Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:96
Indeed, the first House [of worship] established for mankind was that at Makkah - blessed and a guidance for the worlds.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The word concerning the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: إِنَّ أَوَّلَ بَيْتٍ وُضِعَ لِلنَّاسِ لَلَّذِي بِبَكَّةَ مُبَارَكًا وَهُدًى لِلْعَالَمِينَ (96)
(Indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka, blessed and a guidance for the worlds. (3:96))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation differed concerning its meaning.
Some of them said: its meaning is: indeed, the first House established for mankind in which Allah was worshipped, blessed and as a guidance for the worlds, is the one at Bakka. They said: it is not the first house that was established on earth, for before it there were already many houses.
* Mention of who said that:
7422 - Hannād ibn al-Sarī related to us, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of Khālid ibn ʿArʿara, who said: A man came to ʿAlī and said: will you not inform me about the House? Is it the first house that was established on earth? He said: no, but it is the first house in which the blessing was established, the standing-place of Ibrāhīm, and whoever enters it is safe.
7423 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Simāk, who said: I heard Khālid ibn ʿArʿara say: I heard ʿAlī, when it was said to him: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka" — is it the first house that was on earth? He said: no! He said: then where was the people of Nūḥ? And where was the people of Hūd? He said: but it is the first house that was established for mankind as blessed and as a guidance.
7424 - Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, who said: Ḥafṣ asked al-Ḥasan, while I was listening, about His statement: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka, blessed", he said: it is the first mosque (masjid) in which Allah was worshipped on earth.
7425 - ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Yaḥyā al-Ramlī related to us, saying: Ḍamra related to us, on the authority of Ibn Shawdhab, on the authority of Maṭar, concerning His statement: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka", he said: before it there were already houses, but it is the first house that was established for worship.
7426 - Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me, saying: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, saying: ʿAbbād related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning his statement: "indeed, the first House established for mankind", in which Allah is worshipped = "is the one at Bakka".
7427 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: al-Ḥimmānī related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka, blessed", he said: it was established for worship.
* * *
And others said: no, it is the first house that was established for mankind at all.
Then those who said that differed concerning the manner in which it was first established.
Some of them said: it was created before all the lands, and then the lands were spread out beneath it.
* Mention of who said that:
7428 - Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra al-Asadī related to us, saying: ʿUbaydallāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Shaybān informed us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Bukayr ibn al-Akhnas, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: Allah created the House two thousand years before the earth, and it was — when His Throne was upon the water — a white foam, and the earth was spread out beneath it.
7429 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī al-Shawārib related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād related to us, saying: Khuṣayf related to us, saying: I heard Mujāhid say: indeed, the first thing Allah created was the Kaʿba, then He spread out the earth beneath it.
7430 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the statement of Allah, Mighty and Exalted: "indeed, the first House established for mankind", like His statement: كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ [Surah Āl ʿImrān: 110] (You are the best community brought forth for mankind).
7431 - Muḥammad related to me, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka, blessed and a guidance for the worlds" — as for "the first House", that was on the day when the earth was water; it was a foam upon the water, and when Allah created the earth, He created the House with it, and so it is the first house that was established on earth.
7432 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: (indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka, blessed), he said: it is the first house that Allah, Mighty and Exalted, established, and Ādam and whoever came after him circled it.
* * *
And others said: the place of the Kaʿba is the place of the first house that Allah established on earth.
* Mention of who said that:
7433 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: it has been related to us that the House descended with Ādam when he descended. He said: My House descends with you, it shall be circled as My Throne is circled. So Ādam and the believers who came after him circled it, until the time of the flood arrived — the time in which Allah drowned the people of Nūḥ — and Allah raised it up and purified it from the punishment of the inhabitants of the earth befalling it, so that it was inhabited in heaven. Then Ibrāhīm afterward followed a trace of it and built it upon an ancient foundation that had been there before him.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view of the matter is what He, exalted is His praise, has said about it: indeed, the first blessed house and a guidance that was established for mankind is the one at Bakka. And its meaning is: "indeed, the first House established for mankind", that is to say: for the worship of Allah therein = "blessed and a guidance", by which He means: and as a refuge for the devotion of the devout and the circling of those who circle, in glorification of Allah and in honoring Him = "is the one at Bakka" = on account of the soundness of the report concerning it from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and that is what:
7434 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related it to us, saying: Ibn Abī ʿAdī related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Sulaymān, on the authority of Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū Dharr, who said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, which mosque was established first? He said: "the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Ḥarām)." He said: and then which? He said: the Farthest Mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqṣā). He said: how much time was there between the two? He said: forty years."
* * *
This report from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has thus made clear that the Sacred Mosque is the first house that Allah established on earth, in accordance with what we have said. As for the question of whether on its place there was a house, in a meaning other than that of a house for worship, guidance, and blessing, concerning that there is the disagreement which I have mentioned in part in this place, and in part in Surah Al-Baqarah and other surahs of the Qurʾān, and I have made clear the correct view of the matter according to us in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat it in this place.
* * *
As for His statement: "is the one at Bakka, blessed", by it He means: the House that is located in the place where people throng together in their circling during their ḥajj and their ʿumra.
* * *
The origin of "al-bakk" is thronging. One says of it: "so-and-so thronged so-and-so" (bakka) when he presses against him and jostles him — "he throngs him with a thronging, and they throng one another therein" — by which is meant: they press against one another and jostle one another therein. It is thus as though "Bakka" is a "faʿla" form from "so-and-so thronged so-and-so", that is to say: he pressed against him; the place was named after the action of those who throng together therein.
* * *
When "Bakka" is thus what we have described, and is the place of the thronging of the people around the House, and outside the mosque no circling is permitted = then it is known thereby that what lies around the Kaʿba is within the mosque, and that what lies outside the mosque is Mecca, not "Bakka". For outside the mosque there is no meaning that obliges the people to throng together therein. And since that is so, the falsity of the statement of whoever says that "Bakka" is the name of the interior of "Mecca", and that Mecca is the name of the sacred precinct (al-Ḥaram), is thereby made clear.
* * *
* Mention of who said concerning it what we have said: that "Bakka" is the place where people throng together for the circling:
7435 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Abū Mālik al-Ghifārī, concerning His statement: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka", he said: "Bakka" is the place of the House, and "Mecca" is all the rest.
7436 - Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, the same.
7437 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, who said: A woman passed in front of a man while he was praying and she was circling around the House, and he pushed her away. Abū Jaʿfar said: it is indeed Bakka, one part of it thronging against the other.
7438 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: it was only called "Bakka" because the people throng together therein, the men and the women.
7439 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ḥammād, on the authority of Saʿīd, who said: I said: why was it called "Bakka"? He said: because they throng together therein = he said: that is to say: they press together.
7440 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aswad ibn Qays, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn al-Zubayr, who said: it was only called "Bakka" because they come to it as pilgrims (ḥujjāj).
7441 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka, blessed", indeed, Allah has thronged together by it all the people, so that the women pray in front of the men, and this is permitted in no other land.
7442 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "Bakka", the people throng one another there, the men and the women, some of them praying in front of others; that is permitted only in Mecca.
7443 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya al-ʿAwfī, who said: "Bakka" is the place of the House, and "Mecca" is what lies around it.
7444 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Azhar informed me, on the authority of Ghālib ibn ʿUbaydallāh: that he asked Ibn Shihāb about "Bakka", he said: "Bakka" is the House and the mosque. And he asked him about "Mecca", whereupon Ibn Shihāb said: "Mecca" is the entire sacred precinct (al-Ḥaram).
7445 - Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj informed us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ and Mujāhid, both of whom said: "Bakka": there the men and the women throng together.
7446 - ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Yaḥyā al-Ramlī related to me. He said: Ḍamra ibn Rabīʿa said: "Bakka": the mosque, and "Mecca": the houses.
* * *
And some of them said that which:
7447 - Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related it to me, saying: Yazīd informed us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His statement: "indeed, the first House established for mankind is the one at Bakka", he said: it is Mecca.
* * *
And it was said: "blessed", because circling it brings forgiveness of sins.
* * *
As for the naṣb ending of His statement: "blessed" (mubārakan), that is on the basis of the exiting (al-khurūj) from His statement "was established" (wuḍiʿa), for in "was established" there is a reference to "the House" by which the [verb] is occupied, and that is a definite concept (maʿrifa), whereas "blessed" is an indefinite concept (nakira), which cannot follow it in its case-inflection.
* * *
As for the statement of whoever said: "it is the first house that was established for mankind", in accordance with what we have mentioned concerning it as the statement of the one whose word we have mentioned, then it is a naṣb on the basis of the circumstantial state (ḥāl) of His statement "the one at Bakka". For the meaning of the statement is, according to them: indeed, the first house that was established for mankind is the House [which is] at Bakka, blessed. So "the House" is, according to them, something of which "the one at Bakka" is an attribute, and "the one" with its relative clause is a definite concept, whereas "the blessed" is an indefinite concept, so it is a naṣb on the basis of the severance (al-qaṭʿ) thereof, according to the statement of some of them = and on the basis of the circumstantial state (ḥāl), according to the statement of some of them. And "a guidance" (hudan) stands in the position of naṣb on the basis of the conjunction (ʿaṭf) with His statement "blessed".
