EXCELLENCE OF KISSING THE BLACK STONE WHILE CIRCUMAMBULATING

Muslim vol. II,no.2912 concerning kissing the black stone

Chapter 39: EXCELLENCE OF KISSING THE BLACK STONE WHILE CIRCUMAMBULATING. Found in Hadeeth: Book 7, Number 2912:

Salim narrated on the authority of his father (Allah be pleased with him) that 'Umar b. al-Khattib (Allah be pleased with him) kissed (the Black Stone) and then said: By Allah, I know that you are a stone and if I were not to see Allah's Messenger  kissing you, I would not have kissed you. Harun said in his narration: A hadith like this has been transmitted to me by Zaid b. Aslam on the authority of his father Aslam.

"The Black Stone is the right hand of Allah Most High."

Ibn Qutayba in Ta' wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith (1972 ed. p. 215=1995 ed. p. 198, 262) said that it was a saying of Ibn 'Abbas and relates a saying of 'A'isha that the Black Stone is the depository of the covenant of human souls with Allah on the Day of Promise (alastu bi rabbikum). He interprets the Black Stone as representing the place where one declares one's pledge of fidelity to the Sovereign.

Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (1959 ed. 3:463 #1520) cites al-Khattabi's and al-Muhibb al-Tabari's similar interpretations. Al-Qurtubi said in al-Asna fi Sharh Asma' Allah al-Husna (2:90-91): "It means that the Black Stone has the standing (manzila) of the Right Hand of Allah. metaphorically speaking."

Ibn 'Abd al-Salam in The Belief of the People of Truth said: "Note that it is obligatory to hold the tablets and pages [of the Qur'an] in the utmost respect as they point to the Essence (dhât) of Allah, just as it is obligatory to hold His Names in the utmost respect because they point to His Essence. It is a right due to every thing that points to Allah or relates to Him that it be held in great reverence and that its sanctity (hurma) be kept. Hence it is obligatory to revere the Ka'ba, the Prophets, the devout (al-'ubbâd), and the scholars of knowledge (al-'ulamâ'). [Citing poetry:]

"I pass by the houses - Layla's houses -
"Kissing this wall, and that;
"It is not the love of houses that has obsessed my heart
"But the love of those who have dwelled in them.
"Because of something similar to this we kiss the Black Stone."

See also on this Shaykh Hisham Kabbani's article on the Ka`ba in the early Pilgrimage Issue of The Muslim Magazine