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Old 12-15-2009, 09:31 PM
 
Location: NC, USA
7,084 posts, read 14,796,529 times
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The most valuable kiss

Well, that's one theory. My question is, why are religions so stuck on superlatives? It's like...what ever their particular sect is into is "the MOST important of endeavors" and everyone else is misguided.
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Old 12-16-2009, 09:23 AM
 
36 posts, read 54,525 times
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The Black Stone (called الحجر الأسود al-Hajar-ul-Aswad in Arabic and سنگ سیاہ Sang-e-Sayah in Urdu) is a Muslim relic, which according to Islamic tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. Some consider it to be a tektite or a meteorite.[1] It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient sacred stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.[2] The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 metres (5 ft.) above the ground.[3]
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, according to Islamic lore, received from the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[4] If they cannot reach it, they point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba.[5]
The Stone was broken into a number of pieces from damage inflicted during the Middle Ages. The pieces are held together by a silver frame, which is fastened by silver nails to the Stone.
According to Islamic tradition, the Stone fell from Heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God. The Altar became the first temple on Earth. Muslims believe that the stone was originally pure and dazzling white, but has since turned black because of the sins it has absorbed over the years.[7] Islamic tradition holds that Adam's altar and the stone were lost in the process of Noah's Flood and forgotten. It was Abraham who found the Black Stone at the original site of Adam's altar when the Archangel Gabriel revealed it to him.[8] Abraham ordered his son—and the ancestor of Muhammad--Ishmael to build a new temple in which to imbed the Stone. This new temple is the Kaaba in Mecca.
Muhammad is credited with playing a key part in the history of the Black Stone. In 602, before the first of his prophetic revelations, he was present in Mecca during the rebuilding of the Kaaba. The Black Stone had been temporarily removed while a new structure was being constructed. A story found in Ibn Ishaq's Sirah Rasul Allah (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume) shows Muhammad settling a quarrel between Makkan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone in place. His solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, and then Muhammad set the Stone into its final place with his own hands.
Damage:
The Black Stone is broken into a number of fragments, with varying accounts putting the number at between seven and fifteen, held together by a silver frame.[13] There are differing accounts of how the damage occurred. According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, the damage occurred during a siege in 638.[18] The editors of Time-Life Books state that the damage occurred during a siege launched by a general of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (646-705).[19] Other sources, including the 2007 Britannica, state that the damage occurred as the result of a theft in 930 CE, when Qarmatian warriors sacked Mecca and carried the Black Stone away to their base in Ahsa, in medieval Bahrain. According to the historian Al-Juwayni, the Stone was returned twenty-two years later, in 951, under somewhat mysterious circumstances; wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Friday Mosque of Kufa accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." Its abduction and removal caused further damage, breaking the stone into seven pieces.
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Old 12-16-2009, 09:24 AM
 
Location: southern california
61,290 posts, read 87,073,039 times
Reputation: 55549
definitely not the kiss of 911.
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Old 12-16-2009, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Wherever women are
19,012 posts, read 29,604,359 times
Reputation: 11309
I can't wait.
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