The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 106
Seal of the Prophets - Volume I 106 necessary to pass around this portion as well. Once, the Holy Prophet sa said to Ḥaḍrat ‘ Ā’ishah ra : “The Ḥaṭīm is a part of the Ka‘bah and the Quraish left it out due to a lack of funds. They elevated the door of the Ka‘bah so that they could allow access to whoever they please and deny access to whoever they please. O ‘Ā’ishah, had your nation not recently accepted Islām and had I not been troubled by the wavering of their faith, I would have demolished the structure built by them and would have rebuilt the entire structure upon the original foundations laid by Abraham. I would have included the Ḥaṭīm within it, and would have lowered its door, and I would have built another door to the opposite side of this door. ” 1 Therefore, in 64 A. H. , when due to some reason, the structure of the Ka‘bah was damaged, ‘ Abdullāh bin Zubair, who was the governor of Makkah at the time, fulfilled this desire of the Holy Prophet sa and he built only three pillars within the Ka‘bah instead of six pillars. However, when ‘Abdul-Mālik gained control of Makkah, perhaps with the intention that if the Holy Prophet sa did not perform this alteration, no one else possesses the right to do so either, ordered Ḥajjāj bin Yūsuf to demolish the building erected by ‘ Abdullāh bin Zubair and reconstruct it upon the pattern, as was during the time of the Holy Prophet sa. Thus, Ḥajjāj did as he was instructed but the modification of the three pillars remained unaltered. 2 Kiswat-e-Ka‘bah 3 Initially there was no covering on the Ka‘bah, but later a king of Yemen named Tubba‘ Asad saw in a dream that he was covering the Ka‘bah with a 1 Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, Kitābul-Ḥajj, Bābu Faḍli Makkata wa Bunyānihā, Ḥadīth No. 1583 2 * Akhbāru Makkah, By Abul-Walīd Muḥammad bin ‘Abdul-Karīm Azraqī , Bābu Mā Jā’a fī Binā’- ibniz-Zubairil-Ka‘bata, Volume 1, p. 206, Maṭābi‘u Dārith-Thaqāfah, Makkah (1978) * Tārīkhuṭ-Ṭabarī, By Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad bin Al-Jarīr Ṭabarī, Sanatu Khamsin wa Sittīn, Dhikru Khabri Binā’i ‘Abdillah bin Az-Zubair, Volume 7, p. 78, Dārul-Fikr, Beirut, Lebanon, Second Edition (2002) * Al -Kāmilu fit-Tārīkh, By Imām ‘Izz-ud-Din ibnil-Athīr, Volume 3, p. 286, Thumma Dakhalat Sanata Khamsin wa Sittīn, Dhikru Binā’-ibniz-Zubairil-Ka‘bata, Dārul-Kutubil-‘Arabī, Beirut, First Edition (1997) * Tārīkul-Khamīs, By Ḥusain bin Muḥammad bin Ḥasan Dayār Bakrī, Volume 1, p. 115, Baqiyyatu Akhbāri Binā’il-Ka‘bah , Muwassasatu Sha‘bān, Beirut 3 The Drape of the Ka‘bah (Publishers)