البيت الحرام
al-Bayt al-Ḥarām
Place
The Sacred House, a name of the Kaaba in Mecca, toward which Muslims face in prayer and around which they circle in the hajj.
What it means
Al-Bayt al-Ḥarām means “the Sacred House” and is a name of the Kaaba. The Quran says, “God has made the Kaaba, the Sacred House, a standing place for people” (5:97). Ḥarām here means inviolable: the House and the precinct around it in Mecca are a sanctuary with special rules of conduct. Muslims face it in each ritual prayer (2:144), and pilgrims circle it during the hajj and the ʿumra. The Quran links it to Abraham, who raised its foundations with Ishmael (2:127).
Often misunderstood as
Called “the House of God” in English, it can seem that God dwells there, but Muslims hold that God is not confined to a place and that the Kaaba is the direction of worship.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 64, listed as AL BAYT AL ḤARĀM. The definition is restated here.