Sometimes they express a view that taking birth inside the...

Sometimes they express a view that taking birth inside the Ka`bah is not of any importance, particularly when it was used as a place for installation of idols. The reply to them is that if a mosque is converted into a temple, a church or any other place of worship, it will remain a mosque. Its sanctity will not diminish because of the change. Similarly, if idols were installed in the Ka`bah, its sanctity remained unchanged.

Even when Ka`bah was declared as the Kiblah[3] it continued to have the idols until Makkah was conquered and the idols removed from there. Sometimes they say that Fakhitah bint Zuhayr gave birth to Hakim ibn Hizam inside the Ka`bah thirteen years before the `am al-fil. They say that there is no sanctity of being born inside the Ka`bah when even an infidel was born there.

This attitude is contrary to the position taken by the historians and biographers who have admitted in clear terms that besides `Ali (a.s), no one else was born inside the Ka`bah prior to or after him. Besides this, it can be sanctimonious only for a Muslim to have taken birth inside that holy precinct. For an infidel, it is immaterial where he is born!

The event of an infidel taking birth inside the Ka`bah will not be of any significance to him like meeting the Prophet (a.s) or even visiting the precincts of the Ka`bah. However, a person in the Faith of Islam will consider it a good fortune to have seen the Prophet (a.s) or he had the opportunity to visit the Holy Place. It cannot be said about `Ali ibn Abi-Talib that he was ever under the influence of infidelity or that he was born an infidel.

Therefore, it is mentioned in the books of Ahl al-Sunnah that when `Ali (a.s) was in his mother’s womb, and [1] Izālat al-Khafā, Page 251 [2] Al-`Abqariyyah al-Islāmiyyah, Page 863 [3] Direction in which Muslims turn to pray. she wanted to bow in front of the idols, he used to turn inside in such a way that it became impossible for her to bow!

Although this narrative is not acceptable according to the Shi`ah belief, it is a positive proof that `Ali (a.s), from the womb of his mother to his grave, was never in the influence of infidelity. And those who have written about the birth of Ibn Hizam have termed it as an accidental birth. But `Ali’s birth there was according to the wish of Allah.