Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Kising the black stone akin to kissing the hand of Allah?
The Kaba
Posted on 07. Mar, 2009 by Muslim in Misc.
In a valley in the Arabian desert, under the blistering sun, stands a peculiar rectangular building which perhaps is the most rare and extraordinary building in the world. Every year hundreds of millions of people visit this shrine, as this is the most important place to them, it is, The House of God.
The Kaaba has many aspects which make it such a rare jewel, not least that the prophet Adam, the first man, was the man who laid the foundations to this building, and the prophet Abraham was the one who built it with his son Ishmael. The foundations laid centuries ago by Adam, are the same foundations upon which the present day Kaaba stands. Early rainfall, blessing as it was in the middle of the desert, also meant in the past that the Kaaba would fall down or become weak. The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself rebuilt the Kaaba, and after him it was rebuilt several times.
The actual size of the Kaaba is larger, but Muhammad (peace be upon him) built it smaller due to lack of money. Muslims to this day wish not to change the practice of Muhammad (peace be upon him).
One stands in awe at the beautiful golden door of the Kaaba which itself humbled by what sits next to it, the corner stone of the Kaaba, ‘Hijar-e-Aswat’, the black stone. A stone which descended directly from heaven, Muslims kiss it with respect, believing that it is as if they have kissed the hand of Allah.
Hard craftsmanship and serious money goes into the black cloth on the Kaaba. In Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) time it was a striped cloth, yellow, brown and black. Nowadays it is an expensive velvety cloth with Allah’s name and Qur’anic verses patterned across it. Every few years this cloth is changed, and the old cloth is buried at an undisclosed location, so as to prevent people idolising the cloth.
Not far from the Kaaba is a tribute to the man who built it, ‘Muqam-e-Ibrahim’, The station of Abraham, the very stone upon which Abraham stood and built the Kaaba. And a few feet further is a well, The Well of ‘Zamzam’ and the foothills ‘Safa’ and ‘Marwa’. The place where Hagar, Abraham’s wife could not find water and ran between these two mountains and eventually a miracle from Allah meant that water started spurting out of the ground where, her son, Ishmael lay, and thus the holy water of Muslims, Zamzam, came about. It is little wonder then, that Muslims remember Abraham in their five daily prayers, and mimic the actions of Hagar as part of pilgrimage.
The mosque was hardly as grand in the time of Adam, Abraham or Muhammad as it is today. A rich Saudi Arabia has ensured a good part of their economy in maintaining the Kaaba and ‘Masjid-al-Haram’ or The Sacred Mosque.
Muslims worship Allah, facing the Kaaba. It has been common misconception that Muslims worship the Kaaba, this however is not true. It is called ‘Qibla’ which means the direction, and the Kaaba unites all Muslims worldwide to face one direction and pray. Islam is a religion opposed to idol worship, or the worship of anything besides the One true God, Allah. The Kaaba is naught passed a direction, it is respected for this reason, as it is the uniting thing to all Muslims.
In conclusion, Muslim or not, one must admit, it is definitely a wonder of the world.
Do the Muslims kiss the black stone believing that they have kissed the hand of Allah?
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