From the Book, Introduction to the Tafseer of the Quran, by the Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the eminent jurist and statesman, Sheikh Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah:
وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَاعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ رَبَّنَا وَاجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِنَا أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُوعَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
“When Ibrahim was raising up the foundations of the House, along with Ismail (supplicating): “Our Lord accept (this service) from us! Indeed, You – and You alone – are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing! Our Lord, make us both submissive to You, and (make) of our progeny as well, a people submissive to You and show us our ways of Pilgrimage and accept our repentance. Indeed, You – and You alone – are the Most-Relenting, the Very-Merciful. And, our Lord, raise in their midst a Messenger from among them, who should recite to them Your verses, and teach them the Book and the wisdom, and cleanse them of all impurities. Indeed You, and You alone, are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.””
(al-Baqarah: 127-129)
Allah سبحانه وتعالى clarifies in these verses the following:
- He سبحانه وتعالى reminds us that Ibrahim and Ismail (as) raised the foundations of the Sacred House (the Ka’bah) by the command of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. While they were building the House they were asking Allah to accept this deed of theirs as a deed exclusively done to achieve His pleasure.
وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ “When Ibrahim was raising”, that is, “Recall when Ibrahim was raising…”
الْقَوَاعِدَ “the foundations”: qawa’id is plural of qa’ida which is a base or foundation [asaas]. Like this usage is the saying of the Arabs in dua, “May Allah make your base strong [qa’adak]” which means may Allah give you long life and make you strong. Qa’ida is also used to refer to anything which is firm on the earth and a foundation for what is above it. “Raising the foundations” is a metaphor for building on the foundations, because in reality the foundations remain as they are; they do not rise. However, because the appearance of the foundations before they are built on is low, but when built on it is high. The raising is for the building, nor the foundations, that is, the relation of the metaphor here is one of causation.
تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا “Accept from us” is an indication to that Ibrahim and Ismail (as) were building a house for Allah, not for their own residence. It was a house for worship. This is because “accept” [taqabbal] is linked to the deed of seeking proximity [qurba] to Allah and is not used in other than this.
- As for the question of whether Ibrahim (as) was the first to build the Ka’bah or did someone else do it before him, there are multiple narrations about this. Perhaps the most sound of them is that Adam (as) was the first to build it as mentioned in the hadith of Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-Aas (ra):”إن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: «بعث الله – عز وجل – إلى آدم عليه السلام فقال له ولحواء: ابنيا لي بيتاً. فخط جبريل وجعل آدم يحفر وحواء تنقل التراب حتى إذا أصاب الماء نودي من تحته حسبُك آدم، فلما بنياه أوحى إليه أن يطوف به، فقيل له: أنت أول إنسان وهذا أول بيت» “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed to Adam and Hawwa: “Build for me a house.” So Jibreel (as) drew the lines and Adam began to dig while Hawwa would move the sand. When he hit the water, a voice called from below Adam, “That will suffice you, Adam”. When they finished building it, it was revealed to him to make tawaf of it. It was then said to him, “You are the first human and this is the first house.” (Tafsir al-Tabari: 1,547)
Ibrahim (as) then re-built it after it was damaged in the Flood after Allah سبحانه وتعالى informed him of its place in “a valley of no crops” and he built it again with Ismail (as).
Also, وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ “when Ibrahim was raising up the foundations of the House” implies that the place of these foundations were present and Ibrahim (as) built on them.
Further, His سبحانه وتعالى saying,
وَإِذْ بَوَّأْنَا لِإِبْرَاهِيمَ مَكَانَ الْبَيْتِ
“And (recall) when We pointed out for Ibrahim the place of the House”
(al-Hajj: 26)
also indicates that Allah سبحانه وتعالى informed Ibrahim (as) of the place of the House, which shows that its spot was present but neglected and unknown so Allah told Ibrahim (as) about it.
Hence, the preponderant view is that the House was built before Ibrahim (as) by Adam (as). Then, after the Flood at the time of Nuh (as), its location become unknown until Ibrahim’s (as) time when Allah informed him about it and commanded him and his son to build it.
- Allah سبحانه وتعالى informs us that as Ibrahim and Ismail (as) were building the House, they were asking Him to:
- accept their deed as one done sincerely for His sake, for He is the Hearer of supplication and the Knower of intentions.
- make them submissive to Allah, submitting to His command and to make from their progeny a people submissive to Allah as well.
- teach them the rites of pilgrimage for which they were building the House so that they would be the first to make tawaf of it and complete the rites
- accept their repentance, for He is oft-accepting of repentance, All-Merciful
- raise among the submissive people from their progeny a messenger from them who will teach them the Qur’an and Sunnah, purify them from shirk (polytheism), for He is the Mighty whom nothing can render incapable and the Wise who does everything with precision and He does what He wills.
وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِنَا “And (make) of our progeny”, the min (of) here is partitive. Ibrahim (as) did not supplicate for all his progeny because he knew from Allah that some of them would be oppressors – “My covenant does not extend to the oppressors.”
مَنَاسِكَنَا “our ways of Pilgrimage”, the rites of Hajj. So Allah سبحانه وتعالى showed them both these rites: tawaf of the House, sa’i between Safa and Marwa, moving from Arafat to Muzdalifa, then Mina, throwing stones, tawaf al-ifada, and all the rites.
The origin of ‘nasak’ is the height of worship but it become popularly used for Hajj. The singular of manasik is mansak and it is that which is worshipped by. The worshipper (abid) is also called nasik.
وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ “and raise in their midst a Messenger from among them”, that is, Muhammad ﷺ. He ﷺ would say, «أنا دعوة أبي إبراهيم وبشرى عيسى – عليه السلام -» “I am the supplication of my father Ibrahim and the glad tiding of Isa” (Hakim) pointing thereby to this verse and to His سبحانه وتعالى saying,
وَإِذْ قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ إِنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّـهِ إِلَيْكُم مُّصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَمُبَشِّرًا بِرَسُولٍ يَأْتِي مِن بَعْدِي اسْمُهُ أَحْمَدُ ۖ فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُم بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ قَالُوا هَـٰذَا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ
“Remember) when Isa, son of Maryam, said, ‘O children of Isra’il, I am a messenger of Allah sent towards you, confirming the Torah that is (sent down) before me, and giving you the good news of a messenger who will come after me, whose name will be Ahmad.’ But when he came to them with manifest signs, they said, ‘This is a clear magic.’”
(al-Saff: 6)