An important incident occurred when Muhammad was at the age of 35 which exalted his already established repute…

The most important project of the year 605 AC was the restoration of the Kaaba. It had become worn out and extremely run down by all the rain and flood, causing wide cracks in its foundation. 

The Kaaba initially built by Abraham (pbuh) consisted of four walls at the height of an average man with no roof. 

To protect the precious items inside the Kaaba from any possible thievery the people of Quraish had intended to renovate and restore the Kaaba many times. Yet their hesitation to touch its holiness stopped them every time.

Inside this sacred space, near its entrance, there was a well beneath which the gifts given to the Kaaba were preserved. Narration has it that many years ago a young man from the Jurhum tribe let the devil get the better of him and glided into the Kaaba like a snake to reach this well… Yet the young man could not see the danger he was putting himself into. He abruptly fell over the well and paid the price of his deviousness with his life. 

According to another narration, after such incidents, Allah sent a dragon snake to guard the Kaaba. Its body was white, its head and tail were black, it had a large horrific head and whomever dared to touch the Kaaba it would immediately reach out and start hissing at them…

On sunny days the snake would meander up the walls of the Kaaba and from afar its reflection under the sun would look like blazing fire… If anybody inadvertently got a little too close to it would snarl and show its venomous teeth. Hence, nobody could get too close to the Kaaba, neither to steal from it nor to fix and renovate it…

Nevertheless, the flood always found its way in… Sometimes to the point of satiating the Kaaba with mud and stones…  On one occasion, a woman who was trying to light a fire lost control, the fire spread and the covers of the Kaaba took flame and then the doors flamed up leading to a complete disaster… 

At around the same time an intense storm took place and a ship that belonged to Bakom, a Roman engineer, was crushed to the shores of Jeddah… This ship was carrying soft white stone, wooden poles and iron, which were loaded at Egypt on orders of the Roman Empire to be taken to Habesh for the restoration of a church which was burnt down by the Moroccans.  

When the Meccans heard about the shipwreck, they sent a group of men from Quraish with Walid bin Mugair to Jeddah.  This group carried the load from the ship and the Roman engineer Bakom to Mecca and asked him to help them restore the Kaaba instead… 

Together the Meccans started collecting all the necessary tools and equipment for the restoration. Finally, all the preparations were complete and it was time to knock down the ruined walls of the Kaaba, however nobody was prepared to take the risk. How would they deal with the snake in the well? 

Miraculously, one day while the snake was sunbathing on the Kaaba wall suddenly a big bird flew over and snatched the snake away! 

The people of Quraish celebrated this with great joy…

Then Abu Wahb from the Sons of Mahzum took initiative. With an axe in his hand, he went to the Kaaba and shouted, “O great walls of the Kaaba, indeed your time is over, it is now time for new walls to be built!” and struck the wall with the axe. But alas, the stone that fell out of its place literally turned around in the air and fell back into its old position!

Everyone was in shock!

Upon this, Walid bin Mugiyra addressed the people:

“O people of Quraish! Those who are unclean among you and who make their living through illegitimate ways, let them stay away from this construction!”

Then he raised his hands to the heavens and prayed:

“O Rabb! We want to restore this building for your sake and pleasure. Please help us…”

After this, Walid began to take down the stones between the two corners of the Kaaba. The people of Quraish watched in apprehension. After Walid took down a few more stones he stopped, and everybody went home. The people of Quraish spent that night in fear and wonder… Was Walid going to be ok? Or was he going to be damned and punished by the divine?

The next day Walid woke up well and sound and continued to bring down the stones of the Kaaba… Relieved to see him well, others also started helping him out… This demolition continued until they reached the foundation… 

At the foundation there were large emerald stones that were intertwined… The people at the site were astonished when they saw this… One of them used his crowbar to try and separate these two green stones from one another but as soon as he did the whole of Mecca started to shake… This act had triggered an earthquake in Mecca!

The demolition was immediately ended. 

The Kaaba was going to be rebuilt on these stones again.

Ibn Ishaq narrates that someone from Quraish told him that a stone was found with Assyrian writings under the ruins in the Eastern corner of the Kaaba beneath the Hajar al-aswad (The Black Stone). 

Until a Jewish scholar came and read it nobody knew what it meant. According to the translation made by the Jewish scholar it wrote:

“I am Allah the owner of Becca (Mecca)! I created it on the day I gave form to the Sun and the Moon and brought into existence with the seven heavens! As long as the two mountains of Mecca continue to exist (according to Halabi these are Abu Qubays and Quaiqian mountains) no harm will afflict them. The water and milk of Mecca has been made sacred for the Meccans!”

Another engraved stone was found under the Station of Abraham which wrote:

 “The city of Mecca contains the House of Allah to which sustenance comes by means of three ways… It is not permissible for its people to touch even the first of these…”

 According to Ma’mar ibn Rashid, one of the first hadith scholars, Imam Zuhri narrated that while one side of the stone contained the writing narrated by Ibn Ishaq, on the other side of the stone there was another carving which wrote:

“I am Allah the owner of Becca! I created the womb! It has parted from my name… Whomever brings it together I too will unite them, and whomever breaks it off I too will break them!” 

On its third side it wrote:

“I am Allah the owner of Becca! I created the good and the bad! Happy are those whose hands do good and shame on those whose hands engage in bad!”