The Kaaba sits in the center of the Sacred Mosque al-Harâm, in Saudi Arabia. It plays a primordial role in the rite of “hajj”, the pilgrimage made by Muslims to Mecca, and which begins today.
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Each day, Muslims around the world bow to pray in his direction. Kaaba is the most sacred place in Islam. Being able to go there at least once in your life, embracing the black stone which is on one of its walls or even penetrating this sanctuary is a blessing for any faithful. While this pilgrimage to Mecca begins this Thursday, July 7, until July 12), one of the five pillars of Islam, the point on this high place of Islam.
The House of God on earth
kaaba means “the cube”, in Arabic. 14 meters high, this construction is considered by Muslims as the “house of God” on earth. It is openly mentioned twice in the Koran, to verses 95 and 97 of Sura 5 (the table). “God instituted the Ka’ba, a sacred house, built for men”, we read for example in verse 97. Located in the center of Mecca, it is seen as being connected to the “Kaaba du Ciel”. Tradition also raises its foundation to the Prophet Abraham.
“Different biblical themes, such as the idea of a last judgment, a creative and beneficial god, as well as stories linked to various figures of the Torah and the Old Testament, had fed the first Koranic discourse . After the Hegira (term which designates the departure of Muhammad and several of his companions from Mecca to Medina), in response to the hostility of local Jewish tribes, Abraham, accompanied by his son Ismaël, is presented by the Koran Like the founder of the building, “explains the historian Jacqueline Chabbi, specialist in the origins of Islam and author of the decrypted Koran, biblical figures in Arabia (Cerf, 2014).
a site of The pre -Islamic era
From a historical point of view, there is no doubt that the Kaaba was at the heart of a tribes ritual before the Islamic era. “The cult was linked to the unexpected discovery of the Meccan water point located in a lowland, the outlet of several small valleys and in a completely arid environment. This could only be seen at the time as signaling a divine presence that we had to honor, “says Jacqueline Chabbi.
The place being periodically flooded, the Kaaba was built on a small eminence in the center of the shallows. Originally, it was only a simple wall oriented to the cardinal points in which sacred stones had been embedded, of which the black stone remains today at the east corner of the building, and another stone to The southern angle.
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