a large man’s skull when I saw it. But that is, sadly, no longer the case. During the war between Mecca and Jerusalem that has only just ended, the Ka’ba was bombarded with stones from giant catapults placed on the encircling mountain slopes, and the Black Stone broke into three pieces. The pieces, I am reliably informed, have been bound together with a band of silver and mounted in a silver casing shaped like a woman’s vulva.
“The Black Stone is God’s hand in the earth,” Ka’b said as he bent down to touch and kiss the Stone; “he who touches it declares his allegiance to God.” I reached up and followed suit.
We began our prescribed circling from this black corner. The seven circuits complete, we performed our early morning prayers facing the Stone, as the Prophet was wont to do. Only now would my father allow himself to sit down, spread his cloak, and relax.
From where we were sitting, Mount Abu Qubays could be seen in the distance, looming over Mecca. Its summit was as round as a dome and as high as an arrow shot from its foot; in capable hands that arrow might fall beside a stele said to have been erected by Abraham on the mountain’s highest point. The Black Stone was found next to that stele during the Age of Ignorance that preceded the coming of God’s Messenger. In fact, as I heard the story, two distinctive stones had been found on the summit of Mount Abu Qubays by members of the Quraysh, the Meccan tribe from whom the Prophet himself descends.
Unlike the large or oddly shaped rocks that the Arabs worshipped in the Age of Ignorance, these stones did not come from Mecca or her surrounds. They were brighter and more beautifulthan anything anyone had seen before. Naturally, men concluded, they had fallen from the sky. Wanting everyone to admire their find, the tribesmen brought one of the two stones down to the valley.
“What happened to the other stone?” I asked Ka’b.
“It was stolen by followers of ’Amr, son of Luhayy.”
“Who was he?”
“The first to introduce false worship among the sons of Ishmael,” said Ka’b. ’Amr, he explained, had joined a caravan going to Syria for trade. Along the way he saw people worshipping stone idols.
“And why were they worshipping stones?” I exclaimed.
“Because, they said, when they prayed to them for rain, it rained. ’Amr asked if they could spare one or two for him to take back with him to Mecca. He was given a stone called Hubal, which he set up by a well near the Ka’ba. More and more Meccans began to serve Hubal and venerate him. Soon every household wanted an idol of its own to worship.”
Idols, Ka’b said, were very much in demand in the time when the sister of the Black Stone was stolen.
“Until the Arabs stopped worshipping them,” I said.
“Yes,” he replied, “but old habits die hard as Muhammad, God’s Grace Be Upon him and his Household, discovered. The sons of Mudar, for instance, persisted in thinking that a lofty rock in the desert near the shore of Jidda was God. One day one of them took the tribe’s stock camels to the rock named Sa’d. He wanted his animals to stand close to Sa’d so that they would be blessed and give much milk.
“But when the camels, which were of the grazing type and had never been ridden before, saw the rock and smelt the dried blood shed on it over the years, they shied away and fled in all directions. This so angered the tribesman that he seized a stone and threw it at the idol, saying, ‘God curse you! You have scared away my camels and that of all my kin. I came to you to improve the fortune of the sons of Mudar, but you have dissipated it. We will have nothing more to do with you, O Sa’d. You are nothing but a rock! You cannotmake a right or correct a wrong.’’ Only then did the sons of Mudar abandon the worship of desert rocks.”
“To change religion is not an easy thing,” I ventured.
“Like herding camels on a rainy night,” said Ka’b.
The last rays of the
“The Black Stone is God’s hand in the earth,” Ka’b said as he bent down to touch and kiss the Stone; “he who touches it declares his allegiance to God.” I reached up and followed suit.
We began our prescribed circling from this black corner. The seven circuits complete, we performed our early morning prayers facing the Stone, as the Prophet was wont to do. Only now would my father allow himself to sit down, spread his cloak, and relax.
From where we were sitting, Mount Abu Qubays could be seen in the distance, looming over Mecca. Its summit was as round as a dome and as high as an arrow shot from its foot; in capable hands that arrow might fall beside a stele said to have been erected by Abraham on the mountain’s highest point. The Black Stone was found next to that stele during the Age of Ignorance that preceded the coming of God’s Messenger. In fact, as I heard the story, two distinctive stones had been found on the summit of Mount Abu Qubays by members of the Quraysh, the Meccan tribe from whom the Prophet himself descends.
Unlike the large or oddly shaped rocks that the Arabs worshipped in the Age of Ignorance, these stones did not come from Mecca or her surrounds. They were brighter and more beautifulthan anything anyone had seen before. Naturally, men concluded, they had fallen from the sky. Wanting everyone to admire their find, the tribesmen brought one of the two stones down to the valley.
“What happened to the other stone?” I asked Ka’b.
“It was stolen by followers of ’Amr, son of Luhayy.”
“Who was he?”
“The first to introduce false worship among the sons of Ishmael,” said Ka’b. ’Amr, he explained, had joined a caravan going to Syria for trade. Along the way he saw people worshipping stone idols.
“And why were they worshipping stones?” I exclaimed.
“Because, they said, when they prayed to them for rain, it rained. ’Amr asked if they could spare one or two for him to take back with him to Mecca. He was given a stone called Hubal, which he set up by a well near the Ka’ba. More and more Meccans began to serve Hubal and venerate him. Soon every household wanted an idol of its own to worship.”
Idols, Ka’b said, were very much in demand in the time when the sister of the Black Stone was stolen.
“Until the Arabs stopped worshipping them,” I said.
“Yes,” he replied, “but old habits die hard as Muhammad, God’s Grace Be Upon him and his Household, discovered. The sons of Mudar, for instance, persisted in thinking that a lofty rock in the desert near the shore of Jidda was God. One day one of them took the tribe’s stock camels to the rock named Sa’d. He wanted his animals to stand close to Sa’d so that they would be blessed and give much milk.
“But when the camels, which were of the grazing type and had never been ridden before, saw the rock and smelt the dried blood shed on it over the years, they shied away and fled in all directions. This so angered the tribesman that he seized a stone and threw it at the idol, saying, ‘God curse you! You have scared away my camels and that of all my kin. I came to you to improve the fortune of the sons of Mudar, but you have dissipated it. We will have nothing more to do with you, O Sa’d. You are nothing but a rock! You cannotmake a right or correct a wrong.’’ Only then did the sons of Mudar abandon the worship of desert rocks.”
“To change religion is not an easy thing,” I ventured.
“Like herding camels on a rainy night,” said Ka’b.
The last rays of the
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