Black Stone

The Black Stone (called الحجر الأسود "al-Hajar-ul-Aswad" in Arabic) is a Muslim object of reverence, which according to Islamic tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient sacred stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. [cite book|title=Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Biography of the Prophet|author=Sheikh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpuri|id=ISBN 1591440718| date=2002|publisher=Dar-us-Salam Publications] The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 meters (5 ft.) above the ground.cite web|author=SaudiCities - The Saudi Experience|title=Makkah - The Holy Mosque:The Black Stone|publisher=|accessmonthday=August 13 |accessyear=2006|url=http://www.saudicities.com/mmosque.htm]

When pilgrims circle the Kaaba as part of the Tawaf ritual of the Hajj, many of them try, if possible, to stop and kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that it received from the Islamic prophet Muhammad. [cite book|title=Your Door to Arabia|last=Elliott|first=Jeri| year=1992|id=ISBN 0-473-01546-3] If they cannot reach it, they are to point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba.cite book | title=Hajj to Umrah: From A to Z | last = Mohamed | first= Mamdouh N. | year = 1996 | publisher=Amana Publications | id= ISBN 0-915957-54-x]

The Stone is broken into a number of pieces from damage which was inflicted during the Middle Ages. It is now held together by a silver frame, which is fastened by silver nails to the Stone.

Origins and history

Islamic views

According to Islamic tradition, the Stone fell from Heaven during the time of Adam and Eve, when it was a pure and dazzling white, but has since turned black because of the sins it has absorbed over the years. [Shaykh Tabarsi, "Tafsir", vol. 1, pp. 460, 468. Quoted in translation by Francis E. Peters, "Muhammad and the Origins of Islam", p. 5. SUNY Press, 1994. ISBN 0791418766] It is said that it was Abraham who found the black rock and when he rebuilt the Kaaba, the Archangel Gabriel brought the Stone out of hiding and gave it to him.Cyril Glasse, "New Encyclopedia of Islam", p. 245. Rowman Altamira, 2001. ISBN 0759101906]

Muhammad is credited with playing a key part in the history of the Black Stone. In 602, before the first of his prophetic revelations, he was present in Mecca during the rebuilding of the Kaaba. The Black Stone had been temporarily removed while a new structure was being constructed. A story found in Ibn Ishaq's "Sirah Rasul Allah" (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume) shows Muhammad settling a quarrel between Meccan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone in place. His solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, and then Muhammad set the Stone into its final place with his own hands. [cite book| last = Guillaume| first = A.| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Life of Muhammad | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1955 | location = Oxford| doi = | id = pp. 84-87] cite web|author=University of Southern California|title=The Prophet of Islam - His Biography|publisher=|accessdate=August 12|accessyear=2006|url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/profbio.html] [cite web|url=http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Books/SM_tsn/ch1s6.html | title = Muhammad's Birth and Forty Years prior to Prophethood|work=Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Memoirs of the Noble Prophet|accessdate=2007-05-04|author=Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, translated by Issam Diab|date=1979]

Other views

The reverence of the Black Stone evidently preceded the rise of Islam. The Semitic cultures of the Middle East had a tradition of using unusual stones to mark places of worship, a phenomenon which is reflected in the Hebrew Bible as well as the Qur'an.

Grunebaum, in "Classical Islam", says that the Kaaba was a place of pilgrimage even in pre-Islamic times, and was probably the only sanctuary built of stone, but that there are other sources which indicate there were other "Kaaba" structures in other parts of ArabiaFact|date=July 2008. A "red stone" was the deity of the south Arabian city of Ghaiman, and there was a "white stone" in the Ka'ba of al-Abalat (near the city of Tabala, south of Mecca). He points out that the experience of divinity of that time period was often associated with stone fetishes, mountains, special rock formations, or "trees of strange growth." [Grunebaum, p. 24]

The physical properties of the Black Stone were first described in the 19th and early 20th centuries by European travellers in Arabia who visited the Kaaba in the guise of pilgrims. The Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who visited Mecca around 1815 in the guise of a pilgrim, provided a detailed description in his 1829 book "Travels in Arabia":

Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Sir Richard Francis Burton noted that:

The Black Stone has been described variously as basalt lava, an agate, a piece of natural glass or — most popularly — a stony meteorite. It is evidently a hard rock, having survived so much handling. A significant clue to its nature is provided by an account of the Stone's recovery in 951 AD after it had been stolen 21 years earlier; according to a chronicler, the Stone was identified by its ability to float in water. If this account is accurate, it would rule out the Black Stone being an agate, basalt lava or stony meteorite, though it would be compatible with it being glass or pumice.Alex Bevan, John De Laeter, "Meteorites: A Journey Through Space and Time", pp. 14-15. UNSW Press, 2002. ISBN 086840490X]

It has been suggested that the Black Stone may be a glass fragment from the impact of a fragmented meteorite some 6,000 years ago at Wabar, a site in the Rub' al Khali desert some 1,100 km east of Mecca. The craters at Wabar are notable for the presence of blocks of silica glass, fused by the heat of the impact and impregnated by beads of nickel-iron alloy from the meteorite (most of which was destroyed in the impact). Some of the glass blocks are made of shiny black glass with a white or yellow interior and gas-filled hollows, which allow them to float on water. Although scientists did not become aware of the Wabar craters until 1932, they were located near a caravan route from Oman and were very likely known to the inhabitants of the desert. The wider area was certainly well-known; in ancient Arabic poetry, Wabar or Ubar (also known as "Iram of the Pillars") was the site of a fabulous city that was destroyed by fire from the heavens because of the wickedness of its king. If the estimated age of the crater is accurate, it would have been well within the period of human habitation in Arabia and the impact itself may have been witnessed.

Ritual role

The current ritual of the Hajj involves pilgrims attempting to kiss the Black Stone seven times (once for each circumambulation of the Kaaba), emulating the actions of Muhammad. When Umar ibn al-Khattab (580-644), the second Caliph, came to kiss the Stone, he said in front of all assembled: "No doubt, I know that you are a stone and can neither harm anyone nor benefit anyone. Had I not seen Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] kissing you, I would not have kissed you." [cite web|author=University of Southern California|title=Pilgrimage (Hajj)|publisher=|accessmonthday=August 12 |accessyear=2006|url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/026.sbt.html#002.026.667] Many Muslims follow Umar: they pay their respects to the Stone in a spirit of trust in Muhammad, not with any belief in the Stone itself. This, however, does not indicate their disrespect to the Black Stone but their belief that harm and benefit are in the hands of God, and nothing else. In modern times, large crowds no longer make it practically possible for everyone to kiss the stone, so it is currently acceptable for pilgrims to simply point in the direction of the Stone on each of their circuits around the building. Some even say that the Stone is best considered simply as a marker, useful in keeping count of the ritual circumambulations (tawaf) one has performed. [cite web|author=The Saudi Arabia Information Resource|title=The Holy City of Makkah|publisher=|accessmonthday=August 12 |accessyear=2006|url=http://www.saudinf.com/main/a83.htm]

Some Muslims also accept this hadith, from Tirmidhi, which asserts that at the Last Judgement (Qiyamah), the Black Stone will speak for those who kissed it:

:"It was narrated that Ibn ‘Abbas said: The Messenger of Allah said concerning the Stone: "By Allah, Allah will bring it forth on the Day of Resurrection, and it will have two eyes with which it will see and a tongue with which it will speak, and it will testify in favour of those who touched it in sincerity." " [http://www.icct.org/Hajj/BlackStone.html]

Apart from the ritual role of the Black Stone, its black colour is deemed to symbolise the essential spiritual virtue of detachment and poverty for God ("faqr") and the extinction of ego required to progress towards God ("qalb").

=Da

The Black Stone is broken into a number of fragments, with varying accounts putting the number at between seven and fifteen, held together by a silver frame. The damage appears to have occurred in several stages. Legend has it that during the siege of Mecca in 683, the Kaaba was ignited by a flaming arrow and the fire's heat cracked the Black Stone into three large parts and several smaller fragments.Fact|date=January 2008 In 930, the Black Stone was seized by the Qarmatians and carried off to their base at Bahrain. According to the historian Al-Juwayni, the Stone was returned in 951 under somewhat mysterious circumstances; wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Friday Mosque of Kufa accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." Its abduction and removal caused further damage, breaking the stone into seven pieces. Some Muslims believe the Black Stone should be less accessible to the general public, as a way of protecting such a relic.

ee also

* Foundation Stone
* Tektite

Notes

References

* Grunebaum, G. E. von (1970). "Classical Islam: A History 600 A.D. - 1258 A.D.". Aldine Publishing Company. ISBN 202-15016-X
* Sheikh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpuri (2002). Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Biography of the Prophet. Dar-us-Salam Publications. ISBN 1591440718.
* Elliott, Jeri (1992). "Your Door to Arabia". ISBN 0-473-01546-3.
* Mohamed, Mamdouh N. (1996). "Hajj to Umrah: From A to Z". Amana Publications. ISBN 0-915957-54-x.
* Time-Life Books (1988). "Time Frame AD 600-800: The March of Islam", ISBN 0-8094-6420-9.
*cite journal|url=http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/blstone.htm|title=The Black Stone - the Omphalos of the Goddess|author=Bob Trubshaw|journal=Mercian Mysteries|date=February 1993|issue=No. 14

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070404133458/http%3A//www.saudicities.com/images/Pic00082.jpgPicture of the Black Stone]
* [http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197406/the.ka.bah.house.of.god.htm Information about the Kaaba and viewpoints regarding the status of the Black Stone]
* [http://mb-soft.com/believe/txh/kaaba.htm General information about the Kaaba and the Black Stone]
* [http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/hajjexp.htm Reflections from the Hajj, by S. Khan and A. Zahoor]