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Kaaba
The sacred edifice at Makkah, which contains the venerated ‘black stone’, and is the ‘Holy of Holies’ of Islam.
Term Variants: Kaaba, Kaabah, Kaba
How this term should be used
It is important to note that the Kaaba is not an object of worship. Muslims refer to it as ‘the House of God’ due to the fact that God commanded Abraham and his son Ishmael to build it, but Muslims do not believe that God inhabits the structure in any way.
Muslims do not pray to the Kaaba, but towards it. It provides a point of reference for the direction Muslims face in prayer
The holiest site in Islam, the Kaaba is considered by Muslims to be the symbolic House of God. Surrounded by the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, (present day Saudi Arabia), it is a large cube-shaped building covered with embroidered cloth. Muslims believe that God instructed Ibrahim and Ismail to build the Kaaba, although some say the foundations were already present and had been built by Adam. Muslims face the direction of it during prayer (see qiblah). It is also the focal point of the Hajj where pilgrims circumambulate it seven times in a counter clockwise direction and try to kiss the black stone inserted on its eastern corner.