Does kissing the Black Stone make Muslims idolators? This is the charge put to us by Christian missionaries. Heres what Abdus-Samad Sharafuddin, in his book, Is the Black Stone an Idol? & Is Pilgrimage a Pagan Rite?, had to say. He wrote: Kissing a stone is not a sign of its worship at all. Kissing the Black Stone cannot be twisted into an idol worship, for the stone is no image, just as mere kissing is not worshipping by a mere imagination. Anyone might allege that Muslims do worship a certain idol. But the fact remains that they do not worship anything save God, the One. The idol and its worship simply do not exist. The Bible is kissed in lawcourts; does that mean then that it is worshipped? Moreover, parents kiss their children lovingly, without any trace of worship in it at all. A big question-mark that should come to ones mind are the pre-Islamic Arab idolaters who had held the Kabah. With all their polytheism and idolatry, they too used to circle the Kabah and kiss the Black Stone. Had their kissing been an act of idol- worship, why then was there still a need for them-despite the presence of the almighty Black Stone-to install three hundred and sixty idols therein? This proves beyond a shadow of doubt that it is one thing to kiss the Black Stone under Divine Orders, and quite another to worship a stone or an idol. Most notable, perhaps, is the fact that One-God worshippers do nothing beyond simply kissing the Black Stone. They neither venerate it with folded hands, nor kneel down, nor prostrate themselves, nor squat before it. For all these is done only by idol-worshippers before their idols. (Abdus-Samad Sharafuddin, ) Unquote. . . Does facing the Kaaba in prayer mean idolatry? The Orthodox Jews, everyday, face the site of the First Temple, pray to Allah and kiss the Western Wall. Is this proof that they worship it? Speaking of Jews, the great Jewish Scholar Moshe Maimonides observed: The Ishmaelites[Muslims] are not at all idolaters; [idolatry] has long been severed from their mouths and hearts; and they attribute to God a proper unity, a unity concerning which there is no doubt.… And should anyone say that the house that they honor [the Kaaba] is a house of idolatry and an idol is hidden within it, which their ancestors used to worship, then what of it? The hearts of those who bow down toward it today are [directed] only toward Heaven … [Regarding] the Ishmaelites[Muslims] today – idolatry has been severed from the mouths of all of them [including] women and children. . . as regards the unity of God they have no error at all. Further, Maimonides, similarly, concludes: [N]ot a man in the world. . .bows down to that place or does any of the rites for the sake of idolatry - neither verbally nor mentally; their heart is rather surrendered to Heaven. (Teshuvot ha-Rambam, no. 448.) Finally, Maimonides son, R. Abraham, who took his fathers view to its logical conclusion when he argued that, although Islamic religious practices should not be imitated,[by Jews] strictly speaking they do not fall under the Biblical prohibition of following the ways of the Gentiles. This is so simply because Muslims are monotheists who abhor idolatry. The Soteriology of R. Abraham Maimuni, 1967 Thus, to those ignorant so called Christians who claim that Islam is idolatrous, you know what you can go kiss. . .go and worship your naked dead man on the cross. . .
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:33:23 +0000