The answer, on the authority of al-Mufaddal, is that he said: I asked my Master al-Sadiq about that, and he said to me: "Do you not look at this structure toward which circumambulation is made from all directions and regions, while they claim it is the House of Allah? It is the head of disbelief and the instrument of idols." As for the idols besides it, they are the stones, and they [the people] hasten toward them with sacrifices and vows due to the weakness of their knowledge and the paucity of their understanding. They have not grasped what the Commander of the Faithful said in Al-Risala al-Yaqutiyya (The Ruby Epistle); concerning this meaning, there is a lengthy explanation, so we dispense with prolonging the speech. He said: "Verily, he who offers a sacrifice to a shrine on earth, it is as if he sacrifices it to one of the idols of Quraysh. Verily, sacrifices and vows are among that by which a servant draws closer to his Master; it is for the People of Faith and the stations of concealment (Mawatin al-Kitman), and it is not permissible through anything forbidden. This is the path to salvation and to the Sublime Assembly (Al-Mala' al-A'la).