المسجد الحرام

Literally, “the sacred/inviolable mosque”.

• IPA^(key): /al.mas.d͡ʒid al.ħa.raːm/

الْمَسْجِد الْحَرَام • (al-masjid al-ḥarām) m

1. (Islam) a reference to the Kaaba or the general area of the site thereof, hence the Great Mosque of Mecca/Masjid al-Haram
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:144:

     […] فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنْتُمْ فَوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ شَطْرَهُ […]

     […] fa-walli wajhaka šaṭra l-masjidi l-ḥarāmi waḥayṯu mā kuntum fawallū wujūhakum šaṭrahu […]

     […] so turn your face (in prayer) in the direction of the Sacred Mosque (in Mecca), and wherever you are turn your faces in its direction; […]

   • 7th century CE, Sunan Ibn Mājah, 5:608:

     ‏ " لَا تُشَدُّ الرِّحَالُ إِلَّا إِلَىٰ ثَلَاثَةِ مَسَاجِدَ إِلَىٰ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ وَإِلَىٰ الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَىٰ وَإِلَىٰ مَسْجِدِي هَٰذَا "‏.‏

     " lā tušaddu r-riḥālu ʔillā ʔilā ṯalāṯati masājida ʔilā al-masjidi l-ḥarāmi waʔilā l-masjidi l-ʔaqṣā waʔilā masjidī hāḏā ".

     "Bind not the camels' saddles (i.e., go not on a [pilgrim's] journey) but to three mosques: to the Sacred Mosque (in Mecca) and to the Far Mosque (in Jerusalem) and to this mosque of mine."

   • 2013 July 20, Haya Al-Sahli, “توسعات ضخمة للحرم المكي [Huge Expansions of Al Haram of Mecca]”, in Al Jazeera‎:

     تعمل الجهات المعنية في السعودية على قدم وساق لتوسعة صحن الطواف في المسجد الحرام بمكة المكرمة، ورفع طاقته الاستيعابية من 48 ألف طائف في الساعة إلى 105 آلاف طائف، والانتهاء من مراحل المشروع الثلاث قبل نهاية حج 2015.

     The concerned authorities in Saudi Arabia are working in full swing to expand the circumambulation hall in the Great Mosque in Mecca, and to raise its capacity from 48 thousand pilgrims per hour to 105 thousand, and to complete the three phases of the project before the end of the 2015 hajj.