Islam's Sacred Stone of Mecca...

Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims

 

Islam's Sacred Stone of Mecca...

by Lennard James

26 May, 2009

"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices, which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them". -- Emile Durkheim

The Black Stone is a Muslim object of reverence, which according to Islamic traditions dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. Many consider it to be a Tektite. It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient Sacred Stone towards which Muslims pray in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is covered with an elaborately gold-threaded embroidered Quranic verses on a black-draped cloth. As any non-Muslim in the temple would be slain on sight, and photography is generally prohibited, this stone is shrouded in mystery? However, if you do succeed in tracking down the three accounts of the pilgrimage of Hajj to Mecca you might be considered a lucky one!
What these views reveal, is a polished black stone of which less than two feet is visible… This stone is set in large solid silver mountings. The whole resembles, quite deliberately, for reasons which will emerge, ‘the vulva of the goddess’! There is severe damage to the stone, as it was taken away by the sacrilegious Qarmatians in 930 CE and broken into a number of pieces before returning the pieces for a great price. The Stone pieces are held together by a silver frame, which is fastened by silver nails to the Stone. The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 meters (5 ft.) above the ground. 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 Prophet Muhammad.’ If they cannot reach it, then they are to point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba.
The Black Stone of Kaaba in Mecca is called Al-hajar Al-aswad in Arabic. The word Kaaba (also Ka'ba, or Ka'bah) means ‘The Cube’. That Muslims now refer to it as the ‘Hand of Allah’, which does not diminish the urge for all those, who complete the pilgrimage to Mecca to touch or kiss this sacred Islamic object! :-)
The Black Stone's Origin
'A principal sacred object in Pagan Arabian religion was the stone... Such stones were thought to be the residence of a god; hence the term applied to them by the Byzantine Christian writers of the fifth and sixth centuries: 'baetyl', from bet'el, 'the house of god'.' [1]
'In north Arabian temples the image of the deity sometimes stood in the open air or it could be sheltered in a qubbah, a vaulted niche... Not to be confused with the qubbah is the word for ka'bah, for a cube-shaped walled structure which... served as a shelter for the sacred stones.' [2]
Camphausen, in his article [3], reveals that the misogynic Muslim religion has its origins in the worship of goddess. Allah is a revamped version of the ancient goddess Al'Lat, and it was her shrine, which has since continued with little change, as the Kaaba. The known history of Mohammed reveals that he was born around 570 CE into a tribe of the Koreishe (Quraysh), who not only worshipped the goddess Q're, but were the sworn guardians of her shrine. By 622, Mohammed was preaching the ways of his god, Allah, and was driven out by his own tribe as a result. There are also various opinions as to what the Black Stone actually is… The Muslims say that the Stone was found by Abraham (Ibrahim) and his son Ishmael (Ismail) when they were searching for stones with which to build the Kaaba (House of God). They recognized its worth and made it one of the building's cornerstones.
The Kaaba at Mecca describes the shape of the black stone structure on a marble base, which stands in the centre court of the Great Mosque, Masjidul Haram, at the centre of Mecca. It stands about 50 feet high by about 35 feet wide. Set into the eastern corner is the sacred stone. This Kaaba is a cubed shaped temple (according to Islam) rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael. Reverently draped in black cloth throughout the year, it beckons to every Muslim of the world to come to its sacred ground and perform the ritual of Hajj.

The Kaaba is the canonical center of the Islamic world; every pious act, particularly prayer, is directed towards it. Once a year it plays host to the greatest convention of Muslim believers, and stands ready to sanctify the Umrah travelers through rest of the year.

The official starting point of the walk around the Kaaba, that forms the core of the holy pilgrimage (hajj). During the Tawaf, the pilgrims kiss or touch the black stone as they circumambulate the Kaaba.
Some Muslims are more willing to believe that the Stone itself has some supernatural powers. They believe that this ‘stone fell from the sky during the time of Adam and Eve, and that it has the power to cleanse worshippers of their sins by absorbing them into itself’. They say that the Black Stone was once a pure and dazzling white, and it has turned black because of the sins it has absorbed over the ages.
It is remarkable, however, that even though the temple contained 360 idols worshipped before Muhammad's prophethood, the Black Stone was never kissed or made an idol of worship by the pagan Arabs. In fact, the Kaaba was never worshipped by the idolaters prior to Muhammad's Prophethood. The building contained idols of worship but the building itself was never an object of worship.
The fact that the Kaaba was rebuilt by Abraham is not an historical fact! Since the stone has been there ever since, the pagans found it lying in the sands of Arabia; it stands to reason that Abraham placed the stone in the Kaaba? The Black Stone is in fact not the cornerstone of the Kaaba, and there never was an emblem of the progeny of Abraham that was rejected by the Israelites. It was Muhammad, who made it the corner stone of the Kingdom of Allah.
The Black Stone, therefore, passes for the mithaq (primordial covenant between the Creator and His created). And in the whole world there is only this unhewn stone, cut out of the mountains without hands, and that is the corner-stone of a building, which in point of importance, stands unique in the world...???
Touching or kissing the stone has a profound impact on the faithful, as it is supposed to count in their favor on the Islamic Judgment Day. [Judgment Day is a metaphor for the return to balance with the duality of the reality of man.]
Ibn Jubayr (1145-1217), the great Muslim traveler from Valencia, describes the emotion he felt on touching the stone, “The stone, when one kisses it, has a softness and freshness, which delights the mouth; so much so that he who places his lips upon it wishes never to remove them”. It suffices, moreover, that the Prophet said that it is the ‘Right Hand of God on Earth’ so Allah has a ‘Stoned Hand’ also?
The single most important reason for kissing the stone is that Prophet Muhammad did so! No devotional significance, whatsoever, is attached to the stone by the pre-Islamic pagans, who worshipped it. Kissing or touching the Black Stone is a reverential act of acknowledgment that Allah's hand directed its placement and in its construction. That Abraham and Muhammad, Allah's blessing upon them, had touched and kissed the stone, and an acknowledgment that Allah had entrusted the 'corner stone' of His religious central focus for man upon that hallowed, sacred place.
Researchers have noted that the Kaaba is accurately aligned on two heavenly phenomena: the cycles of the moon and the rising of Canopus, the brightest star after Sirius. There are various other opinions as to what the Black Stone actually symbolizes. Many Muslims regard the Stone as 'just a stone'. When Umar ibn al-Khattab (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 kissing you, I would not have kissed you".

Muslims, therefore, pay their respect to the Black Stone in a spirit of trust in Muhammad, not with any belief in the Black Stone itself.
The Triple Goddesses
Pre-Islamic worship of the goddess seems to be primarily associated with Al'Lat, which simply means 'goddess'. She is a triple goddess, similar to the Greek lunar deity Kore/Demeter/Hecate. Each aspect of this trinity corresponds to a phase of the moon. In the same way Al'Lat has three names known to the initiate: Q're, the crescent moon or the maiden; Al'Uzza, literally 'the strong one', who is the full moon and the mother aspect; then Al'Manat, the waning but wise goddess of fate, prophecy and divination. Islamic traditions continue to recognize these three, but labels them 'daughters of Allah'.
According to Edward Rice [4] “Al'Uzza was especially worshipped at the Kaaba where she was served by seven priestesses. Her worshippers circled the holy stone seven times - once for each of the ancient seven planets, and did so in total nudity.
Near the Kaaba is the ever-flowing well, Zamzam, which cools the throats of the countless millions of pilgrims. In an oasis of always-flowing water, the Black Stone in its mount became an unmatched image of the goddess as giver of life. Only in the Indian continent do such physical symbols for the male and female generative powers, the lingam and yoni, continue to be worshipped with their original fervour.
It is easy to imagine that in pre-Muslim times, the goddess's temple at Mecca was preeminent, whether to celebrate life, ask protection, pray for offspring. Legend tells how Abraham, unable to produce children by his wife Sarah, came here to make love to his slave Hagar. Later on, when Hagar came back to give birth, she could find no water and Abraham created the holy well of Zamzam to save the life of his first son.
When Mohammed wanted to supplant Al’Lat with Allah, this was the one Temple he must conquer. Although Mohammed did conquer the Kaaba, little else changed. The faithful still circle the Holy Kaaba seven times, (nowadays the pilgrims only wear a white linen cloth to cover their genitals and not fully clothed)? The priests of the sacred shrine are still known as Beni Shaybah or 'Sons of the Old Woman', Shaybah being, of course, the famous Queen Sheba of Solomon's time. Sheba appears under the guise of Lilith in the Near East, and as Hagar ('the Egyptian') in the Hebrew mythology of the Old Testament. So, rewriting the legend given above, Abraham begot his son, Ishmael—the ancestor of the Arabs—by the goddess on the Black Stone of the Kaaba.
While we are tracing names, Q're (or Qure), the maiden aspect of Al'Lat, seems certain to be the origin of the Greek Kore. Camphausen suggests that the holy Koran is the 'Word of Qure'. Even Muslims admit that the work existed before the time of Mohammed. Legend has it that it was copied from a divine prototype that appeared in heaven at the beginning of time, or the Mother of the Book [5]. Al'Uzza, the mother aspect of Al'Lat, may give us the pre-dynastic Egyptian snake goddess Ua Zit [Uadjet], who develops into Isis.
Secular historians point to the history of stone worship, and especially meteorite worship, in pre-Islamic Arabia, and say that ‘it is likely that the Stone is a meteorite’. There is no way to test this hypothesis without removing and examining the Stone, which would not be permitted by its guardians. There is no indication as to where this stone originated, but since it predates the revelation of the Holy Quran and Muhammad's prophethood, and even being kissed, it must stem from the time of Abraham since the Hajj traditions are traceable to the patriarch of monotheism by the pre-islamic pagans.
Other Cultures and Deities
The earliest reference we have to a goddess worshipped as a cube-shaped stone is from Neolithic Anatolia. Alternatively, 'Kubaba' may mean a hollow vessel or cave, which would still be a supreme image of the goddess. The ideograms for Kubaba in the Hittite alphabet are a lozenge or cube, a double-headed axe, a dove, a vase and a door or gate—all images of the goddess in Neolithic Europe.
Deities of other cultures known to have been associated with black stones include Aphrodite at Paphos, Cybele at Pessinus and later Rome, Astarte at Byblos and the famous Artemis/Diana of Ephesus. The latter's most ancient sculpture was, it is said, carved from a black meteorite.
The earliest form of Cybele's name may have been Kubaba or Kumbaba, which suggests Humbaba, who was the guardian of the forest in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's oldest recorded myth from Assyria of circa 2500 BCE of the ‘Sumerites Literature’ and as scholars reveal more of the text as the source of most of the major mythological themes of later civilizations [6].
The origin of Kubaba may have been kube or kuba meaning 'cube'. The earliest reference we have to a goddess worshipped as a cube-shaped stone is from Neolithic Anatolia [7].
The stone associated with Cybele's worship was, originally, probably at Pessinus but perhaps at Pergamum or on Mount Ida. What is certain is that in 204 BCE, it was taken to Rome, where Cybele became 'Mother' to the Romans. The ecstatic rites of her worship were alien to the Roman temperament, but nevertheless animated the streets of their city during the annual procession of the goddess's statue. Alongside Isis (god of the Egyptians), Cybele retained prominence in the heart of the Empire until the fifth century BCE, when the stone was then lost. Her cult prospered throughout the Empire and it is said that every town or village remained true to the worship of Cybele [8]. Various Classical writers describe the rituals, which went on her in her honor, in which a tapering black stone, the object of veneration at her temple, was used.
At Mecca, the Goddess was ‘Shaybah’ or’ Sheba’, the Old Woman, which was worshipped as a black aniconic stone like the Goddess of the Scythian Amazons. The sacred Black Stone that now enshrines in the Kaaba was her feminine symbol, marked by the sign of the yoni (vagina), and covered like the ancient Mother by a veil. No one seems to know exactly what it is supposed to represent today?
The Black Stone rests in the Haram, "Sanctuary", cognate of "harem," which used to mean a Temple of Women, in Babylon, a shrine of the Goddess Har, mother of harlots! Hereditary guardians of the Haram were the Koreshites, "children of Kore", Mohammed’s own tribe. The holy office was originally held by women, before it was taken over by male priests calling themselves ‘Beni Shayban’ ("Sons of the Old Woman").
More Black Stones
The home of Aphrodite was at Paphos on Cyprus. Various Classical writers describe the rituals which went on her in her honour - these seem to include the practice which is now known by the disdainful term of 'sacred prostitution'. In any event, the tapering black stone which was the object of veneration at this Temple still survives, even if it now placed inside the site museum [9].
Also in Cyprus is another highly venerated Islamic site, the third most important after Mecca and Medina, the Hala Sultan Tekke. This, too, has a black rock, said to have fallen as a meteorite as part of the tritholon over the shrine. The shrine is dedicated to a woman, the aunt and foster mother of Prophet Mohammed [10]. Could this, like Mecca, have been originally a goddess shrine? Unfortunately no other clues are forthcoming.
Another site stated to have a Black Stone was at Petra, but I have been unable to discover where this was or who was worshipped there (any clue from readers?)!
To add a little local flavour, numerous standing stones in the British Isles are reputed to have fallen from the stars. The now-lost Star Stone marked the meeting of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire; an also-vanished stone at Grimston, Leicestershire, was also said to have such an origin. Whether or not such stones were ever associated with goddess worship, we will never know.
It would take far too long to discuss to what extent the cult of the goddess's Black Stone may have been perpetrated as Solomon's bride in the Song of Songs, who is 'black but beautiful' or to come to terms with the black images of Demeter, Artemis and Isis, who have their direct continuation in the Black Virgins of Europe—patrons of the troubadours, the Gnostics and the alchemists, as well as the present Pope. Those, who wish to follow such ideas, would do well to read ‘The myth of the goddess’ [11], which, in a sober but inspirational manner, reevaluates how the feminine deity has remained with us throughout history.
Further information on these topics appears in a follow-up article by Alby Stone, Goddess of the Black Stone.

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References:

[1] Encyclopedia Britannica.
[2] ibid.
[3] Rufus C. Camphausen, 'The Ka'bah at Mecca', Bres (Holland) No.139, 1989. My thanks to Rufus for bringing this article to my attention; this article of mine is in large part a synopsis of his longer work. See also 'From behind a veil', Flora Green, in The cauldron No.61 (reprinted from The Merrymount messenger Winter 1991).
[4] E. Rice, Easter definitions, Doubleday, 1978 (cited in Camphausen).
[5] Barbara G. Walker, The crone, Harper & Row, 1985 (cited in Camphausen).
[6] See Robert Temple's recent translation He who saw everything, Rider, 1991.
[7] Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, The myth of the goddess, Penguin, 1991.
[8] Maarten J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, trans. A.M.H. Lemmers, Thames and Hudson, 1977 (cited in Baring and Cashford, op. cit.).
[9] ibid.
[10] 'Aphrodite's island', Penny Drayton, Wood & water, Vol.2, No.41, Jan 1993.
[11] [12] Baring and Cashford, op. cit.
Originally published in Mercian Mysteries No.14 February 1993.