إِنَّ أَوَّلَ بَيْتٍ وُضِعَ لِلنَّاسِ لَلَّذِى بِبَكَّةَ مُبَارَكًا وَهُدًى لِّلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
Inna awwala Baitinw wudi'a linnaasi lallazee bi Bakkata mubaarakanw wa hudal lil 'aalameen
The first house established for humankind was the one at Bakkah — blessed, and a guidance for all the worlds.
Bakkah appears here and nowhere else, while the Qur'an names Makkah once, at 48:24. Readers have taken the two as one name in two dialects, or as a distinction between the sanctuary itself and the town around it, and the difference is left standing. The claim of being first lands in the middle of an argument with the People of the Book, where priority in time is exactly what is contested.