Tafsir alTustari Sura الحج Ayah No. 29

…And perform the circumambulation of the Ancient House.He said:People have differed concerning this. Ḥasan said, ‘He called it Ancient (ʿatīq) to honour it, just as the Arabs speak of an “ancient” body, and an “ancient” horse if it is noble.’ My maternal uncle, Muḥammad b. Sawwār, related on the authority of al-Thawrī that he said, ‘It is called this because it is the oldest (aqdam) and most ancient (aʿtaq) place of worship belonging to God, just as He said: The first House (of worship) to be established for people was that at Bakka, a blessed place [3:96].’Some have said, ‘He [God] called it ʿatīq because no tyrant ever headed for it with an evil design without God’s destroying him and freeing (aʿtaqa) His House from him. Some have said, ‘It is because it was saved (uʿtiqa) from being submerged during the great flood and raised to the sky.’ Just as God has freed His House, so He has also freed the heart of the believer from other [than Him]. It [the Kaʿba] is older than anything else that God, Exalted is He, erected on His earth as a sign (ʿalam), and He placed it within the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Ḥarām). Likewise the heart has [within it] another heart, which is the position from which the servant stands before his Master without being agitated or busied by anything, but in a state of tranquil repose in Him (sākin ilayhi).His words, Exalted is He:

Tafsīr al-Tustarī, trans. Annabel Keeler and Ali Keeler
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