Four Areas of the Kaabah You May Not Know About or Be Mistaken About

I thought I’d share some interesting facts about the Kaa’bah with you all.  Before I begin, I would like to mention that there is some ikhtilaaf (difference of opinion) on some of the things below.  Unfortunately I cannot accommodate all opinions, but, I will briefly mention some of the differences below.  I have tried to go with the most prominent or what I feel to be the strongest opinions.

Hijr / Hateem

Let’s begin with the Hijr which is commonly known as Hateem nowadays or as some also prefer to call it: Hijr Ismail.  Firstly, it is incorrect to call it Hijr Ismail and the scholars are unanimous on this.  Secondly, while many in the past and present view the Hijr as Hateem, some scholars do hold other opinions:

Ibn Al-Qayyim  (may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him) said,

"As for Al-Hateem, there are several opinions regarding its location; The first is that it is between the corner and the door, which is Al-Multazam. Another opinion is that it is the wall of the Hijr because it was destroyed and excluded from the frame of the Ka'bah."

The stronger opinion does seem to be that the Hateem is the Hijr itself. And Allah (swt) knows best.

Is the whole of the Hijr/Hateem part of the Kaabah?

Back to Hijr.  5 years prior to the Prophetic mission beginning, the Quraysh rebuilt the Kaabah.  By the Qadr of Allah, the Quraysh at that time set a condition that they would only rebuild the Kaabah with lawful wealth.

Due to shortage of such lawful wealth, the Quraysh had to reduce the size of the Kaabah by about 6 (difference of opinion on amount) azra’u (arms length) on the Hijr side.  Instead, they built a small wall to demarcate it and so that people would make tawaaf around it.

So, the important question, is the whole of the Hijr that we see today, part of the Kaabah?  Short answer: No.  I am yet to come across an opinion which says it is.  The only difference in opinion is exactly how much of it is part of the Kaabah.  The prominent view seems to go with 6 azra’u and a bit, which in today’s terms comes to roughly 3 metres and a bit.  Some opinions say slightly more.  Allah (swt) knows best.

3 Metres isn’t a lot of space as you can imagine.  I spoke to a number of people at Masjid al-Haram and they all agreed with the opinion above.  Some advised me that it was the first 2 rows only and another person said all the space in front of the 2 green lamps.  My advice, get as close to the Kaabah as possible to be sure.  Try to pray in the first saff, if not, then second.

NOTE: Only do this if you are not going to harm anyone.  If it’s too busy, do NOT push and shove and harm others.  These are not the etiquettes of a Muslim, especially one standing in such a holy place.  May Allah reward you for your intention and give you far better for not harming others.

Abdullah bin Az-Zubair (May Allah be pleased with him), had actually built the part the Quraysh had left out, i.e the Hijr and also built 2 doors.  This was as per the wishes of the Prophet (pbuh) when he said:

“O ‘Aa’ishah, were your people not close to the pre-Islamic period of ignorance, I would have had the Ka’bah demolished and would have included in it the portion which had been left [at the last rebuilding], and would have made it level with the ground and would have made two doors for it, one towards the east and the other towards the west, and by doing this, it would have been rebuilt on the foundations that were laid by Ibraaheem, may Allah exalt his mention.” [Al-Bukhari]

However, the part included by Abdullah bin Az-Zubair and the second door were removed and the Kaabah was rebuilt by Al-Hajjaj on the foundations of the Quraysh.

Kaabah Door

Leading on from the above, it is clear that the door of the Kaabah was at ground level on it’s original foundations and that 

The Multazam Area

there were 2 doors.  It was the Quraysh who removed one of the doors and raised the remaining one so that they could control who could go in and out of the Kaabah.  And unfortunately, after Abdullah bin Az-Zubair reconstructed the Kaabah upon the original foundations and added the second door and moved both doors to ground level, it was Al-Hajjaj who returned it back to the foundations of the Quraysh.  However, none of this happened without the Will of Allah and we are certain that there is wisdom behind it.  

One thing that I can think of, and Allah knows best, is that even when the Quraysh tried to prevent people from entering the Kaabah, Allah foiled their plans because by praying inside the original Hijr, people were still given the opportunity to pray inside the Kaabah.  And, Alhamdulilah, until today, people are still able to do this.

Multazam

One of the most common mistakes made by people seems to be to think that the door of the Kaabah is the place of clinging (multazam).  The correct opinion based on narrations from the Sahabah, seems to be that, rather, the multazam is the space between the blackstone and the door of the Kaabah.  For more info, please have a read of the following: https://islamqa.info/en/47756 

The 4 Corners of the Kaabah

I’m sure most of you know which corner is Rukn Yemeni and which is the Hijr Aswad corner, however, not many may know the names of the other 2 corners.  Again, there’s difference of opinion on these, but:

1. The corner after the blackstone and door of the Kaabah, is known as: Rukn Iraqee, or, Rukn Shimalee

2. The corner after this, which is the corner before Rukn Yemeni, is known as Rukn Shaami, or, Rukn Gharbi

I hope you all found the above beneficial insha’Allah.  I will be following up with one or two more blog posts with more on places around Masjid Al-Haram as soon as I’ve completed some research to verify them so do check back soon for those insha’Allah.  

If you have any feedback, please leave it in the comments and I will try my best to get back to you.