بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم
The Kaaba (Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة, lit. ’The Cube’) sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah (Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit. ’Honored Ka’bah’), is a building at the centre of Islam’s most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the most sacred site in Islam. It is considered by Muslims to be the Bayt Allah (Arabic: بَيْت ٱللَّٰه, lit. ’House of God’) and is the qibla (Arabic: قِبْلَة, the direction of prayer) for Muslims around the world when performing salah.
In early Islam, Muslims faced the general direction of Jerusalem as the qibla in their prayers before changing the direction to face the Kaaba due to an Al-Quran verse revelation to Muhammad s.a.w.
The Kaaba was rebuilt several times throughout history, most famously by Ibrahim a.s. (Abraham) and his son Ismail a.s. (Ishmael), when he returned to the valley of Mecca several years after leaving his wife Hajar (Hagar) and Ismail a.s. thereupon Allah s.w.t’s command. Circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf (Arabic: طواف), is a Fard (obligatory) rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The area around the Kaaba on which pilgrims circumambulate is called the Mataaf.