…to its former state. Others, however, considered Ibn al-Zubayr’s reconstruction sound, and it is said that al-Shafiʿi inclined toward this view.

When Ibn al-Zubayr was killed, al-Hajjaj wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan to inform him of what Ibn al-Zubayr had done, reporting that they had uncovered Abraham’s original foundations and that Ibn al-Zubayr had shown these to the people of Mecca. ʿAbd al-Malik replied, ordering him to restore the Kaʿba to its former design, except for the extra height, which he was not to alter. He added that he knew of no sound basis for Ibn al-Zubayr’s alterations.

Later, when someone related to ʿAbd al-Malik the report of ʿAʾisha, he said, “I wish I had left Ibn al-Zubayr to carry out what he had undertaken.”

The point is that, praise be to Allah, no Muslim ever intended the Kaʿba any harm—neither al-Hajjaj nor anyone else. It was only much later that the Qarmatians of Bahrain seized the Black Stone and kept it for a time; Allah then exacted vengeance upon them, and exemplary punishments befell them.

Thus these astronomers were left bewildered by the Kaʿba, for Allah has endowed it with majesty, awe, and reverence, coupled with love: people from East and West journey to it with affection, longing, and humble submission, enduring hardships far greater than those of ordinary travel—hunger, thirst, fear, and fatigue—despite the fact that Mecca has no orchards, rivers, or other worldly attractions that normally entice the soul. This perplexity even drove some of them to claim that beneath it lies a cavern containing talismans directed toward every quarter.