The honourable Ka’bah is the House of Allah on earth, and the direction (Qiblah) of the Muslims in their prayers, which Allah, Exalted be He, has glorified its status by making it a destination for pilgrimage and the place to which hearts [of all believers] incline. In this hadeeth ‘Aaishah raa relates that the Prophet ﷺexplained to her that Quraysh did not build the Ka’bah on all of the foundations that Prophet Ibraheem (peace be upon him) constructed, for they excluded the Hijr! This was due to the lack of lawful funds that they managed to collect, since they stipulated that the money used to build the Ka’bah must be from the most lawful money, and that no money earned from unlawful resources to be used. In response, ‘Aaishah raa asked the Prophet ﷺ: “Would you not restore it to the foundations of Prophet Ibraaheem (peace be upon him)?” She intended thereby that he ﷺdemolishes the current building upon which the foundations are built and then re-builds it in a structure that accommodates all the foundations. However, the Prophet ﷺtold her that had it not been for the closest time of Quraysh to disbelief (i.e., had not the people of Quraysh been new to Islam), he ﷺwould have restored it to the foundations of Prophet Ibraaheem (peace be upon him), and he ﷺwould have built it anew on all its foundations. The description of the construction of Ibraaheem (peace be upon him) of the House was that it was curved around the two corners of al-Rukn ash-Shaamee and al-Rukn al-‘Iraaqee; thus, the Hijr of Ismaa’eel was a part of it, and it had two corners, which are the two Yamaanee corners. But when Quraysh built it in the pre-Islamic era, they made four corners for it, and placed the Hijr of Ismaa’eel behind it, as they wanted to perfectly complete the circumambulation of the Ka’bah, and it is in the form of a semi-circle adjoining the two corners, al-Rukn al-Shaamee and al-Rukn al-‘Iraaqee. Hence, al-Hijr is part of the Ka’bah. ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar ra commented on this hadeeth by saying: “If ‘Aaishah (raa) heard this from the Prophet ﷺ.” This is neither intended to doubt her statement nor to weaken her report, for she is after all a mastered memoriser. However, doubt-based statements have normally occurred within the speech of the Arabs for the purpose of confirmation i.e., he (ra) wanted to acknowledge her statement. Then, he (ra) goes on to say that this explains the reason the Messenger of Allah ﷺrefrained from kissing or touching the two corners to derive blessing from them, which are adjacent to the Hijr, and are called al-Rukn al-Shaamee and al-Rukn al-‘Iraaqee. He ﷺonly did it with the other two corners i.e., al-Rukn al-Yamaanee and al-Rukn al-Shaamee. From the benefits that we can conclude from this hadeeth is that it serves as evidence for perpetrating the lesser of two evils to repel the greater of them. This is because the harm done from making no changes to the construction of the Ka’bah is lesser than the dissension that may be caused by this and having some Muslims turning away from Islam. This hadeeth shows that it is permissible to deal tactfully with people in matters of religion - other than the obligatory acts - by leaving and removing from the people that which they deny (i.e., things they view as the norm and not aware of its opposite). It defines that which can be touched and kissed from the Ka’bah, namely the Black Stone and the Yamaanee Corner, and not others..