The Maqam of Ibrahim

The Maqam of Ibrahim is an ancient stone on which the Prophet Abraham stood when raising the foundations of the Kaaba in accordance with the Islamic faith. The protrusion of stones where the Prophet Ibrahim used to stand and build was cut on it. It is the stone from which he made the call to prayer and the call for Hajj among the people. On this stone is the footprint of the Prophet Ibrahim, after his feet sank into it. It is the stone that people recognize today as standing at the Kaaba, and behind it they pray. The two rak’ahs of circumambulation. Al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Ibn Abbas, who said: “So Abraham started building and Ishmael handed him the stones, saying, ‘And when Abraham raised the foundations of the House and Ishmael, ‘Our Lord, accept it from us. Indeed, You are the Hearer, the Knower.’” [Al-Baqarah: 127 ]

It is a square-shaped stone approximately half a meter long, with a color between white, black and yellow. It is currently covered with a glass facade with a copper covering on the outside and a marble floor. It is a soft stone of the type of water stone into which the feet of the Prophet Abraham sank and his footprints appeared in it, but as a result of people wiping in it. The features of the foot are blurred. Ibn Katheer said: “The traces of his feet were visible on it, and this was still known to the Arabs during the pre-Islamic era, and the Muslims realized that on it as well, as Anas bin Malik said: “I saw the shrine in which there were his fingers and the soles of his feet.” However, he lost his mind by wiping people with their hands. Ibn Jarir narrated on the authority of Qatada that he said: (And take the place of Abraham as a place of prayer.) They were only commanded to pray there, and they were not commanded to wipe it. This nation has undertaken something that nations before it have incurred. He mentioned to us someone who saw the mark of his heel and his fingers on it, and this nation continued to wipe it away until it was erased.”

Location
The people of interpretation disagreed about the location of Abraham’s place and what is meant by it, and they went to several opinions:

The first saying: It is the place of the stone on which the Prophet Abraham stood, and they mentioned two aspects of it:
“The first” is that it is the stone that Ishmael’s wife had placed under the foot of the Prophet Ibrahim when she washed his head. So the Prophet Ibrahim placed his foot on it while he was riding, so she washed one part of his head, then she lifted it from under him. His foot sank into the stone, so she placed it under the other leg, so his foot also sank into it, so God Almighty made him one of the His miracles, and this is the saying of Al-Hasan, Qatada, and Al-Rabi’ bin Anas.

“The second” is not narrated from Saeed bin Jabir on the authority of Ibn Abbas that the Prophet Abraham used to build the house and Ismail is making him the stones and say:﴿ And when Abraham raises Al -Qawadad from the house and the most hearing of our Lord, you will be the one. [Surat Al-Baqarah: 127] When the building was raised and Abraham, peace and blessings be upon him, was too weak to place stones, he stood on a stone, which is the place of the Prophet Abraham.

The second saying: The entire place of Abraham is the sanctuary (which is the saying of Mujahid).
The third saying: It is Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Al-Jamaar (which is Ata’s statement).
The fourth saying: The entire Hajj is the place of Abraham (this is the saying of Abdullah bin Abbas).
The investigators agreed that the first statement is the most correct, and this is indicated by several aspects:

What Jabir narrated is that when he – peace and blessings be upon him – finished the circumambulation, he came to the Maqam, and recited His words – the Most High -: “And take the place of Abraham as a place of prayer.” Reading this word at that place indicates that what is meant by this word is that place.
This name, according to custom, is specific to that place, and the evidence for it is that if a questioner asked a Meccan in Mecca about the place of Abraham, he would not answer him, and he would only understand this place.
What was narrated is that he – peace and blessings be upon him – passed by the shrine with Omar and said: O Messenger of God – peace and blessings be upon him – is this not the shrine of our father Abraham? He said: Yes, he said: Should we not make it a place of prayer? He said: I was not commanded to do so, and the sun did not set on their day until the verse was revealed.
The stone became under his feet in the wetness of the clay until the feet of the Prophet Abraham sank into it. This was one of Abraham’s miracles, and it was more appropriate than anyone else’s specification of it, so it was more appropriate to give him this name.
He – the Almighty – said: “And take the place of Abraham as a place of prayer,” and prayer has no relation to the sanctuary or to any other place except this place, so the place of Abraham must be this place.
The position of Abraham is the place of his standing, and it has been proven from the reports that he stood on this stone when he was bathing, and it has not been proven that he stood on any other place, so interpreting this word – I mean the position of the Prophet Ibrahim – on the stone would be more appropriate.
Abu Bakr Al-Qaffal said regarding the interpretation of Abraham’s place in the Hijr, according to the Almighty’s saying: “And take from the place of Abraham a place of prayer” on the metaphor of the man’s saying: I took from so-and-so a friend, and God gave me from so-and-so a good brother, and God gave me from you a compassionate guardian, but only (who) intervened. To explain what is being taken described and to distinguish it in that meaning from other meanings, and God knows best.”

the date
Ibrahim
“Ibrahim” (Abraham) in Islamic calligraphy
Family
Hagar, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac Lot
related
The religion of Abraham, Hanifiyya, the shrine of Abraham, Eid al-Adha, Hajj in Islam
Classification of Islam portal
I meant
The stone was what the Prophet Abraham stood on when the Kaaba was built. It was narrated on the authority of Saeed bin Jubair on the authority of Ibn Abbas – that when Abraham brought Ishmael and Hagar to their place in Mecca, and a period of time had passed, the Jurhamites came down to it, and Ishmael married a woman from them, and Hagar died, and Abraham asked Sarah for permission to Hagar came, so she gave him permission, and stipulated that he should not go down. So Abraham came to Mecca, and Hagar had died, so he went to Ismail’s house. Then he came after that, and Ismail was sharpening arrows under a meadow near Zamzam. When he saw him, he rose to him, and they did as a father does to a child, and a child does to a father. Then he said “O Ismail, God Almighty has commanded me to do something that you will help me with. He said: I will help you with it. He said: God has commanded me to build a house here. Then he raised the foundations of the house, and Ishmael started bringing stones, and Abraham built, and when the building was raised, he brought this stone.” So he placed it for him, and Abraham stood on the standing stone while he was building, and Ishmael handed him the stones, and they said: “Our Lord, accept it from us. Indeed, You are the Hearer, the Knower.”

The stone continued as it was in its place, adjacent to the Kaaba, until the time of the Messenger of God on the day of the conquest, when he moved it from its place when the verse “And take from the place of Abraham a place of prayer” was revealed to its current place so that the worshipers behind it would not hinder the circumambulators.

During the reign of Omar ibn al-Khattab, a severe torrent occurred, called (the torrent of Umm Nahshal), and it swept away the stone of the shrine from its place and carried it away. Omar, terrified, came from Medina and gathered the companions and asked them: “I appeal to you: Which of you knows the location of this shrine during the era of the Messenger of God?” Then a man stood up and said: O Omar, I have prepared for this matter. Therefore, I measured the distance that determines the location of the shrine in relation to what is around it. Indeed, Omar sent for the rope from the man’s house, made sure of the truth of his words, and returned the shrine to its place, and that was in Ramadan. In the year 17 AH, it remains in its position to this day.

The shrine was open without any barrier to protect it. During the turmoil, the Qarmatians who stole the Black Stone wanted to steal the shrine as well, but some of the servants hid it from them, and after that they began to think about protecting it, so two movable domes were made for it, one wooden and the other iron. Then after that, a coffin was made for the shrine to be placed in it, and the situation developed into building a shrine for it. Its back ends with a canopy connected to the maqsawra, under which people can pray the two rak’ahs of Tawaf. The maqsawra was first built in 810 AH, and was subsequently restored by the sultans and others until this shrine was removed during the reign of Faisal bin Abdulaziz and replaced with a crystal edifice and a copper cover.

the description

Worshipers passing by the Shrine of Abraham

A drawing showing the location of the Maqam Ibrahim.
It is a soft stone of the type of water stone in the shape of a cube whose width, length and height are 50 cm. In its middle is the footprint of the Prophet Ibrahim. It has two holes in the shape of a rectangular oval. Its color is between white, black and yellow. It is square in shape and about half a meter long. The caliphs rose in the Abbasid era. By covering it with gold and lead, until it was then covered with a glass cover whose shape is like a hemispherical dome, its weight is 1.750 kg, its height is 1.30 m, its diameter at the bottom is 40 cm, its thickness is 20 cm on all sides, its diameter from the outside at the bottom is 80 cm, and the circumference of its circle at the bottom. 2.51 m.

As for its description, Ahmed bin Omar bin Rustah, who died in the year 300 AH, that is, a thousand years ago, wrote in his book Al-Alaq Al-Nafisa, about the description of the shrine, saying:

“The arm of the Maqam is an arm, and the Maqam is square, with a width of fourteen fingers at the top, by fourteen fingers, and at the bottom the same as that. At its two ends, at the top and bottom, as previously mentioned, are two rings of gold, and what is between the two rings of the stone of the Maqam is protruding, with no gold on all of its sides. Nine fingers in width, by ten fingers in length, before this gold was placed on it that it is today, the work of the one who trusts in God, and the width of the Stone of Maqam on its sides is twenty-one fingers, its middle is square, and the feet are inserted into the stone seven fingers, and their entry is skewed, and between the feet Of the stone there are two fingers, the middle of which has tapered from being touched in the past, and the resting place is in a square teak basin, with lead around it, and on the basin are plates of smoothed lead.”
As for the modern era, Muhammad Taher bin Abdul Qadir al-Kurdi described it in his book called – Maqam Ibrahim:

“As for the size of the Noble Maqam, it resembles a cube, its height is twenty centimeters, the length of each of its three sides from the side of its surface is thirty-six centimetres, and the length of its fourth side is thirty-eight centimetres, so the amount of its circumference from the side of the hall is about one hundred and fifty centimetres, and it sank into this noble stone. The feet of the friend of God – the Almighty – our master Abraham, were greatly reduced to half the height of the stone. The depth of one foot was ten centimetres, and the depth of the second was nine centimetres. We did not see the traces of the toes at all, as they were erased due to the length of time, and people wiped their hands. As for the position of the heels, it is not clear except to those who Look closely and meditate. The edge of the feet that are covered with silver is wider than their belly, due to the frequent wiping of people with their hands. The length of each of the feet from the surface of the stone and silver is twenty-seven centimeters, and the width of each of them is fourteen centimetres. As for their measurement from the soles of the feet from the bottom of the silver coming into them, the length of each of them is two. Twenty centimetres, and the width of each of them is eleven centimetres, and between the feet there is a space that tapers to about one centimeter. This space has tapered from the effect of people wiping it with their hands to seek blessing. Likewise, the length and width of the feet have widened at the top, also because of the wiping, and even though it passed over a stone. The shrine is more than four thousand years old, and its features and the appearance of the feet are clear and unchanged.

Signed
The Maqam Ibrahim is currently located in front of the door of the Kaaba, 10-11 meters east of the Kaaba. In the part heading towards Safa and Marwa.

Improvements and renovations
In the Abbasid era
The Caliph Al-Mahdi is considered the Abbasid; The first person to adorn the shrine, when he feared it would crumble, was made of soft stone. So he sent a thousand dinars, and they lined the shrine with it from the bottom to the top. During the caliphate of al-Mutawakkil, it was increased to adorn it with gold, and that was placed above the first adornment. That was in the year 236 AH, and the adornment of the Mahdi did not disappear. On the maqam until it was removed from it in the year 256 AH in order to repair it, so it was renewed and poured on it until it strengthened, and gold and silver were added to its original ornament. The one who fastened it with his hand in this year was Bishr Al-Khadim during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutamid, and he carried the maqam after it had strengthened, and installed the ornament to its place and that. In the year 256 AH.

In the Saudi era
During the reign of King Saud bin Abdulaziz
In 1954, there was an idea proposed to move the Maqam Ibrahim from its place, and move it back until they cleared the path that had become narrow for the two pilgrims and was hindering the movement of circumambulation, and one day had been set for King Saud to move the shrine. At that time, Sheikh Al-Shaarawi was working as a professor at the College of Sharia in Mecca. He heard about this and considered this matter to be contrary to Sharia law. He began to take action and contacted some of the Saudi and Egyptian scholars in the mission, but they informed him that the matter had ended and that the new building had been erected, so he sent a five-page telegram to King Saud. In which he presented the issue from a jurisprudential and historical perspective, and said: “Those who used the Messenger’s actions as evidence are correct, because he is a Messenger and a legislator, and this is not an argument for us to rely on and move the position from the place in which the Messenger of God placed it,” because the Messenger has what no one else has, and he has the right to do something new other than The unprecedented.

The Sheikh also inferred in his argument the position of Omar ibn al-Khattab and that he did not change his position. After the telegram reached King Saud, he gathered scholars and asked them to study Al-Shaarawi’s telegram. They agreed to everything that was stated in the telegram, so the king issued a decision not to move the shrine, and the king ordered a study of Al-Shaarawi’s proposals to expand the mataf, as the sheikh suggested that the stone be placed in a small glass dome. The unbreakable, instead of the old shrine, which was a large building that restricted the sects.

During the era of Faisal bin Abdulaziz

A photo from outside the glass dome showing the shrine from the inside
On the 25th of Dhul-Hijjah 1384 AH, the Muslim World League ordered the removal of all the excesses around the shrine, and to keep the shrine in its place, provided that a thick, strong crystal box was placed over it as needed and at an appropriate height that would prevent the worshipers from stumbling and make it possible to see the shrine, and Faisal bin Abdul Aziz agreed. The King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued his order to implement this, so he made a cover for it of excellent crystal, surrounded this cover with an iron barrier, and made a marble base for it that was erected around the shrine, with an area not exceeding 180 by 130 centimeters and a height of 75 centimetres. This was done in Rajab 1387 AH; The curtain of the crystal cover was raised in an Islamic ceremony, and the area of ​​the mat expanded and the worshipers were able to perform the Tawaf rituals in comfort and ease, and the burden of crowding was greatly reduced.

During the era of Fahd bin Abdulaziz
In 1998 AD, during the reign of Fahd bin Abdulaziz, King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the cover of the shrine of the Prophet Ibrahim was renewed from copper covered with gold slices, crystals, and decorated glass, and a cover was placed of strong, beautiful crystal glass that is resistant to heat and breakage. As for the shape of the shrine now, it is: The dome is like a hemisphere. Its weight is 1.750 kg, its height is 1.30 m, its diameter at the bottom is 40 cm, its thickness is 20 cm on all sides, its diameter from the outside at the bottom is 80 cm, and the circumference of its circle at the bottom is 2.51 m.

His virtues
The Maqam Ibrahim has many virtues, as it is one of the gems of Paradise. Al-Hakim narrated on the authority of Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-Aas, who said: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “The pillar and the Maqam are two rubies from Paradise whose light God has obliterated, and had it not been for that, they would have illuminated what is between the East and the West.” And God Almighty mentioned His mention among His clear signs in Surat Al Imran by saying, “In it are clear signs, the standing place of Abraham.” Ibn Jarir explained it by saying, “The first house established for mankind, blessed and a guidance for the worlds, is the one in Mecca. It contains clear signs of God’s destiny and the traces of his friend Abraham, including the footprint of his friend, the Prophet Abraham – in the stone on which he stood.” Among his virtues is that the Prophet Abraham stood over it as God Almighty commanded him and gave people permission to perform the Hajj. In the Book of Mecca News, it was narrated on the authority of Ibn Abbas on the authority of the Messenger of God – may God bless him and grant him peace – that he said: “When Abraham, peace be upon him, finished building the house, God Almighty commanded him to call During the Hajj, he stood up and said: O people, your Lord has built a house, so perform the Hajj on it, and respond to God Almighty, and they answered him in the loins of men and the wombs of women: We have answered you, we have answered you, we have answered you, O God, we will meet you. He said: So everyone who performed Hajj today is among those who responded to Abraham. As much as he satisfied.”

A picture of the Kaaba showing the shrine of Abraham
God Almighty has commanded Muslims to take it as a place of prayer during Hajj and Umrah, in His saying, “And take the place of Abraham as a place of prayer.” Taking the place of Ibrahim as a place of prayer was in accordance with the words of Omar ibn al-Khattab. On the authority of Anas ibn Malik that Omar ibn al-Khattab said: “I agreed with my Lord in three things, so I said, O Messenger of God, if we had taken the place of Ibrahim as a place of prayer.” Then “In it are clear signs is the place of Abraham” and the verse of the veil was revealed. O Messenger of God, if you command your women to veil themselves, then the righteous and the immoral will speak to them. Then the verse of veiling was revealed: “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw down over them some of their jilbabs.” And the wives of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, gathered in Jealousy for him, so I said to them: Perhaps his Lord, if he divorces you, will replace him with wives better than you, so it was revealed: “Perhaps his Lord, if he divorces you, will give him wives better than you.”

It was enacted on the authority of the Prophet Muhammad to pray two rak’ahs behind the Maqam after completing the circumambulation, according to the Almighty’s words: “And take from the Maqam Ibrahim a place of prayer” (Al-Baqarah: 125). And in what is agreed upon, on the authority of Abdullah bin Omar, he said: (The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, came and circumambulated the House seven times and prayed two rak’ahs behind the Maqam. In the hadith of Jabir regarding the description of his Hajj, peace and blessings of God be upon him, he said: (Then he approached the Maqam Ibrahim and recited the verse, so he placed the Maqam between him and the House) (Narrated by Muslim). It is prescribed to recite in the two rak’ahs with Al-Fatihah, in the first rak’ah, Surat Al-Kafirun, and in the second, Surat Al-Ikhlas, as stated in the aforementioned hadith of Jabir: (That he, peace and blessings of God be upon him, recite in the two rak’ahs, “Say, ‘He is Allah, One,’ and ‘Say, ‘O you disbelievers.’” (Narrated by Muslim).