Message for Muslims

The holy relic of Islam   
It is the irony of history that the fragment of a flying meteor landing in the deserts of West Arabia should become the holy relic of a religion which has for its creed the unity of God, and has been iconoclastic through its long history.

At the centre of the world of Islam is the Ka’aba, situated in the Mosque court at Mecca. To this sacred shrine pilgrims have journeyed for thirteen hundred years. Towards this shrine every Muslim, praying directs his gaze. Towards the meridian of the Ka’aba all faces of the dead are turned when they are laid to rest in the grave. But the Ka’aba contains no object of worship, save the famous Black Stone, embedded in the walls, about five feet above the ground, and now worn smooth by the touch and the kisses of thousands of pilgrims.

Before the Hegira, Muhammad made Jerusalem the direction of prayer, but when he was established at Medina, his change of attitude towards Arabian paganism was shown first by the qibla edict (Surah 2:136-145). In this way the old heathen cult became a part of Islam and henceforth the eyes of all the faithful were turned towards Mecca.

The Black Stone is at the eastern corner of the Ka’aba, and the pilgrims in the days of Arabian paganism, when they made their circuit, began at this point as they do today. The entrance to the Ka’aba is not in the middle wall, but close to the Black Stone. Between the Black Stone and the door of the Ka’aba is the so-called Multzam, or sacred place of refuge where pilgrims press themselves against the wall, cling to the curtain and take their oaths and vows. The Black Stone is often called the corner-stone (al rukn) as though there were no other corner to the Ka’aba.

The pre-Islamic sacredness of the Ka’aba did not consist in the idols found there. The Black Stone was the actual sanctuary. The Ka’aba was only an extension of this stone and partook of its sanctity. It was therefore not a temple for idols, but itself an idol, a holy stone.

All the accumulation of superstition of Arab paganism which had gathered in and around the Ka’aba was destroyed by Muhammad, when he completed the conquest of Mecca. The interior of the Ka’aba was cleansed and its pantheon of idols destroyed, with the exception of the Black Stone. Not only were there images but pictures in the heathen shrine. When they began to wash off the pictures of the Prophets with zem-zem water, Muhammad is said to have placed his hands on the pictures of Jesus and Mary, saying, “Wash out all except what is below my hands” (Wensinck in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Article on “The Ka’aba,” p. 587). If this tradition is reliable, it throws considerable light on the attitude of Muhammad toward Christianity at this time. Cleansed of its idols the Ka’aba became the fifth pillar in the Muslim temple of truth.

The importance of the Black Stone is evident from Muslim Tradition. The table-talk of the Companions of the Prophet tells what place it occupied in early Islam. Muhammad and ‘Omar wept before the Black Stone, therefore pilgrims are to embrace and kiss it; forgiveness of sins is guaranteed to all who even touch it; during the circumambulation of the Ka’aba, pilgrims are to point to it with a staff if they cannot touch it with their lips. It is specially laid down in orthodox tradition that Muhammad did not embrace or kiss any other corner of the Ka’aba. The Black Stone descended from paradise pure and white and will bear witness on the day of Resurrection to those who kissed it. Muhammad offered his prayers regularly between the Black Stone and the Yemen corner of the Ka’aba.

According to Azraki, as quoted by de Goeje, the Black Stone is “the right hand of God upon earth, stretched out to his worshippers even as a man gives his hand to his brother.” He who could not render homage to the apostle of God during his life has only to pass his hand over this Stone and he will thus render homage to God and his apostle. On the day of Resurrection the Black Stone will have two eyes to see, and a tongue to speak and give testimony on behalf of those who have kissed it in the sincerity of their hearts.

According to Muslim writers the Ka’aba was first constructed in heaven, where a model of it still remains, called Beit-al-Ma’mur. Adam erected the earthly Ka’aba, selecting the stones from five sacred mountains, and ten thousand angels were appointed to guard the structure. But, they appear to have been most remiss in their duty. After the deluge Abraham had to reconstruct it, assisted by his son Ishmael. He looked for a suitable corner-stone and the Angel Gabriel directed him to Jebel Qubais, where he found the Black Stone (Mishkat, book 11, chapter 4). The earliest reference to this palladium in literature is, perhaps, the statement of Maximus Tyrius who wrote in the second century: “The Arabians pay homage to I know not what god, which they represent by a quadrangular stone.”

Tradition says that the Black Stone was originally white, and there are many fables giving the reason for its present colour.

Abu Tahir, the head of the fanatic Carmathian sect, built his own shrine at Lahsa in eastern Arabia, in 316 A.H, and set out to pillage Mecca in January 317 (A.D. 930). His army of fanatics entered the city at the time of the pilgrimage, butchered many of the inhabitants, mocked their solemn worship, defied the Ka’aba, and, after a reign of terror, carried away the spoil, including the Black Stone. He celebrated his victory in a famous poem mocking the Lord of the Ka’aba (The Arabic text is given by Ibrahim Rafa’at Pasha in his Mira’at al Haramain).

The Black Stone was kept by the Carmathians for a period of nearly twenty-two years and was then restored on payment of a large ransom (de Geoje, p.146). Some say that the Stone was again broken at this time and was restored to its place piecemeal, being held together by a silver band, but this tradition is contradicted by Azraki, who gives details showing how the Ka’aba took fire in the days of Abdallah Zobeir and the Black Stone was broken into three fragments which Ibn Zobeir joined with a silver band.

In 413 A.H. the mad Sultan of Egypt, El Hakim, sent an emissary to Mecca with instructions to destroy the Stone. His object is supposed to have been the diversion of the Pilgrimage to Cairo. The emissary, armed with a bar of iron, entered the Haram in the guise of a dervish. Striking the stone with his iron bar, he cried, “How long will you worship this stone? Till when will you continue to worship this stone and Muhammad?” He managed to chip three small pieces from the Stone before he was seized by the outraged hajjis, and torn to pieces (Rutter, The Holy Cities of Arabia, p.222).

The famous tradition related of ’Omar, the second Caliph, in regard to the Black Stone is as follows: “Verily I saw ’Omar (may God be gracious to him) when he kissed the Black Stone, saying: ’Truly I know that thou art only a stone, unable to profit or hurt anyone, and if I had not seen the apostle of God (upon him be prayers and peace) kiss thee, I would not have kissed thee myself.’” ’Omar’s hesitation must have found response in the hearts of many stern Unitarians all down the centuries. Is it not taught in Muslim theology that shirk-ul-’ibadat is one of the forms of polytheism? The association of anything or anyone with Allah is unpardonable, and this association includes, according to the Wahhabi teaching, “the perambulation of the shrines of the saints, bowing down, standing with arms folded, praying at a shrine, kissing any part of a shrine, or rubbing the mouth against any part of a shrine. All this is associating some irrelevant thing or person in worship due to God alone.” Yet in spite of this doctrine, the Black Stone retained and retains its place of honour. Who injures it touches the apple of the eye of Islam, even under strict Wahhabi rule.

There have been few incidents more disastrous in their consequences to the human race than the decree of Muhammad to change the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca. By changing the qibla, Islam was placed in direct antagonism to Judaism and Christianity. It became a rival faith, possessing an independent centre of existence. The keystone of that creed is a black pebble in a heathen temple.

The change took place about sixteen months after the Hegira. Disappointed at the slight success of his preaching among the Jews at Yathrib, Muhammad turned more and more to the Arabian tradition, and the Ka’aba at Mecca was brought into prominence. The Quran text, Surah 2:136, says “the fools among the people will say, what has induced them to abandon there former qibla?” Then follows the passage establishing the new qibla. According to one tradition, the revelation quoted was communicated during Muhammad’s morning prayers in the Mosque at Quba, near Medina. The whole matter of the change in the direction of prayer and the introduction of the old pagan Hajj as one of the pillars of Islam, is however an obscure chapter in Muslim history. Tabari states that scornful remarks made by the Jews regarding Muhammad’s dependence on their religion was one of the causes of his revolt.

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