The Family of ‘Imrân

Surah: 3

Ayat: 96

Verse:

Lo! the first Sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Becca, a blessed place, a guidance to the peoples;

Tafseer:

When they said ‘Our direction of prayer qibla came before yours’ the following was revealed The first house for worship established for the people on earth was that at Bakka a variant of Makka Mecca so called because it ‘crushes’ tabukku the necks of tyrants; it was built by the angels before the creation of Adam and after it the Aqsā in Jerusalem was built a period of forty years separating them as reported in the hadīth of the two Sahīhs sc. of al-Bukhārī and Muslim and in the hadīth that states ‘The first thing to appear on the surface of the water at the creation of the heavens and the earth was a white foam underneath which the earth was unrolled’; a blessed place mubārakan a circumstantial qualifier referring to la’lladhī ‘that’ meaning a place of blessings and a guidance to all worlds because it is their qibla.