Before Islam, the Quraysh knew the Ka’bah was special, but they misused the holy site in pursuit of idolatry. As a result, the Prophet ﷺ avoided the Ka’bah in his early years, wishing to stay away from shirk and obscenity. But that would change once he received revelation. As he learned about what the Ka’bah truly stood for—a symbol of monotheism in a lost world—he began to spend more time there to establish the rituals of Hajj.
