Al-Bukhārī also related—quoting Muḥammad ibn Bakr who said: Ibn Jurayj informed us, ‘Amr ibn Dīnār told me, on the authority of Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ—that he remarked: “And who would deliberately avoid any part of the House?” Muʿāwiyah used to touch all four corners, whereupon Ibn ʿAbbās said to him, “These two corners are not meant to be touched!” Muʿāwiyah replied, “No part of the House should be left neglected.” Ibn al-Zubayr likewise touched every corner. Al-Bukhārī alone recorded this report, may Allah have mercy on him.

Muslim said in his Ṣaḥīḥ: Abū al-Ṭāhir narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me that Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah reported to him, and Abū al-Ṭufayl al-Bakrī reported to him, that he heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: “I never saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ touch anything except the two Yemeni corners.” Muslim transmitted this ḥadīth alone.

Thus the report from Ibn ʿUmar agrees with what Ibn ʿAbbās stated: the two Syrian corners are not to be touched, because they were not built upon Abraham’s foundations. When Quraysh rebuilt the House they lacked sufficient funds, so they excluded the Ḥijr from the structure, as explained earlier. The Prophet ﷺ wished he could rebuild it and complete it upon Abraham’s foundations, but he feared that, since the people had only recently emerged from the Age of Ignorance, their hearts might disapprove. Later, during the rule of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, he demolished the Kaʿbah and rebuilt it exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had indicated, following the report of his aunt, the Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾishah bint al-Ṣiddīq. If, after reconstructing it on Abraham’s foundations, Ibn al-Zubayr touched all the corners, then that is exceedingly proper—and, by Allah, that is indeed what we assume of him.

Abū Dāwūd said: Musaddad narrated to us; Yaḥyā narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never failed to touch the Yemeni Corner and the Black Stone in every circumambulation.”