HUBAL or HOBAL هبل
The great image which stood over the well or hollow within the Ka’bah. In the early cavity beneath were preserved the offerings and other treasures of the temple. (At-Tabari, p 6, quoted by Muir.) The idol was destroyed by Muhammad at his final conquest of Makkah, A.H. 8, A.D. 630. “Mounted on (his camel) Al Caswa, he proceeded to the Kaabah, reverently saluted with his staff the sacred stone and made the seven circuits of the temple. Then pointing with the staff one by one to the numerous idols placed, around, he commanded that they should be hewn down. The great image of Hobal, reared as the tutelary deity of Mecca, in front of the Kaabah shared the common fate. ‘Truth hath come,’ exclaimed Mahomet, in words of the Coran, as it fell with a crash to the ground, ‘and falsehood hath vanished; for falsehood is evanescent.'” (Surah xvii. 83). See Muir, Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 422. It is remarkable that there is no distinct allusion to the idol in the whole of the Qur’an.
The great image which stood over the well or hollow within the Ka’bah. In the early cavity beneath were preserved the offerings and other treasures of the temple. (At-Tabari, p 6, quoted by Muir.) The idol was destroyed by Muhammad at his final conquest of Makkah, A.H. 8, A.D. 630. “Mounted on (his camel) Al Caswa, he proceeded to the Kaabah, reverently saluted with his staff the sacred stone and made the seven circuits of the temple. Then pointing with the staff one by one to the numerous idols placed, around, he commanded that they should be hewn down. The great image of Hobal, reared as the tutelary deity of Mecca, in front of the Kaabah shared the common fate. ‘Truth hath come,’ exclaimed Mahomet, in words of the Coran, as it fell with a crash to the ground, ‘and falsehood hath vanished; for falsehood is evanescent.'” (Surah xvii. 83). See Muir, Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 422. It is remarkable that there is no distinct allusion to the idol in the whole of the Qur’an.
Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam
© 2025 All Rights Reserved