- the conquest
- the victorious return to Mecca in 630, eight years after the Hijra had carried the call away
- the idols
- the Arabs' idols that ringed the Kaaba before the Prophet cleansed it on entry
- the safety
- the general amnesty the Prophet declared for Mecca's people the day he entered it
- in throngs
- people entering God's religion in groups and throngs in the years that followed the conquest
- the Kaaba
- God's House, which the Prophet cleansed of idols the day he entered the city
- the migrants
- the early Meccan Muslims who had migrated to Medina and came back with the Prophet
- Ramadan 630
- the month of the entry — the Muslim army was fasting as it came
- the four gates
- the city's entry points through which the army came on the day of the return
- the Quraysh
- the tribe that had ruled Mecca and led the opposition to the call until the conquest
- the eight years
- the span from the migration to the return — the whole life of Medina's state so far
- the balance of Arabia
- the balance the conquest tilted in the peninsula, settling the contest for the call
- the message
- the central truth the House was restored to — the worship of God alone
