…the Exalted says, “And We charged Abraham and Ishmael: Purify My House for those who circumambulate it, stay in devotion, and bow and prostrate” (Surah al-Baqarah, 125). Hence Mecca must be cleansed of everything that contravenes Islam, so that the faith and its call may issue from there to the earth’s east and west. Allah sent His Prophet from that city and made it the starting-point of the mission. The Prophet ﷺ spent thirteen years in Mecca, ten of which were devoted solely to preaching monotheism and forbidding polytheism; during that period he was not yet commanded to institute prayer, alms-giving, fasting, or pilgrimage. His summons was confined to warning against shirk and enjoining tawhid; he would say, “Say: There is no god but Allah and you will prosper,” while the Meccans retorted, “Has he made all the gods into one God? This is indeed something astonishing” (Surah Sad, 5). (61) Concerning his phrase, “and after ten years he was taken up to heaven”: the Prophet ﷺ continued for ten full years laying this foundation—denouncing shirk and calling to tawhid—until, in the eleventh year, he was carried by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, as Allah says: “Glory be to Him who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque…” (Surah al-Isra, 1), while he ﷺ was asleep in the house…