The seizure of the Grand Mosque of Makkah

At dawn on the first day of the fifteenth Hijri century, an armed group led by Juhayman al-ʿUtaybi stormed the Grand Mosque and held the worshippers hostage, in an incident that lasted about two weeks and shook the entire Muslim world.

At dawn on 1 Muharram 1400 AH (20 November 1979), as the worshippers were preparing for the Fajr prayer, an armed group shut the gates of the Grand Mosque and proclaimed their claims about the appearance of the awaited "Mahdi" — Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullah al-Qahtani, brother-in-law of their leader Juhayman al-ʿUtaybi.

The scholars denounced the act and ruled that it was permissible to fight those who had entrenched themselves in the Sanctuary, based on Allah's words: "And do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight you there; but if they fight you, then kill them." Fierce clashes followed, ending with the recovery of the Sanctuary after about two weeks.

The incident left hundreds dead and wounded. Juhayman and his surviving followers were captured and then executed, and it remained a grave lesson to the Ummah on the danger of extremism and false claims to Mahdism.