. His ﵇ descendants are known as the Adnanites, after their common ancestor 'Adnan.

Ibrahim ﵇ Visits Makkah

Ibrahim ﵇ visited Makkah from time to time to see his wife and son. There appear to have been at least four visits. Allah ﷻ says in the Noble Quran:

Allah ﷻ showed Ibrahim ﵇ in a dream that he was to sacrifice his beloved son Ismail ﵇ by the command of Allah ﷻ. Ibrahim ﵇ carried out the command, the ultimate trial, but when he went to sacrifice Ismail ﵇ the knife did not cut. The angel Jibril ﵇ appeared with a ram, and instead of his beloved son, the ram was offered for slaughter. This day is now known as the Festival of Sacrifice, a day on which Muslims around the world reflect on the devotion of Ibrahim ﵇.

We mentioned earlier that the Jurhum tribe gave one of their women to Ismail ﵇ in marriage. Ibrahim ﵇ would visit once more to see his son Ismail ﵇. Hajar ﵍ had by then passed away. Ibrahim ﵇, upon arriving at the house of Ismail ﵇, found that he was not home. He ﵇ asked the wife of Ismail ﵇ about her husband and how she was doing. She complained about poverty, so Ibrahim ﵇ asked her to tell Ismail ﵇ that he should replace his doorstep. Ismail ﵇ understood the message and divorced his wife, then remarried.

On a third visit, Ibrahim ﵇ came to see his son again, and once more Ismail ﵇ was not home at that moment. He asked his new wife the same question, and his current wife thanked Allah ﷻ. Ibrahim ﵇ told her to tell her husband that he should keep his doorstep, and he returned to Palestine.

On a fourth visit to Makkah, he saw Ismail ﵇ sharpening an arrow under a tall tree near Zamzam. This time, they would build the House.

The Construction of the House

Ibrahim ﵇ visited his son at the place where he had previously left them and together with Ismail ﵇ built the House as commanded by Allah ﷻ:

Allah ﷻ showed him the exact location, near the Zamzam spring. At that place he received the command to build a sanctuary and was shown how they were to build it. Its four corners point towards the four cardinal directions. The most sacred object at this holy site is a heavenly stone, originally from the nearby mountain Abu Qubays. An angel brought this stone to Ibrahim ﵇; it had been preserved there since it reached the earth:

The Black Stone was eventually placed in the eastern corner of the Ka’bah, completing the sanctuary. Allah ﷻ commanded Ibrahim ﵇ to establish the Hajj rituals, which included the walking back and forth between Safa and Marwa. From that moment onward, people came from far and wide to visit the House, and their numbers grew. The Greater Pilgrimage was performed once a year, but the Ka’bah could also be visited through a lesser pilgrimage whenever one wished. People learned the Hajj rituals from Ibrahim ﵇ and Ismail ﵇, and they were carried out with devotion and dedication.

The Arabised Arabs

The Arabised Arabs are the descendants of Ismail ﵇. From this line came the tribe of 'Adnan, the tribe from which the Prophet ﷺ would ultimately descend. Ma’ad ibn 'Adnan had two sons, Rabi’ah and Nizar. The most notable tribes descending from Rabi’ah were Bakr and Taghlib, 'Abd al-Qays and Banu Hanifah. The most notable tribes from Nizar through his son Mudar were Banu Tamim, the tribes of Qays Aylan, Hudayl and Kinanah, from which the sub-tribes of Quraysh would later emerge.

The Adnanites originally lived in the Hijaz, but many of them departed when it became too densely populated. Bakr and Taghlib moved northward along the banks of the Euphrates. 'Abd al-Qays departed to Bahrain; Tamim and the tribes of Qays 'Aylan moved to Najd, and Banu Hanifah to Yamamah.

Thus Makkah became the junction where the Adnanites, the descendants of Ismail ﵇, and the Qahtanites came together. The Ka’bah, built by Ibrahim ﵇ and Ismail ﵇, remained through the centuries the spiritual centre of the Arabian Peninsula and the most sacred house in Islam.