"It is also necessary that every true believer acknowledge the excellency of the companions [of Mahomet] and their degrees; and that the most excellent of men, next to Mahomet, is Abu-Bekr, then Omar, then Othman, and then Ali. Moreover, he must entertain a good opinion of all the companions, and celebrate their memories, according as God and his apostles hath celebrated them. And all these things are received by tradition, and evinced by evident tokens; and he that confesseth all these things, and surely believeth them, is to be reckoned among the number of those that embrace truth, and of the congregation of those that walk in the received way, separated from the congregation of those that err, and the company of heretics.
"These are the things that everyone is obliged to believe and confess that would be accounted worthy of the name of a Mussulman; and that, according to the literal meaning of the words, not as they may be made capable of any sounder sense; for, says the author of this exposition, some pretending to go deeper have put an interpretation upon those things that are delivered concerning the world to come, such as the balance, and the way, and some other things besides, but it is heresy."
[49] This famous structure (in the Arabic, _Kef'bah_--a square building) for over twelve hundred years has been the cynosure of the Moslem peoples. It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, being mentioned by Diodorus the historian in the latter part of the first century, at which time its sanctity was acknowledged and its idols venerated by the Arabians and kindred tribes who paid yearly visits to the shrine to offer their devotions.
According to the Arabian legend Adam, after his expulsion from the Garden, worshipped Allah on this spot. A tent was then sent down from heaven, but Seth substituted a hut for the tent. After the Flood, Abraham and Ishmael rebuilt the Kaaba.
At present it is a cube-shaped, flat-roofed building of stone in the Great Mosque at Mecca. In its southeast corner next to the silver door is the famous black stone "_hajar al aswud_," dropped from paradise. It was said to have been originally a white stone (by other accounts a ruby), but the tears--or more probably the kisses--of pilgrims have turned it quite black.