Hadith record

4. Ali ibn Ibrahim and others have narrated through various chains of narrators have narrated in a marfu‘ manner the following: “They have said that Quraysh had demolished al-Ka‘bah because of flood that would come from the upper part of Makkah and enter al-Ka‘bah. Damages would take place and a deer made of gold with its legs made of diamond was stolen. The walls were not high enough. This happened thirty years before Allah commanded His prophet, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause, to rise. Quraysh wanted to demolish al-Ka‘bah to rebuild and increase the size of its floor, but they were afraid of the coming of misfortune upon them because of using spades and shovels to dig. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah said, ‘Allow me to try. If Allah is happy I will not be hurt; otherwise we will stop the work.’ He climbed on al-Ka‘bah and moved a stone there, a serpent came upon him, and the sun became dark. When they saw this, they cried and pleaded, saying, ‘O Lord, we only want to repair.’ The serpent disappeared; they demolished and removed the stones until they could see the foundations that Ibrahim had set. When they wanted to increase the size of its floor and moved the foundations that Ibrahim had put in place, a severe earthquake took place with darkness. They then gave up on the idea of increasing its floor. The length of the foundation that Ibrahim had set was thirty yards, its width twenty-two yards and its height nine yards. Quraysh wanted to increase its height. When the walls reached up to the Black Stone, they disagreed about setting it in place. Each tribe said that it had the right to set it in place. When the disagreement increased, they then decided to settle their disagreement by the first person entering through the door of banu Shaybah. The Messenger of Allah appeared to them through that door and they said, ‘This is al-Amin (most trusted person) coming to you.’ They asked him to decide the case; he then spread his gown, and someone said, ‘It is a Taruniy’ (name of a particular fabric). He placed the Black Stone on it and said, ‘One person from each Rab‘ (block of city) should come forward.’ The people who came forward were, ‘Utbah ibn Rabi‘ah ibn ‘Abd al- Shams, al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib from banu Asad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Uzza’, abu Hudhayfah ibn al-Mughirah from banu Makhzum and Qays ibn ‘Adiy from banu Sahm. They lifted up the Black Stone and the Holy Prophet set it in its place. On the other hand, the king of Rome had sent a ship with building material and builders to Ethiopia to built a temple for him there. The wind had blown the ship to the shore where it had run aground. Quraysh learned about it. They went to the shore and found certain materials useful for al-Ka‘bah, like wood, decorative materials and other things. They bought them and brought them to Makkah. The length of the wood was of the same measure as needed except al-Hijr. When they built it, they covered it with al-Wasa’id (a certain kind of fabric) which were in gowns.”

Translation: Muhammad Sarwar — attributed by Thaqalayn·The Arabic above is the original.