Black Stone: Difference between revisions

[[File:Blackstone.jpg|thumb|"''Its softness and moisture were such that the sinner would never remove his mouth from it, which phenomenon made the Prophet declare it to be the covenant of Allah on earth.''" - Ibn Jubayr|alt=|296x296px]]The '''Black Stone''' (ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد‎, ''al-Hajr al-Aswad'') is a rock that was embedded into the east-facing corner of the [[Ka'bah]], which is located in [[Mecca]] and is the "house of God" towards which Muslims pray five times a day. According to historians, the Black Stone was one of many baetyls employed to [[Pagan Architecture and Art in Islamic Law|idolatrous]] ends by [[Pagan Origins of Islam|pre-Islamic Arab pagans]], who used the Ka'bah as a pagan shrine in which were housed some 360 idols. The hadith tradition agrees that the stone was already part of the Ka'bah before [[Muhammad ibn Abdullah|Muhammad]] was born during the time of the pagan Arabs. The hadith tradition, however, asserts that the stone descended from heaven along with Adam and Eve and was incorporated into the structure of the Ka'bah when it was supposedly built by the prophet [[Ibrahim (Abraham)|Ibrahim]] and his son [[Isma'il]].<ref>Sheikh Ahmad Kutty - [http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543250 The Black Stone: History & Significance] - Islam Online, January 8, 2003</ref> Muhammad was said to have reset the stone into the Ka'bah when the Ka'bah had been destroyed and rebuilt by the Meccans prior to Muhammad's proclamation of prophethood.