Ka'bah

Prior to Muhammad claiming to receive revelations from Allah, the Ka'aba served as a popular pagan shrine that housed 360 idols and images of mostly pagan deities and attracted pilgrims and trade from many parts of Arabia. Particularly emphasized at this shrine during Muhammad's pre-Islamic years was the worship of the pagan Arab god Hubal, often symbolically affiliated with the crescent moon symbol.

Islamic scriptures teach that Abraham (Ibrahim) built the Ka'aba with Ishmael around the time he "binded" Ishmael (a legend inspired by, though slightly different from, the Binding of Isaac).

Qibla, or direction of prayer

Muslims worldwide face the Ka'aba in Mecca five times a day to preform their daily prayers (another of the Five Pillars of Islam). In this capacity, as the direction of prayer, the Ka'aba is referred to as the Qibla. While it is taught by orthodox Islam that the Qibla changed during Muhammad's lifetime from Jerusalem to the Ka'aba, some recent critical scholarship has suggested that early Muslims after Muhammad's death used to face the city of Petra for several decades. While critical research on the history of the Qibla has not yet proven entirely conclusive or achieved universal acceptance amongst scholars, these findings do cast a good deal of doubt on the orthodox belief in the finalization of the Qibla at the Ka'aba in Mecca during Muhammad's lifetime.

Hajj

Today, as with many Arabs during the pre-Islamic period, Muslims travel to the Ka'aba to perform the Hajj ceremony (which reflects in great detail the pilgrimage rituals of the pre-Islamic Arabs) at least once during their lifetime if they are financially and physically able.The Hajj is one of Islam's Five Pillars and has its rituals outlined in some detail in the Qur'an.

Black stone

Housed in the eastern corner of the Ka'aba's walls is the black stone, which is known to have been a sacred baetyl revered by the pre-Islamic Arabs. Islamic scriptures teach that the stone fell from heaven and was once completely white, only to be lost during Noah's flood and blackened by the sins of mankind. This stone is then said to have been provided back to Ibrahim by Gabriel as Ibrahim was constructing the Ka'aba

According to historians

Patricia Crone

The above view is outlined by Crone as a possibility among others (see also: Hubal).

Islamic scriptures state that the original Ka'aba built by Abraham was rather more rectangular than cubic, but that due to reconstruction the Ka'aba had lost its original dimensions. The story recorded suggests that the Ka'aba, when Muhammad was growing up, used to be rectangular in shape but that a natural disaster decimated the structure such that it had to be rebuilt. The Quraysh, revering this structure, are said to have lacked sufficient "clean money" (that is, money untainted by sinful business, such as gambling and prostitution), and thus were only able to rebuild the temple in the shape of a cube. It is thus suggested that the short, semi-circular wall opposite the Iraqi (northwestern) wall of the Ka'aba delineates the portion of earth which in fact, counts as a part of the Ka'aba itself, despite its falling beyond the Ka'aba's walls. Consequently, pilgrims circumambulating the Ka'aba are able to earn the blessing of having "entered it" without having to step inside.

The Ka'aba has been destroyed deliberately and by natural disasters and thus reconstructed several times over since the seventh century. [1]

Qur'an

The following verses describe the origins of the Ka'aba

Note that "Becca" here is said to refer to Mecca, although some critical scholars have suggested that the word is simply a typographical error or misspelling.

The following verse suggests that fighting should not take place around the Ka'aba unless it is instigated

The following verses describe the Qibla, or direction of prayer, as having shifted to the Ka'aba and further argue that the Jews and Christians (referred to in Islam as the People of the Book) of Muhammad's time knew of the Ka'aba (presumably as having Abrahamic rather than pagan origin) "like they knew their sons" (i.e. "like the back of their hands")

Note that "the inviolable place of worship" here is Pickthall's translation of Masjid al-Haram (one of the names of the Ka'aba) which can mean both the "Mosque of the sanctuary" as well as the "the sanctified mosque"

• KabahInfo.net
• Kaaba, a Hindu Temple?
• The Goddess
• Pagan origins of the Hajj
• Inside the Kaaba (cell phone video)
• Inside the Kaaba (3D animated film)
• Qarmatians (sect’s leader Ṭāhir Sulaymān, desecrated the Black Stone and Well of Zamzam with Muslim corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE)