Hajar Aswad (Black Stone)

And in another tradition, “ The Black Stone is one of the jewels of Paradise; it will be raised on the Day of Resurrection with eyes and with a tongue with which to speak, bearing witness on behalf of all those who have kissed it in truth and sincerity, and the Prophet (s.a.w) used to kiss it frequently.” It is reported that the Prophet (s.a.w) used to circumambulate it riding on a camel, and would touch it with a stick and then kiss the end of the stick.”

Umar once kissed it and then said, “ I know you are just a stone in which there is neither harm nor benefit. If I had not seen the Messenger of God (s.a.w) kiss you I would never have kissed you.”

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Masjidil Haram, Jan 2010.

I do not have a picture of the Black Stone itself. But I did get to kiss it. Once. Mama told me that the guard on duty was lazy that day, else we would have had a smoother experience kissing the Black Stone. He should have cut the men from hoarding towards the Black Stone and let the Nisa’ take turns kissing it. But instead, their ihram would get caught in the crowd and they would have a hard time trying to move away from the crowd. Some greedy men would want to kiss it twice, or even three times. I don’t believe that God will tally on how many times you kissed it, even though the Prophet (s.a.w) himself kissed it many times. How many years ago was that? They probably did not have as many – or as rude, a crowd as they do now. Who am I to pass judgement. Just my thoughts on the act of kissing the Black Stone. Maybe we humans are so physical. We need to literally do it (many times), to know that we have physically done something to let God know that we are pure at heart.

I read in the Umrah guide book that it was sufficient for us to wave our hand to the Black Stone and kiss it, for fear of endangering ourselves in the crowd if we tried to approach the Black Stone and really kiss it.

My brother did not get to kiss it, it was a harder and more painful experience for him as his foot was stepped on many times and he could not contain his frustration thus left the crowd only to have his ihram tied up somewhere in between the sea of bodies.

Source : Al-Ghazali, The Secrets of Pilgrimage.