In the name of Allāh,
the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Peace and Blessings of Allāh on Mohammad.
DEDICATED TO
Allāh–the Glorious and the High,
Lord of the worlds
AND TO
Mohammad–who brought the world
to our feet and eternity to our arms.
*
BLACK STONE AT KA’BAH IS PAGANISM
Christian and other critics charge that the Black Stone at the Ka’ba in Makkah and the kissing of it is paganism.
These Christians are amusing. Christianity stands on the firmament of paganism1 and Christians do not know who God is and who Jesus is2 and they lie on God and lie on Jesus3 and instead of applying reason as God requires them4 and seeking truth as Jesus instructed5, they indict Muslims as practising paganism.
For twenty grueling years Mohammad suffered persecution, siege, assassination attempt, exile, and aggression; fighting tooth, nail and blood against paganism (and superstition) and now after triumphing over it he will incorporate this baneful belief into the pristine Purity of Allāh God. (???)
Two thousand years ago Jesus admonished his inattentive (forgetful) disciples: “Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?–(Mark 8:18). If Jesus was around today he might have added another observation of his make-believe followers: Having heads, reason ye not?
Blind faith is no passport to paradise: Reason and Truth is the door to God.
*
Compassing the Ka’bah: Allāh revealed in His Qur’an:
“And when We pointed to Abraham the place of the House, saying: Associate naught with Me, and purify My House for those who make circuits and stand to pray and bow and prostrate themselves. And proclaim to men the Pilgrimage they will come to thee on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every remote path…”–(Qur’an 22:26-29).
Notably, Allāh’s instruction to Abraham to purify the place of His House for those who will “make circuits” around it predates idolatry and Judaism.
If the Ka’bah came into the possession of the idolaters who undertook the practice of making circuits (all be it naked) round the Ka’bah, and when the Ka’bah came into the control of Muslims who then observed this injunction of Allāh to “compass” the Ka’bah, it cannot be said that Muslims copied this circuit round the Ka’bah from the idolaters; when in fact, it was the idolaters who adopted this act which was enjoined by Allah God through Abraham. Muhammad Ali states:
“To say that tawaf of the Ka’bah is a remnant of idolatry is to force a meaning on idolatry which it has never borne. Circumambulation of an object which is considered sacred is met with in the history of the Israelites, “where the altar is circumambulated once on the first six days and sometimes on the seventh” (En. Is., art. Tawaf), yet no critic has ever asserted that the altar was worshipped by the Israelites. And, of all men, the Muslim would be the farthest from the idea of idol-worship in his tawaf of the Ka’bah, when he feels himself in the presence of the One God, crying aloud, labbaika Allahumma labbaika, la sharika laka labbaika, “Here am I, O Allah! here am I in Thy presence, there is no associate with Thee, here am I.” (Muhammad Ali, The Religion of Islam, pp. 519, 520).
Notably. In going anti-clockwise around the Ka’bah Muslims have our heart closer to the Ka’bah; and are going from RIGHT to left (write down the clock numbers from 1 to 12 then move from 12 to 1 to realise that you are moving from RIGHT to left).
Kissing the Black Stone: Muslims also kiss the Qur’an, this is not an act of worship. Kissing the Black Stone may be pagan in origin; and this kissing may have been an act of stone-worship of the pagans. But this stone does not possess the power to harm or to benefit; and Muslims only worship the only One Who has the power to effect harm and to confer benefit–Allāh God!
There are different kinds of ‘kiss,’ and with different significance. A man kissing his mother and daughter does not carry the same meaning as when he kisses his wife. Muhammad Ali explains:
“it must be remembered that the Ka’bah has never been supposed by any Muslim to possess any Divine attribute. The strange conclusion drawn by some Christian writers that the honour thus given to the Ka’bah is a remnant of the pre-Islamic Arab polytheism or idolatry, is quite erroneous. (These Christians should lament their own religion which stands on the foundation of paganism). The Muslims honour the Ka’bah because it is their Spiritual Centre; they do not worship it. (A Divinely ordained Spiritual Centre that Christians do not have). Even the idolatrous Arabs never worshipped the Ka’bah, though they placed idols in it which they worshipped.
It should also be borne in mind that the famous Black Stone was not one of the Arab idols, nor can the kissing of it in performing the pilgrimage be looked upon as a remnant of idolatry. That stone stands only as a monument: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner” (Ps. 118:22). Ishmael was looked upon as rejected, and the covenant was considered to have been made with the children of Isaac, yet it was that rejected stone, for which the Black stone at the Ka’bah stands as a monument, that was to become “the head-stone of the corner.” The Black Stone is unhewn, so it is the stone that was “cut out of the mountain without hands” (Dan. 2:45). Jesus Christ made this clear in the parable of the husbandmen, when he plainly told the Israelites that the vineyard (i.e. the kingdom of God) would be taken away from them and given to “other husbandmen”, i.e. to a non-Israelite people, giving indication of that people in the words: “Did ye never read in the Scripture, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? (Matt. 21:42). And he added: “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43), thus showing that he was referring to a rejected nation. Hence if the Black Stone is kissed, it is not kissed as an idol or as a god, but as a monument of the rejection of a nation which was to become the cornerstone of the Divine kingdom.”(Comm. 191a).
“There is not the least indication to show where this stone came from and when it was placed there, but as it was there before the advent of Islam and was even kissed, it must have been there at least from the time of Abraham, as the main features of the hajj are traceable to that patriarch. Yet it is remarkable that though the Ka’bah had 360 idols within its walls before the coming of Islam, the Black Stone was never regarded as an idol by the pre-Islamic Arabs, nor was it ever worshipped by them like the idols of the Ka’bah. …..
…It [the Black Stone] was kissed but it was never taken for a god, though the Arabs worshipped even unhewn stones, trees and heaps of sand. And the Muslims, to say nothing of the Prophet, were so averse to idolatry that when they saw two idols, the Usaf and the Nailah, on the hills of Safa and Marwah respectively, they refused to make the sa’y between these two mountains, until a verse was revealed: “The Safa and the Marwah are truly among the signs of Allah, so whoever makes a pilgrimage to the House or pays a visit to it, there is no blame on him if he goes round them both” (2:158). …The Muslims so hated idolatry that they could not brook the thought of idols being connected in any way with their religious practices. How could they think of worshipping the Ka’bah and the Black Stone, which even the idolaters had never worshipped? Had the idea of idolatry been connected in the least with the circuits round the Ka’bah and the kissing of the Black Stone, the Muslims would never have resorted to those practices.
…And it has just been shown that the Prophet once made circuits of the Ka’bah on the back of a camel; he also touched the Black Stone with the rod in his hand; all of which goes to show that the Muslims never entertained the idea of the worship of these things, nor was their attitude towards them at any time that of the worshipper towards the object of his worship. The Black Stone was not kissed alone; the Prophet kissed both the Black Stone, which is in the Eastern corner, and the Yaman corner, while some of the Companions kissed all the four corners of the Ka’bah.”
“That the Ka’bah was rebuilt by Abraham is an historical fact. The Black Stone has been there ever since the Ka’bah has been known to exist, there is not the least reason to doubt. That it was a stone sent down from Paradise, or that it was originally white and became black on account of the sins of men, there is no reliable tradition to indicate.”6
There is no basis for the assertions that many of the practices of Islam are “continuations” from Paganism; or that the Pilgrimage is “rooted” in ancient Arabian “tribal” worship. (For more on this topic see Hajj/pilgrimage).
*
NOTES
1. See Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, The Sources of Christianity, obtainable from www.muslim.org.
2. Christians do not know who Jesus is and what they follow. Whereas Muslims know who Jesus is –a messenger of Allāh God sent to the Children of Israel– and know who God is. On the contrary. After two thousand years since Jesus’ arrival and departure, Christians are still groping in the field of darkness and misunderstanding and confusion as to who God is and as to who Jesus is
-whereas some Christians hold that Jesus is God, some say he is only Son of God
-whereas some Christians believe in Trinity, some hold Trinity as a “senseless God-dishonoring doctrine”
-whereas some say Christ died for inherited sin, some say he died for committed sin
-whereas some believe Jesus was killed, buried, and raised, “some of the early Christian sects did not believe that Christ was killed on the cross. The Basilidans believed that some one else was substituted for him. The Docetae held that Christ never had a real physical or natural body, but only an apparent or phantom body, and that his Crucifixion was only apparent, not real. The Marcionite Gospel (about A.D. 138) denied that Jesus was born, and merely said that he appeared in human form.”–(Yusuf, Ali, Qur’anic comm; #663). (And these are the cardinal doctrines of their religion).
Christians are also divided as to whether Jesus’ birth was “virginal” or “mechanical.” Paul, who knows more than Christians and whom Christians follow, taught that Jesus had a human father; that Jesus was born from “seed” “according to the flesh” (sexual intercourse)–(Acts 2:30; Romans 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:8).
Given the humanness of the Bible and the clouds of conjectures surrounding the existence of Jesus, but for the Qur’an/Islam/Mohammad Jesus may have long since been relegated to the bin of myths and legends.
It is the Qur’an/Islam/Mohammad that is keeping Jesus alive; and not only keeping him alive but has cleansed him and his mother, Mary, of the calumnies of “bastard” and “adulteress,” respectively, hurled on them by Jewish Fathers, and apparelled them in rubious robes of righteousness, and have secured for them today the unflagging allegiance of some one-and-one-half billion Muslims. And counting as Islam spirits on. Inexorably! Invincibly! Impregnably! As Divinely decreed! To prevail over all religions!
“He it is Who sent His Messenger (Mohammad) with guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religions, though the polytheists are averse”-(Qur’an 9:32-33; 48:28; 61:8-9).
Allāh God truly is Great! Subhāna Rabbayyal A’lā! Allāho Akbar!
3. See Christianity-lies, evil, hate.
4. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”–((Isaiah 1:18).
5. Jesus says: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”–(John 8:32). One can only know the truth if he/she seeks it or if it is given to him/her. Clearly, Blind faith is no passport to paradise: reason and truth is the door to God.
6. Muhammad Ali, The Religion of Islam, pp. 517, 518, 519, 520.Muhammad Ali has dealt in depth with the rites and places of Hajj in this book.