Maqam Ibrahim
Definition
Maqam Ibrahim — the Station of Ibrahim — is the stone near the Kaaba that bears the literal footprints of the patriarch, preserved by divine will across four millennia as a sign for those who contemplate it. According to Ibn Kathir's narrations, as Ibrahim raised the walls of the Kaaba, he stood on this stone which softened to receive his feet, rising and descending as the walls were built. The stone was then hardened permanently, and the Quran commands pilgrims: 'Take the Station of Ibrahim as a place of prayer.' For Ibn Kathir, the maqam is not merely a historical artifact but a living testimony — the world's oldest physical trace of a specific human being, preserved specifically because of who that human being was.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Maqam Ibrahim.
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"full ablution and wudu and circumambulate the kaba for the visitation towaf intending it with your heart pray two rakahs behind the maqam ibrahim once finished you may perform the sahih between safa and marwa if you wish as the obligation of sahih was fulfilled during the arrival towaf after this everything that was prohibited during ahram becomes permissible and you return to the state of normalcy as before entering ahram then go to zamzam drink its water and say in the name of allah oh allah make it for us beneficial knowledge abundant provision quenching thirst satisfying hunger and a cure for every disease wash my heart with it and fill it"
— Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Al-Ghunya li-Ṭālibī Ṭarīq al-Ḥaqq — Volume One
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"customary for the first imam to pray to be the Shafi'i imam who is appointed by those in authority. His prayer spot is behind the noble maqam Ibrahim in a space reserved for him there, and most Meccans follow his madhab, school of thought. This space is a platform formed by two connected planks resembling a ladder, facing two similar planks set upon plastered legs. Across the top is another plank with iron hooks from which glass lamps are hung. After the Shafi'i imam, the Maliki imam prays in front of the Yemeni corner, and the Hanbali imam prays with him at the same time, facing the area between the black"
— Ibn Battuta, Volume One: From Tangier to the Lands of the East
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"They travel with drums, tambourines, and song, which is permissible. These are poems describing the Kaaba, the Station of Ibrahim, Zamzam, and other sacred sites, as well as the desert. The effect of this music arouses the longing to perform the pilgrimage to the House of Allah Almighty and ignites its fire if there is already a longing present, or stirs and brings about that yearning if it is not yet existent."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 18: The Book of Listening and Ecstasy
Appears in
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