Located in the city of Mecca, Masjid Al Haram (The Sacred Mosque, or Great Mosque of Mecca) surrounds the Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while offering daily prayers and is Islam’s holiest place.
The Sacred Mosque, can accommodate up to four million people, and surrounds the Ka’aba – a cuboid building that is the holiest place in Islam. The religious building at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s pilgrimage, it is the largest mosque in the world and includes vast outdoor and indoor spaces for prayer. It covers 400,800 square metres (99 acres), and has outdoor and indoor praying spaces.
The washing of the Kaaba is usually led by the governor of the Mecca region, who performs it on behalf of the king. Saudi monarchs draw their authority from their role as “Custodians of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina, making them central figures in the Muslim world.
The interior contains nothing but the three pillars supporting the roof and a number of suspended silver and gold lamps. During most of the year the Kaaba is covered with an enormous cloth of black brocade, the kiswah. The Kaaba surrounded by pilgrims during the hajj. The Holy Ka’bah is inextricably associated with the color black; that is, the black covering, or kiswah, of the Ka’bah, with its gold embroidery.
Yet, like many of the concepts in our collective consciousness, this idea masks many versions and hidden colors of the rich Islamic history. If we look back throughout this history, we find that the Ka’bah was not always clothed in black, as it is today a statement that could spark controversy, as this image has been firmly established in the visual perception of the place.
The kiswah came in an assortment of different colors that have since been erased from our collective memory and along with them, the nuances of a vast body of Islamic political, philosophical and social views. Reviving these colors should be an ongoing endeavor to maintain and build on the rich legacy of diversity within Islamic history.
The keys to the Kaaba was bestowed on Tasm, a tribe of ʿĀd before Quraysh. It passed to Khuza’a, then Qusai, who gave it to his son Abdul Dar, who handed it over to his son Othman. It shifted from one person to another until it rested with their nephew Shaiba. It is still inherited by their successors.
The Qur’an invokes the importance of Friday as a sacred day of worship in a chapter called “Al-Jumah,” meaning the day of congregation, which is also the word for Friday in Arabic. It states, “O you who believe! When you are called to congregational (Friday) prayer, hasten to the remembrance of God and leave off trade.
Jummah prayers at the Masjid Al Haram is one the greatest thing to experience. If you are there for Umrah, make sure you wake up for fajr on that Friday. Pray your fajr at masjid Al haram. Recite Surah Al Kahf. The whole surah, If not the first ten and the last ten Ayats of the surah al Kahf. Try to pray Friday Jummah prayers inside Masjid Al Haram. If possible, near the Kaaba. You have to leave for prayers around 10 in the morning. If you go late, the authorities will close its entrance or gates. You might have to pray outside the mosque.
Despite the availability of several other masjids in Makkah that too closer to the masjid Al haram. The Masjid Al haram gets a massive number of worshipers. Why? Because it’s the virtue of the Friday jummah prayers and virtue of praying salat in the Masjid al-Haram. The workers and shop owners of mecca live there for years. Even they take every opportunity to pray jummah inside the Masjid al-Haram. People come from different cities.
