The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 231
PT. 17 R. 4. AL-HAJJ CH. 22 when We assigned to Abraham وَإِذْ بَوَّانَا لِإِبْرهِيمَ مَن بين And remember the time. 27 مَكَانَ الْبَيْتِ لا تُشْرِكْ بِي شَيْئًا وَ طَهْر بَيْتِيَ لِلطَّائِفِينَ ,the site of the House and said وَالْقَاهِمِينَ وَالرُّكَّعِ السُّجُودِ 'Associate not anything with Me and "keep My House clean for those who perform the circuits, and those who stand up and those who bow down and fall prostrate in Prayer; 2458 "2:126. ini. e. the Frequented House (52:5) and as Ji. e. the First House (3:97). All these different appellations point to the eminence of the Ka'bah as being the greatest centre of worship for mankind. Hijrah, the Holy Prophet, fulfilment of a vision, left Medina with 1400 Companions to pay a visit to Mecca and perform 'Umrah or the Lesser Pilgrimage. When he reached a place called Hudaibiyyah, he was prevented by the Meccans from proceeding further. He returned to Medina after having signed a truce known as the Truce of Hudaibiyyah. This Truce, known after the name of the place at which it was signed, led to the conquest of Mecca and eventually of the whole of Arabia. The verse also points to the Islamic principle of the equality of status of all men in a place of worship and by implication to the inherent equality of all human beings. 2458. Commentary: The Ka'bah is variously mentioned in the Quran asi. e. My House (2:126 & 22:27), asi. e. the Sacred House (14:38), as i. e. the Sacred Mosque (2:151), as i. e. the House (2:128, 159; 3:98; 8:36; 22:27), as i. e. the Ancient House (22:30, 34), as The words "We assigned to Abraham the site of the House" show that the site of the Ka'bah had existed before Abraham's time. In fact the Ka'bah was built by Adam and as it appears from 3:97, it was the first House of worship built in the world. By the time of Abraham it had fallen into ruins and its site having been disclosed to him by revelation he and his son Ishmael, the Holy Prophet's great progenitor, rebuilt it. The words "keep My House clean" embodied both a commandment and a prophecy. The commandment was that the Ka'bah was not to be polluted with idol worship as it had been built for the worship of the One True God and the prophecy lay in the fact that this commandment would be defied and the House of God would become the house of idols but would eventually be completely cleared of 2145