Suspect linked to JDL offshoot allegedly planned to firebomb activist’s home and then flee to Israel.

Explore lesser known facts about Makkah, from the 1979 uprising and global migrant workforce to the loss of historic sites and the miraculous flow of Zamzam.

Read Part 1

6. The Ka’bah Was Seized in a Modern Armed Uprising

People sometimes imagine Makkah existing outside of history. It is seen as a place of peace, stability, and timeless ibadah. But Makkah has experienced moments of profound upheaval, including in the modern era.

I know this from personal experience. I went to ‘Umrah in early 1980, when I was a young teenager, and was stunned to see the minarets of Masjid Al-Haram heavily damaged by artillery fire and bullets. There were bullet holes in the Ka’bah itself, and Zamzam in particular was a mess, with the ground and walls chewed up by weapons fire.

Say what? You haven’t heard about this before? It’s surprising how few Muslims are aware of this incident. It began on the morning of November 20, 1979, the first day of the Islamic year 1400. An armed group of 200 men led by Juhayman al-Otaybi seized Masjid al-Haram. The militants smuggled weapons into the sanctuary, locked the gates, and declared that one of their members was the Mahdi whose coming was predicted by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Thousands of worshippers were trapped inside.

The militants believed that an army would come to defeat the Mahdi, and Allah would cause the earth to open up and swallow them, whereupon the Mahdi would usher in an Islamic golden age.

That is not what happened.

What followed was a tense and violent standoff that lasted for approximately two weeks. Saudi forces initially struggled to retake the masjid. Fighting inside the sacred precinct was unprecedented and deeply shocking to the Muslim world.

Smoke rises during the battle for Masjid Al-Haram in November 1979.

Eventually, the Saudi authorities regained control. Reports from multiple sources indicate that specialized assistance was brought in, including support from Pakistani forces. There was also controversy surrounding the involvement of French advisors. Because non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the Haram, it was stated that those involved formally converted to Islam before participating, though details vary across accounts.

The rebels made their last stand in Zamzam, and were eventually rooted out. 117 rebels were killed in the battle, 69 were executed, and 19 received jail sentences.

Without diminishing the horror of that event, I will say that although I was surprised to see the damage wrought upon the masjid, that is not what impressed me the most. Rather, I will never forget praying in front of the Ka’bah, seeing knots of Quran students gathered in circles, worshipers praying quietly, cats freely roaming the grounds, and eating the best shawarma sandwich of my life across the street from the masjid.

Across centuries and empires, beyond strife and struggle, the house of Allah still stands. The religion of Allah is still practiced, and people still come from all over the world to perform the rites taught to us by our Prophet ﷺ.

7. Makkah Produces Almost No Food

Makkah has never been a place of agriculture.

In the Qur’an, Prophet Ibrahim makes a dua as he leaves his family in the valley of Makkah:

“Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in a valley without cultivation near Your Sacred House…” (14:37)

This is not poetic language. It is a literal description. Makkah is a barren valley, surrounded by rocky hills, with little capacity for farming.

Historically, this shaped everything about the city. The people of Makkah could not rely on agriculture for survival. Instead, they turned to trade. The great caravan journeys of Quraysh, to Yemen in the winter and Syria in the summer, were not simply a means of wealth, but of necessity. Food, goods, and supplies had to be brought in from elsewhere.

Unlike Madinah, which had date groves and agriculture, Makkah depended on what it could import.

In this, very little has changed.

A cold storage food warehouse in Saudi Arabia.

Today, Makkah still produces almost no food of its own. Yet it feeds millions of residents and pilgrims every year. Food arrives constantly, transported across vast distances. Nearly two million tons of rice are imported into Saudi Arabia from South Asia each year, along with meat from Brazil, produce from Egypt and Jordan, grains from the USA and Europe, and so on. During Hajj alone, hundreds of thousands of tons of food are consumed, supplied through a vast global network.

It might seem strange that a barren valley with no natural resources should become the spiritual center of a global religion. Yet that very barrenness protected Makkah historically. Unlike other regions of Arabia, it was not conquered by the Romans or Persians, for why invade a land without resources?

As a result, Islam emerged among a people who were independent, resilient, and unruled by imperial authority. There was no empire to overthrow and no central government to dismantle. When Islam came, it did not replace a system. It built one.

As always, Allah guides events according to a wisdom that we do not see.

8. Makkah Is Overwhelmingly a City of Outsiders

At any given time, 40 to 50 percent of Makkah’s residents are non-citizens.

Every year, that number swells dramatically as millions of pilgrims arrive to perform Hajj and ‘Umrah. But beyond the pilgrims, there is another population that is less visible but just as essential.

Like many global cities that depend on migrant labor, Makkah’s population includes people from a wide range of backgrounds. This includes Indonesian and Malaysian hotel staff, Pakistani and Bangladeshi construction workers, Yemeni and Syrian shopkeepers, Egyptian and Sudanese teachers and administrators, and African and South Asian drivers and service workers.

Some come with professional skills and build stable lives. Others work long hours in low-wage jobs that are essential to the functioning of the city. Construction workers labor in intense heat. Cleaners and maintenance staff work overnight shifts to keep the Haram and surrounding areas spotless. Drivers spend long hours on the road moving pilgrims from place to place.

Many of these laborers live in shared or crowded housing, and their legal status is often tied to their employers, limiting their ability to change jobs or leave the country without permission. Their circumstances are often demanding and even oppressive, to such a degree that human rights organizations have reported on this issue.

These working conditions are common in all the Gulf nations. Without these workers, these oil-rich nations could not survive. Yet is it too much to ask for justice in the holy lands of Islam?

Migrant laborers in Saudi Arabia

Walk through the streets of Makkah and you will hear Urdu, Bahasa Indonesia, Hausa, Turkish, Arabic in many dialects, and dozens of other languages.

In this sense, Makkah is not a typical city. It does not belong to a single people or culture. It is a meeting place of the Ummah.

9. The Expansion of the Haram Has Erased Entire Neighborhoods

Over the past century, the expansion of the Haram and the redevelopment of central Makkah have led to the demolition of entire neighborhoods.

Obviously, as the population grows, the city must grow. However, many historically significant sites associated with the earliest period of Islam have disappeared.

Among the sites that have been lost are the home of Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, where the Prophet ﷺ lived for many years, as well as Dar al-Arqam, one of the earliest places where Islam was taught in secret, which now lies within the expanded structure of Masjid al-Haram. The house associated with Abu Bakr al-Siddiq is also reported to have been built over as part of a hotel development.

Nor is this limited to the earliest Islamic period. The Ajyad Fortress, an Ottoman-era citadel that stood for over two centuries overlooking the Haram, was demolished in 2002 to make way for the Abraj Al Bait complex, whose towers now dominate the skyline above the sanctuary.

The Ajyad Fortress, built in 1777 by the Ottomans, was demolished in 2002.

Entire districts that once surrounded the Haram have been cleared and replaced with hotels, commercial centers, and infrastructure designed to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims.

The result is that many physical traces of early Islamic history are no longer visible or accessible. Heritage organizations and historians have repeatedly raised concerns about the pace and scale of redevelopment in Makkah, noting that the loss of these sites represents an irreversible break with the physical legacy of early Islam.

This raises an important question. When you visit Makkah, would you rather see the places where the sahabah lived and walked, or rows of generic hotels that could stand in any city?

This does not mean that all traces of early Islamic history have vanished. Important sites such as Jabal al-Nour, where the first revelation descended, and Jabal Thawr, where the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (ra) took refuge during the Hijrah, still stand. The plains of Mina, Arafat, and Muzdalifah continue to host the rites of Hajj as they have for centuries. And at the center of it all, the Ka’bah remains, unchanged in its significance, drawing millions of hearts toward it every year.

Even so, what has been lost cannot be replaced. And what remains should remind us of the importance of preserving what we still have.

10. Zamzam: A Well That Has Flowed for Thousands of Years

In a barren valley with no natural rivers or agriculture, one of the most remarkable features of Makkah is a single well that has sustained life for thousands of years.

The well of Zamzam, located within Masjid al-Haram, has flowed continuously since the time of Ibrahim عليه السلام and his son Ismail عليه السلام. According to Islamic tradition, when Hajar was left in the desert with her infant son, she ran desperately between the hills of Safa and Marwah in search of water. In response to her faith and perseverance, Allah caused water to spring forth from the ground beneath Ismail’s feet.

That spring became Zamzam.

To this day, the well continues to produce water at a rate estimated between 11 and 18.5 liters per second. It supplies millions of pilgrims every year, yet it has never run dry.

Modern studies have found that Zamzam water is naturally filtered through layers of rock and sand, and contains a distinct mineral composition. But beyond the physical explanation lies something greater. For over four thousand years, this well has continued to flow in one of the driest regions on earth, sustaining a city that produces almost no water of its own. Is this anything but a miracle? It is a sign from the signs of Allah, and a blessing to the children of Ibrahim.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ highlighted Zamzam’s special status. As reported by Ibn Abbas:

“The best water on the face of the earth is Zamzam water. In it is food for nourishment and healing for illness.”

By the way, if you’ve never been to Makkah, you might imagine Zamzam as an old fashioned well with a bucket going up and down. Or a spring, with water pouring from a mountainside. That was what I thought before my first visit as a teenager. That was true in the past, but Zamzam is now controlled through a modern water system. The water is treated using standard methods, then channelled through pipes. But it’s the same blessed water.

In fact, for the believer, Zamzam is more than water. It is a reminder that provision comes from Allah in ways that defy expectation. In a place where survival should have been impossible, Allah placed a source of life that has endured across millennia.

Every cup of Zamzam carries that history.

* * *

Reader comments and constructive criticism are important to me, so please comment!

See the Story Index for Wael Abdelgawad’s other stories on this website.

Wael Abdelgawad’s novels – including Pieces of a Dream, The Repeaters and Zaid Karim Private Investigator – are available in ebook and print form on his author page at Amazon.com.

 

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The post 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Makkah and the Ka’bah [Part 2] appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

A series of shocking incidents and rising anti-Muslim rhetoric – including from One Nation’s Pauline Hanson – has sharpened concerns for the Islamic community

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Behind the counter of his family’s kebab shop in Brisbane’s south, Burak was lathering garlic sauce on a customer’s falafel wrap when they began talking about Pauline Hanson.

Burak, a 17-year-old school student, had never heard of Hanson – one of Australia’s most polarising political figures, who entered federal parliament almost three decades ago in 1996.

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Helyeh Doutaghi explains how war is producing a “moment of clarity,” as many Iranians recognize sovereignty as the basis for all internal struggles – on The Electronic Intifada Podcast.

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Andy Ogles’ election victories in Tennessee are a product of an electoral system broken by gerrymandering

Andy Ogles represents more Muslims than any other Tennessee congressman. Yet he has no interest in representing them. He doesn’t even want them in the country.

“Muslims don’t belong in American society,” the third-term Republican wrote on Twitter/X last week. He’s proudly doubled down on his incendiary statement, which joins a long list of Islamophobic beliefs. During last year’s New York City mayoral campaign, Ogles called Zohran Mamdani “a communist who has publicly embraced a terroristic ideology”. The US naturalization system, he said, required “any alignments with communism or terrorist activities to be disclosed. I’m doubtful he disclosed them. If this is confirmed, put him on the first flight back to Uganda.”

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Gaza is home to the largest number of child amputees worldwide as a result of Israel’s genocidal war.

Criticism of “violent settler rampage” hasn’t harmed commercial ties.

Former Kilmore church being converted into mosque set alight Tuesday amid spate of Islamophobic incidents

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Islamic communities have called out a rise in “anti-Muslim hate” after a church that was being converted into a mosque was allegedly set alight in what Victoria police are treating as a “suspicious” fire.

In a statement, Victoria police said the abandoned church in Kilmore, north of Melbourne, was set alight at about 1.50pm on Tuesday, causing “significant damage” to the building. No one was inside at the time and the fire was believed to have been started in the rear of the building.

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Readers respond to negative comments by Conservative and Reform UK politicians following a Ramadan event in Trafalgar Square

As a young British Muslim, I was troubled to see public prayer described as an “act of domination” by the shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy (Report, 19 March). To characterise a few minutes of prayer in this way is simply unjust. Britain stands for fairness and equal treatment. If other faiths can gather in public spaces, Muslims should be afforded the same right. To single out one community undermines that principle.

Events such as open iftars are not about imposing beliefs, but about bringing people together. We are often encouraged to integrate, yet when Muslims do so visibly and peacefully, they are criticised. Such language and behaviour are deepening division and making Young British Muslims feel unwelcome in their own country.
Sarmad Anwar
Bradford, West Yorkshire

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We speak to Professor Setareh Sadeqi in Isfahan. Jon Elmer on week through of the war, including Iran’s capable drones and air defenses.

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Eid al-Fitr is meant to bring release. It comes at the end of Ramadan, after a month of fasting and prayer, and in Gaza it has always carried its own kind of joy. The day begins with prayer. Men and boys gather in clean clothes, neighbours congratulate one another, friends embrace, and supplications rise with the first light. Families return home for breakfast, then begin the long round of visits to sisters, daughters, aunts, uncles and neighbours. Children wait for eidiya, the money given to younger relatives. Coffee is poured, sweets are shared and doors remain open.

This year, the rituals remained. The feeling had gone.

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A widening Middle East war is toppling leaders, devastating economies, and leaving millions caught in a humanitarian catastrophe.

By Ibrahim Moiz for MuslimMatters

Israel Broadens Its Murderous Assaults

Twenty days into the American-Israeli war on Iran, the conflict has widened to engulf much of the Gulf region as well as the Levant. The Iranian backlash, firing both at Israel and at American targets in the Gulf region and blocking off the crucial straits that lead out of the eponymous Gulf, has crippled international trade and put the Gulf regimes in serious jeopardy.

Israel has added to its genocide of Gaza a murderous assault on Palestinians in the West Bank and yet another brutal invasion of Lebanon. Iraqi militias, which have historically had strong links with both the United States and Iran since the 2003 invasion, have clearly opted for the latter. And finally, the leaderships of both Iran and Israel seem to have taken a hit; longstanding Iranian potentate Ali Ardeshir-Larijani, whose conspicuous defiance of Israel put a target on his back, was killed, while Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu-Mileikowsky vanished amid an Iranian missile salvo, with rumors of his possible elimination.

Deadly Deja Vu in Lebanon

As MuslimMatters noted two years ago, Israel has long sought to widen the war to include its regional rival Iran, which it has wrongly blamed for masterminding Palestinian militancy; in fact, Palestinian resistance has continued over the past twenty or so years despite fluctuating links with Iran.

By contrast, the largely Shia militias in Iraq and Lebanon do have close links with Tehran and responded to the provocative American-Israeli attack on Iran by attacking, respectively, American and Israeli targets. In the case of Iraq, this was especially ironic because the militias had historically been involved with both the United States and Iran.

n the case of Lebanon, Hezbollah’s attacks gave the lie to Israeli triumphalism from autumn 2024, which declared the militia essentially knocked out after its founding leaders were killed off along with large numbers of civilians in the Israeli assault of the period. Gloating coverage, not only from Israel but from much of the European and North American press, about Israel’s technological prowess and checkmate seems to have been woefully premature.

Lebanon’s Fragile Political Balance

The 2024 Israeli attack ushered in what was widely seen as a pro-American government in Lebanon, with former army commander Joseph Aoun in the presidency and Nawaf Salam as prime minister; in accordance with American wishes, the Lebanese government had distanced itself from Hezbollah even as Israel’s repeated provocations in the south made such a stance increasingly tenuous. Always close to Tehran, Hezbollah responded to Israel’s attacks on Iran with its own salvo, prompting the Israeli army to wade north into Lebanon yet again.

Echoes of the 2006 War

In one respect, the 2025–26 shift in Lebanon resembles events twenty years earlier, when a pro-American cabinet voted in during 2005 was subsequently left high and dry when Israel invaded the south in 2006. It was during that war that Israel coined the so-called “Dahiye doctrine,” named for the suburb that it attacked, as a euphemism for an unabashedly brutal assault of the sort that so often typifies Israeli warfare; the same suburb is under attack today.

In 2006, Hezbollah enormously bolstered its prestige by withstanding a pointedly vicious Israeli assault; while 2026 finds Hezbollah generally weaker, it may be expected that it will recover its reputation as defender of Lebanese integrity against a murderous neighbor that has already displaced a fifth of the Lebanese population and used internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus.

The Gulf between Rhetoric and Reality: America’s Persian Quagmire

If Israel is enjoying another bloody caper in Lebanon, straits are more dire elsewhere. The Gulf states were exposed to their own vulnerability, and the drawbacks of significant American bases, when Iran fired on them. More worrying for the United States, and certainly for Donald Trump’s scrambling regime, is the Iranian chokehold on shipping that exits the Gulf through a strait whence a fifth of the world’s oil supply is shipped.

Ships in the Strait of Hormuz

The ease with which Iran could block the strait was one factor why previous American governments, even the most rabidly pro-Israel among them, had balked at entering the full-scale war with Iran that Israel had constantly advocated. In Trump, a triumphalist dangerously emboldened by his bullying treatment of Venezuela this winter, the Israeli regime seems to have found its man: a braggadocious oaf glad to blunder into a war whose risks he cared not to comprehend, and drag the region down with his fortunes.

Washington’s Scramble

Barely a fortnight after gloating over the ease with which he eliminated Iran’s leadership, Trump and his similarly incompetent military supremo Peter Hegseth, a bloodthirsty buffoon who has constantly branded his wars as crusades against Muslims but balked whenever he receives reminders of the planning and risks such wars actually entail, are scrambling for excuses. Most recently, Trump has lashed out at more cautious Western states for what he sees as insufficient help; this while many European governments, together with Canada and Australia, dutifully condemned Iran’s retaliations, with some even having been involved in the war’s logistics.

Shattered Illusions in the Gulf

While Iran’s strikes toward the Gulf have caused controversy—even Hamas, which has good relations with several Gulf regimes and has been at the frontline of the defense against Israel, advised Tehran to save its ammunition for the enemy—Iranian officials like longstanding regime eminence Ali Ardeshir-Larijani and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that these exclusively targeted American sites. Whatever the case, the comfortable illusion of Gulf immunity from regional strife, protected under an American military canopy, has been well and truly shattered.

An Iranian Stalwart

Larijani was one of many Iranian leaders to defiantly march in public after the American-Israeli bombardment killed hundreds and draped Tehran in an inferno. He has frequently been described, if with some exaggeration, as Iran’s most powerful leader. This is an exaggeration; Mojtaba Khamenei replaced his slain father Ali as Iran’s supremo this month, while Masoud Pezeshkian leads a triumvirate with at least symbolic importance—but it does accurately reflect Larijani’s longstanding centrality in the Iranian system.

Ali Ardeshir-Larijani

The son of cleric Hashim Ardeshir, Ali Ardeshir-Larijani had one brother, Sadegh, who was a chief justice throughout the 2010s, and another, Javad, who deputized for the judiciary. His father-in-law was Morteza Motahhari, who had co-founded the clerical republic in the 1979 revolution, and his maternal cousin Ahmed Tavakkoli, a conservative former minister and presidential runner-up. Like many Iranian leaders, Ali had both an activist and an intellectual background, having studied and written on European philosophy before becoming a generally conservative statist in Iranian politics. His many roles in the Iranian regime since the 1980s included, most prominently, serving as parliamentary speaker through the 2010s.

Defiance and Death

A stalwart of the Iranian state, Ali had immediately responded to the American-Israeli aggression with pointed, acerbic defiance and chided other Muslim countries for insufficient solidarity. Remarkably, given the blaze that Hegseth had unleashed upon Tehran, he also took to the streets in an enormous protest, featuring many Iranian citizens and leaders alike, remarkable for its lack of fear. It was perhaps no surprise when he was killed. Also slain was Gholam-Reza Soleimani, who led Iran’s paramilitary security and had been a soldier since his teen years in the 1980s Gulf war against Iraq.

Dead or Alive?

Many Iranian leaders, then, have been killed in the last year, but given the notoriously leery nature of their Israeli counterparts, it came as more of a shock when Benjamin Netanyahu-Mileikowsky, the genocidal arsonist who had lit the region ablaze and for decades incited American wars throughout the Muslim world to complement his own, disappeared amid a hail of Iranian missiles. Eventually, videos resurfaced that purported to show him alive at a café, but these videos had an eerily uncanny appearance that raised wide-ranging suspicions that they had been generated by artificial intelligence technology. These suspicions were so widespread that they even made their way into American newspapers that have become notorious for their partiality toward Israel. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is perhaps fitting that a murderous dissembler whose career has been based on lies and mass murder now has doubts raised about his purported proof of life.

Ground Zero in Palestine

What will doubtless cheer up the Israeli regime is that their wars with Iran, Lebanon, and other countries have diverted attention from Palestine. This month, the Israeli military and settlers set about attacking the West Bank, an area where Hamas is almost absent but which has long been a target of ethnic cleansing efforts. They descended in an orgy of violence, burning dwellings while lynching and expelling Palestinians. The Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, which Israel’s ruling party has often threatened to excavate, has been shut off entirely by Hisham Ibrahim, its ironically named Israeli prefect.

Collapse of the Ceasefire

Meanwhile, any pretense of a ceasefire in Gaza, about which Trump made such a boastful song and dance, has long since reached the point of sick parody. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since, and the blockade has tightened to the point that the vast majority of basic goods have been shut off. In characteristic dissimulation, the Israeli regime claims that Gaza has a surplus; in fact, according to independent reports, less than a third of the strip’s basic needs were met before the blockade again tightened.

Dr. Alaa Talks About Life Under Siege

MuslimMatters managed to get in touch with Doctor Alaa, a Palestinian radiologist who has been raising his toddler son alone since his wife was killed in the genocide and has taken on the burden of several orphans whom he has helped shelter and fund since.

Gaza orphans

Alaa and his wife had originally taken in three families, but she and the other parents were killed in an Israeli attack, leaving him to raise their children. Though straitened circumstances mean that he directly supports three orphans as well as his son, he continues to fund the other orphans, who are living with other Palestinians, with the assistance of donations.

The doctor’s tone in general was despondent, but he gave a succinct, if dispiriting, summary of life under siege: “staying together in a tent without any income and without any dreams that we can leave this place as soon as possible.”

The ceasefire, he noted, had only slightly abated the rate of Israeli bombardment: “The situation since ceasefire is same, maybe it’s worse for the daily living…every day they strike somewhere…the siege around Gaza, they’re still surrounding Gaza, and most of the goods are not allowed to come in.”

“The People in Gaza Feel More Suffering Now”

Food and shelter are terribly low. “They stopped providing the food for people,” Dr. Alaa said, , and long time ago they stopped providing the tents for people. From my experience, I couldn’t get a tent easily, and lastly, when the storm starts, all the tents are destroyed.”

Israel’s unprovoked attack on other countries has not eased the situation. “The situation since Iran war is really very bad, because the fuel, the prices, the goods, all jump,” Dr. Alaa explained. “The people in Gaza feel more suffering now, because they don’t have any income and the siege is still very strong around Gaza.” One side effect of the Iran war was to help Israel divert attention from the genocide in Gaza. “So the people here feel that they are all alone and everybody abandoned Gaza.”

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Genocidal Israel Escalates With Assault On Iran

Op-Ed: From Pakistan To Gaza – Why Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan Terrifies Power And Zionism

 

The post Widening Wars Leave the Middle East in Shambles appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

From exile and rebellion to trade, transformation, and mercy, explore surprising facts about Makkah you may never have heard.

A Complex History

Most of us think we know Makkah. It is the holiest city in Islam, the direction of our prayers, and the destination of Hajj. We picture the Ka’bah surrounded by worshippers, the call to prayer echoing through the sacred precinct.

But beneath that familiar image lies a history that is far more complex, and at times surprising. Makkah has been a place of upheaval and renewal, of trade and transformation, of loss, resilience, and immense mercy.

Here are fifteen things you may not know about Makkah and the Ka’bah.

1. The descendants of Ismail were once driven out of Makkah

As you may know, after Hajar and Ismail were blessed with the water of zamzam, a passing Yemeni tribe settled in the oasis. This tribe was called Jurhum. Ismail married into Jurhum, and from their descendants came several Arab tribes, including the Quraysh.

You may have thought that the descendants of Prophet Ismail (as) remained in the valley of Bakkah (which became Makkah) continuously until the time of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. That is not the case.

Classical sources describe Jurhum’s rule over Makkah as lasting many generations, and possibly centuries, before their decline. As one traditional account states:

“When the misdeeds of Jurhum in the sacred land grew worse… Khuza’a arose against them… and expelled them from the Ka’bah.” (Al Bidaayah Wan Nahaayah, Ibn Kathir).

Their offenses are described in stark terms: mistreatment of pilgrims, misuse of the sanctuary’s wealth, and violations of its sanctity. Another early account notes that they began to ill-treat visitors to the Sacred House and unlawfully appropriate its resources, provoking resentment and ultimately rebellion.

The tribe of Khuzaa’, which had settled nearby after migrating from Yemen, led the uprising. After defeating Jurhum, they expelled them from Makkah and assumed control of the Ka’bah. Some reports state that Jurhum, upon their expulsion, buried treasures in the Zamzam well before departing.

But the transformation did not end there.

During the rule of Khuzaa’, a deeper shift took place – this time in religion. According to Ibn Ishaq and later scholars such as Ibn Kathir, their leader ‘Amr ibn Luhayy traveled to the Levant, where he encountered the idol worship of the powerful Amalkites. Impressed by what he saw, he brought back an idol called Hubal and placed it near the Ka’bah, instructing the people to venerate it. This was the first appearance of idol worship in Arabia.

Ibn Ishaq records that ‘Amr:

“brought back with him an idol called Hubal and set it up in the Ka’bah, commanding the people to worship it.”

Over time, this opened the door to widespread idol worship in Makkah, with idols multiplying in and around the sanctuary.

Khuzaa’s rule lasted for several centuries before the Quraysh rose to prominence and took control of Makkah in the 5th century CE, restoring custodianship of the Ka’bah to the lineage of Ismail.

What makes this episode so striking is not merely the shift in power, but the reason for it. Custodianship of the Sacred House was never guaranteed. It could be lost through corruption, injustice, and the betrayal of the sanctity it was meant to protect. That is something for the current custodians of the holy land to reflect upon.

2. The Ka’bah has been rebuilt and reshaped throughout history

Many people assume that the Ka’bah standing today is exactly the same structure built by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail. In reality, the Ka’bah has been rebuilt multiple times over the centuries.

According to early historians such as Ibn Ishaq, one of the most significant reconstructions occurred when the Quraysh rebuilt the Ka’bah shortly before the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The structure had been weakened and badly damaged, first by a conflagration that spread from a cooking fire, then by a flood. However, resources – particularly timber – were limited. As a result, they reduced its size and left a portion of the original foundation outside the walls (and, as you likely know, the Prophet ﷺ himself replaced the black stone in its niche).

This area is known today as the Hijr of Ismail.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ conquered Makkah, he considered restoring the Ka’bah to the full footprint built by Ibrahim, but decided against it, as he himself explained to Aishah in an authentic narration:

“Were it not that your people are recent converts to Islam, I would have demolished the Ka’bah and rebuilt it on the foundation of Ibrahim, and I would have included the Hijr within it.”
(Sahih al-Bukhari)

The Ka’bah was rebuilt again in the first Islamic century by Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr after it was damaged during conflict. Aware of the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, he expanded the Ka’bah to include the Hijr and added a second door at ground level.

However, this change did not last. When the Umayyads regained control, the Ka’bah was altered once more and returned to the earlier Quraysh design.

Even after this, the question remained. Should the Ka’bah be restored to the original foundation of Ibrahim?

During the Abbasid period, Khalifah Harun al-Rashid considered doing exactly that. He consulted Imam Malik ibn Anas, one of the great scholars of Madinah.

Imam Malik advised against it, saying:

“I fear that the Ka’bah will become a plaything for the rulers.”

In other words, if each ruler altered the structure according to his own judgment, the Ka’bah would be repeatedly changed, losing its stability and dignity.

The khalifah accepted this advice, and the structure has remained unchanged since.

In the end, it is not the stones and mortar of the Ka’bah that are sacred, but the site itself. It is the first house of Allah on the earth, and Allah is its protector.

3. The Black Stone was stolen and missing for decades

In the year 930 CE, one of the most shocking attacks in Islamic history took place. A radical sect known as the Qarmatians attacked Makkah during the Hajj season.

The Qarmatians were a militant movement based in eastern Arabia, in the region of Bahrain and al-Ahsa. Classical historians such as al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir describe them as a deviant Ismaili Shiah sect that rejected the Abbasid caliphate and held contempt for mainstream Islam. Under their leader Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, they launched a raid on Makkah, overwhelming its defenders and committing atrocities within the Haram itself.

Pilgrims were killed in large numbers, and the sanctity of the Sacred Mosque was violated. Some historical reports state that bodies were left in the precinct and even cast into the well of Zamzam.

Ibn Kathir records:

“They took the Black Stone and carried it away to their land, and the people were prevented from Hajj for many years.”

The Black Stone was removed and taken to al-Ahsa. It is said that the Qarmations shattered it – although, to be fair, there are also claims that the damage was done centuries earlier, when the Umayyads catapulted missiles at the Ka’bah to try to kill Abdullah ibn Az-Zubayr. Allah knows best.

For more than twenty years, the Black Stone remained with the Qarmatians.

Eventually, in 951 CE, the Stone was returned to Makkah. The exact circumstances of its return are unclear. Some sources suggest political pressure or negotiations. What is certain is that it was restored to its place after more than two decades.

Today, the Black Stone is no longer a single intact piece. It consists of several fragments, set into the Ka’bah and held together within a silver frame by means of a dark resin. Anyone who has seen it up close can observe that it is composed of multiple joined pieces.

This history, however, should not trouble the believer or shake one’s faith in any way.

The Black Stone, though it is said to be a stone from Jannah, is not an object of worship, nor is it central to the fundamentals of Islam. Touching or kissing it is not a requirement of Hajj or Umrah. It is an act of reverence, not obligation.

Our religion does not depend on the physical state of any object.

If the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself could pass away and leave this world, and the religion of Islam could continue, intact and growing, then the damage or fragmentation of a stone does not affect the truth or strength of our faith.

What this event shows is something else entirely. Even the most sacred objects in Islam have passed through moments of trial. Yet their meaning, and the devotion they inspire, have endured.

4. Makkah was once a major trading hub

If you have visited Makkah’s modern malls, such as the Abraj Al Bait complex or the shopping centers surrounding the Haram, you may think of it as a city of commerce. And in a sense, it is. Its economy today benefits heavily from serving millions of visitors each year.

Abraj Al Bait mall in Makkah

But Makkah was once much more than that.

Long before Islam, it was an international trading hub.

Situated along key caravan routes linking southern Arabia with the Levant, the city became a vital stop for merchants transporting spices, leather goods, textiles, and incense. The Quraysh built their wealth and influence through these trade networks.

This commercial role is alluded to in the Qur’an itself:

“For the accustomed security of Quraysh. Their accustomed security in the caravan of winter and summer…”
(Surat Quraysh 106:1–2)

Classical commentators such as Ibn Kathir explain that these verses refer to the regular trade journeys of Quraysh, who traveled north to Syria in the summer and south to Yemen in the winter, establishing economic prosperity and political alliances.

This trade brought immense wealth to certain Makkan families. Among them was Abdullah ibn Jud’an, founder of the Hilf Al-Fudool, who became famous for his generosity and scale of wealth. Historical reports describe him sending thousands of camels laden with food aid to famine-stricken regions such as Syria.

SubhanAllah. Imagine a desert Arab from a small and remote town, sending such vast aid to lands under the Roman Empire.

This also helps explain the immense wealth later possessed by some of the Sahabah, such as Abdurrahman ibn Awf and Uthman ibn Affan (Allah be pleased with them).

Ibn Ishaq and other early historians describe how Makkah’s status as a sanctuary contributed to its success. Because fighting was prohibited within the sacred precinct, the city functioned as a neutral zone where tribes could meet, trade, and negotiate safely.

In this way, religion and commerce became intertwined. The Ka’bah drew pilgrims, and pilgrims brought trade. This was the world into which Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born. He himself took part in these trade journeys, traveling north on behalf of Khadijah.

5. One prayer in the Haram equals 100,000 elsewhere

The Prophet ﷺ said that prayer in Masjid al-Haram is worth 100,000 prayers elsewhere. It is a number that is easy to hear, and difficult to truly grasp. A single prayer in Makkah is equal to nearly 55 years of prayer anywhere else. Over the course of Hajj, which lasts about six days, the prayers performed there are equal to more than 1,600 years of prayer.

SubhanAllah!

I made my first Umrah when I was 15 years old. I found Makkah beautiful and fascinating. I remember the crowds, the movement, the sense of something special in the air.

But I did not fully understand it.

At that time, I had not studied the seerah. I could look at the Ka’bah, but I could not see what had transpired there. I did not picture the Prophet ﷺ standing atop Safaa, inviting the people to Islam, and being mocked in response. I did not imagine him being attacked by Abu Jahl or Uqba bin Abi Mu’ayt. I did not picture a young Abdullah ibn Masud (ra) standing in front of the Ka’bah, defiantly reciting Surat Ar-Rahman, and the Quraysh nearly beating him to death for it. I did not see the triumphant moment, years later, when the Muslims returned in victory, and Bilal ibn Rabah (ra) climbed onto the Ka’bah to call the adhan, and the Prophet ﷺ forgave all who had harmed him.

And I did not understand what 100,000 prayers really meant.

When you are young, time feels endless. A number like 100,000 sounds impressive, but abstract. It does not carry weight.

When you are older, you begin to understand time differently. You realize how limited it is. You see how quickly days pass, how years slip by, and how little you are able to do within them. Only then do you begin to grasp what it means for a single prayer to carry the weight of a lifetime.

This is a tremendous expression of Allah’s mercy.

There is a reason why Allah describes Himself as Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim. His mercy is vast beyond what we can comprehend. A single act of worship, performed in the right place and with sincerity, can outweigh a lifetime of effort.

At the same time, this mercy is not limited to Makkah.

For those who have not had the opportunity to perform Hajj or Umrah, there is no reason for despair. Allah has opened many doors. The Prophet ﷺ taught that fasting Ramadan with faith and seeking reward is a means for all past sins to be forgiven. And Laylat al-Qadr is described in the Qur’an as “better than a thousand months” (Surat al-Qadr 97:3), which is more than eighty years of worship.

Visiting Makkah and praying in the Haram is one of the greatest of these opportunities. But it is not the only one. Allah’s mercy is not confined to a place. It is available to those who seek it, wherever they are, and no matter their spiritual state.

* * *

Reader comments and constructive criticism are important to me, so please comment!

See the Story Index for Wael Abdelgawad’s other stories on this website.

Wael Abdelgawad’s novels – including Pieces of a Dream, The Repeaters and Zaid Karim Private Investigator – are available in ebook and print form on his author page at Amazon.com.

 

Related:

You Are Perfectly Created

If Not You, Then Who?

The post 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Makkah and the Ka’bah [Part 1] appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Shadow justice secretary had called Trafalgar Square event an ‘act of domination’

James Cleverly has said he disagrees with his Conservative frontbench colleague Nick Timothy’s assertion that public Muslim prayers are an act of domination, as another senior Tory called for the party to respect the right to worship.

Kemi Badenoch has defended Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, after he posted images of mass prayer at a Ramadan event on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square, calling it “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.

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