Kaaba, THE CUBE: how much do you know?
A small building, not a skyscraper, not a big mansion but two million Muslims visit every year, well known all over the world for the prayer direction of Muslims. Kaaba means “Cube” in Arabic which is located in the centre of Makkah, the birthplace of Muhammad(sm), not far from the Red Sea.
Kaaba is a stone-built square shaped mosque, which is usually called Baitullah, The house of Allah. This is a pre- historical structure. Apart from the Quran, the Bible and the Old Testament describe this stone made building. According to The Quran, it was made by the first man of the world, Prophet Adam and then reconstructed by Prophet Ibrahim(Abraham) with his son Prophet Ismail. Even the Bible describes it.
The Kaaba is a mosque where Muslims pray five times a day by facing it in any corner of the world. Muslims go on pilgrimages called Hajj. They move around it five times counterclockwise called Tawaf during the Hajj. Every Muslim desires to visit this place.
The Kaaba has been reconstructed 12 times, according to historians. Now it is 39ft 6inch in height and has a total area of 627suqare feet. The inside room of the Kaba is 13X9 meters. The Kaba’s walls are one meter wide. The floor inside is 2.2 meters higher than the place where people perform Tawaf. The ceiling and roof are two levels made out of wood. They were reconstructed with teak which is capped with stainless steel. The walls are all made of stone. The stones inside are unpolished, while the ones outside are polished.
The Kaaba is made of grey stone and marble. It is oriented in such a way that its corner roughly corresponds to the compass. To the east is the Black stone (Rukn el Aswad), in the north is El Ruken el Iraqi, in the west al Rukne el Shami and at the south al Rukne el Yamani. There is only one door in Kabba with no window. The door is made of pure gold with beautiful calligraphy. The door is raised high from the ground because of the flood and other natural disasters.
The interior of the mosque is simple but gorgeous. There are two pillars inside (others report 3 pillars), a table is set in the corner to put the items like perfume, two lantern type lamps hanging in the corner from the roof, the floor is made of marble in which 50 people can accommodate, no electric light inside, the upper inside walls of the Kaba were covered with some kind of curtain with the Kalima written on it. Going inside of Kaaba is very restricted now. Only famous people of Arabic society and their guests can visit there and only Muslims can visit the Makkah to see Kaaba.
