The rebuilding of the Kaaba

In the thirty-fifth year after the birth of the Prophet, Quraysh rebuilt the Ka'ba after a torrent had weakened its structure. They demolished it and rebuilt it with lawful wealth, and the construction was overseen by a Roman builder named Baqum. When they disputed who should place the Black Stone, they made the first man to enter their arbiter, and he was the Prophet ﷺ. He placed the stone in a cloak and the tribes raised it together, then he set it in place with his own hand. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

The Ka'ba was a heap of stones about the height of a man, nine cubits tall from the time of Isma'il. It had no roof. A band of thieves had stolen the treasure that lay inside it, and beyond its age it had suffered misfortunes that weakened its structure and cracked its walls. ^{1 3} Five years before the mission, a violent flood came down on Mecca and reached the Sacred House, and the Ka'ba nearly collapsed. Quraysh was compelled to rebuild it to protect its standing. ^{1 6}

They agreed to put into its building only lawful funds: no earnings of a prostitute, no usurious sale, and no wrong done to anyone. ^{1 3} They were afraid to demolish it. al-Walid ibn al-Mughira of Makhzum began the demolition, and the people followed when they saw that nothing had befallen him. They kept demolishing until they reached the foundations of Abraham. ^{1 2 3}

They divided the Ka'ba and assigned each tribe a part of it. Each tribe gathered its own stones, and they began to build. The builder was the Roman named Baqum (may God be pleased with him). ^{2 3} Al-Bukhari relates, on the authority of Jabir ibn Abdullah, that the Prophet and al-Abbas went to carry stones. Al-Abbas told the Prophet to put his waist-wrap on his neck to protect him from the stones. He fell to the ground, his eyes raised to the sky, then came to himself asking for his waist-wrap, and tied it on. In another version, his private parts were never seen after that. ^{7 8}

When the building reached the place of the Black Stone, they disputed who would have the honour of setting it in its place. The dispute lasted four or five nights and grew so intense that it nearly became a bitter war within the sacred territory. ^{2 3} Abu Umayya ibn al-Mughira of Makhzum proposed that they let the first man to enter upon them through the gate of the mosque arbitrate their dispute, and they agreed. That man was the Prophet. When they saw him they cried out that he was al-Amin ("the trustworthy") and that they were content with him. ^{2 3}

When he reached them and they told him what had happened, he asked for a cloak and placed the stone in its middle. He asked the chiefs of the disputing tribes to each hold an edge of the cloak, and ordered them to lift it together until they brought it to its place. Then he took it in his hand and set it in its place. The author describes this as a shrewd solution with which the people were content. ^{2 3 4}

Quraysh's lawful funds fell short, so they left out of the north side about six cubits, known as al-Hijr and al-Hatim, and raised its door above the ground so that only those they wished could enter. When the building reached fifteen cubits, they roofed it on six pillars. ^{2 3 5} The author describes the Ka'ba after the rebuilding as roughly square, gives its measurements in metres, and says that the shadhirwan (the ledge at its base) belonged to the original House but Quraysh left it out. The details are in the Ka'ba entry. ²

According to al-Mas'udi, the flood had demolished the Ka'ba, and a golden gazelle and jewellery were stolen from it. Quraysh demolished it and used in its building timber from a ship that the sea had thrown onto their shore, which the king of the Romans had sent to be built into a church for him. When they made him arbiter over the Black Stone, four of their chiefs lifted it in the cloak, and then he set it in place with his own hand. ⁹

• In detailing the construction, the author relies on Ibn Hisham, the jurisprudence of the Sira (fiqh al-sira), al-Bukhari and al-Khudari. The metric measurements are the author's own or come from al-Khudari.
• "Five years before the mission": although this was in the Prophet's thirty-fifth year, it is consistent with his mission at forty.