Marriage and Family of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ:
Khadijah and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ were married for twenty five years and they never encountered any problems together.
They had six children. Two sons, Al-Qasim and Abdullah, and four daughters, Ruqayya, Zainab, Ul Kussum and Fatima.
When Khadijah passed away, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s wife Aisha said: Ya Rasulullah, why do you constantly remember this old woman but Allah SWT has replaced her with somebody better than her.
When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ heard this, his face changed and he said: I swear by Allah, Allah did not replace her with someone better than her. She believed in me when people didn’t. She believed in my truthfulness, when people were calling me a liar. She supported me with her wealth, and Allah SWT gave me children with her.
Rebuilding of the Kabah:
When the Prophet ﷺ was thirty years old, the Quraysh decided to rebuild the Kabah because it was damaged.
They asked people to donate but they told the people who had ‘dirty’ money (from prostitution and interest) to not donate as they wanted the money to be pure because of how honourable the Kabah is.
The Quraysh then realised they only had a small amount of donations. Because of this, they had two options. Either to collect dirty money or to use the little amount of donation they had but make a smaller version of the Kabah.
They decided to use the little amount of the pure money they collected and build a smaller version of the Kabah.
To build this, they first had to completely destroy the Kabah. The Quraysh all held their axes but they were reluctant to start breaking down the Kabah.
This was because, the members of the Quraysh remembered what happened thirty five years prior when Abraha tried to destroy the Kabah.
The leader of the Quraysh, Al-Walid told his people: Abraha’s intention was to actually destroy the Kabah. But our intention is not to destroy the Kabah, we want to rebuild it and make it strong.
The Quraysh instructed Al-Walid to be the first person to hit the Kabah with his axe. Before he started, Al-Walid said: Ya Allah, you know we don’t want to damage the Kabah, our intention is good and we want to make it stronger.
Al-Walid then hit the Kabah with his axe and started to break the Kabah and it started to crumble.
He told the people of the Quraysh to join in, but they were still hesitant and told Al-Walid: First we are going to see what will happen to you.
Al-Walid was the only one to break the Kabah down on the first day.
The next day, the Quraysh saw nothing happen to Al-Walid and they all started to break down the Kabah.
Discovery of Prophet Ibrahim’s Foundation:
The Quraysh then started digging around the Kabah until they saw some green stones.
These green stones were the foundation of Prophet Ibrahim (AS) when he built the Kabah.
They began to dig further than the green stones and they saw a blinding light. When one of the Quraysh saw this, he dropped his axe and the stone fell back in its place.
The Quraysh decided to keep the same foundation of Prophet Ibrahim (AS) and rebuild from the green stones.
Alterations to the Kabah:
The original Kabah had three sides with straight walls, but one had a curved wall.
The Quraysh realised they wouldn’t be able to replicate the same Kabah.
Due to this, the last wall (that was circular) was closed off and they made it a straight wall. They put an arch on that wall so people would know that this was the original structure.
Another change they made was the door of the Kabah. Originally, they had two doors and the people used to go in the Kabah through one door and go out the other. For this version, the Quraysh decided against making a second door.
As well as this, they elevated the door from the ground level. This was because, they wanted to control who goes into the Kabah.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said to Aisha after the conquest of Makkah: If it wasn’t for your people (the Quraysh) being new to Islam, I would have rebuilt the Kabah again the way it was originally (The way Ibrahim (AS) built it).
Placement of the Black Stone:
There was one last step that was needed for its completion, putting the black stone back into its place.
The tribes argued over who would put the black stone in its rightful place.
After witnessing this dispute, one wise old man called Abu Umayyah decided to appoint someone for this role.
The tribes all agreed that the first person to walk through the gate of Bani Shaiba would be the one to have the honourable responsibility of placing the black stone.
Eventually, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ walked through the gate and everybody was happy that he was the person chosen.
The Prophet then put the stone on the cloth and told the leaders of the different tribes to hold a piece of the cloth.
Each leader held a piece of the cloth and they walked towards the corner and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with his hands, took the stone and put it in its place.