Turns out the Kaaba was destroyed multiple times, and I mean completely destroyed, not just damaged and repaired. For example in 693 'Abd al-Malik completely destroyed the building and then rebuilt it. Another example is when the building completely collapsed in 1626 and was rebuilt by the Ottomans
Learning this was very interesting because my understanding about the Kaaba is that the building itself is sacred and not anything inside (it's empty after all). And the reason the building is sacred is because it's believed that Abraham built it
But now it is clear that even if Abraham built a temple there, the Kaaba is not that temple
This makes me wonder how does the fact this temple was destroyed and rebuilt so many times fit into how muslims understand their religion. What makes the current Kaaba sacred if it's not the same building Muhammed talked about?
Another interesting angle to all this is that the black stone used to be much larger. It has broken many times and while people try to keep it together early mentions of it describe it being more than a meter tall, while today you could hold it in your hand
If you could find all the fragments that have been lost over the years they would be bigger than the black stone in the Kaaba currently is
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from Islam https://ift.tt/2Ux3uAc
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