Raising the foundations of the House: who built the Ka'ba

Sha'rawi holds that the House existed before Abraham, that the flood hid its landmarks, and that Abraham raised its foundations so that its place would be known. In his reading the Ka'ba is the place that marks the House, not the House itself. ^{1 2}

Sha'rawi argues that raising presupposes a building with length and breadth, and that Abraham fixed the third dimension, height. He says the House was built before Abraham and was then covered by the flood. ²

He relies on Abraham's leaving Hajar and her child in a valley by the sacred House before the Ka'ba was built, so that the place was known although it bore no sign. ³

Sha'rawi reports that scholars differ on when the House was built: some say in Abraham's time, some from Adam, and some before Adam. Their positions are not yet entered from their sources. ²

This is Sha'rawi's view alone, from these pages. The accounts of exegetes and historians on the first builder and the length of the work, the academic view and other views are not yet entered.