What is that rock in Mecca that Muslims pray to?

Question

Isn't that idolatry?

Answer 1

They pray facing mecca. They carry a black stone. They kiss the stone, not pray to it.

So. Kissing is not idolatry. It is more of a "kinky" thingie.
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History has shown Mecca and the holy stone al-Kaaba were holy sites for pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The Kaaba in Mecca was formerly named Beit-Allah meaning House of Allah. We are told it was first built in heaven. This is in contradistinction to what Moses was instructed to build, something overlooked by the Muslims in their reading of the Bible.

The Koran tells us that Mohammed drove the other idols away; he made one God now the only god and he was its messenger. He kept the Kaaba as a holy, sacred place and confirmed that the black stone had the power to take away man's sins. He obligated every believer to make a pilgrimage to the stone at least once in his lifetime. (Sura 22:26-37) No Old Testament saint ever had a pilgrimage to the Kaaba and kissed its black stone despite stories that Abraham and Ishmael restored it.

Mohammed used the name Allah which was formerly the name of a specific idol without ever distinguishing it from the idol the Meccan’s were already worshipping. This was a modification of their former worship but never a complete break. He never did say for the people to stop their worship of the wrong Allah, for the right one. It can still be monotheism and not be the God of the Bible

Al-Lat which is a T at the end of the name of Allah, was represented by a square stone whose major sanctuary was in the city of Taif. In the sanctuary was a black stone in the town of Qudayd between Mecca and Medina. She was the goddess of fate, a female counterpart of Allah. Al-uzza was the goddess of east Mecca. It has been said there were human sacrifices made to her and Islamic tradition tells of a story of Mohammed’s grandfather almost sacrificing his son the father of Mohammed to her. What prevented this was his seeking counsel from a fortune teller which told him to ransom his son with one hundred camels. Muslims look to this as the will of Allah to bring Mohammed into existence. (Reference Muhammad husain haykal, Hayat mohammed)

“The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa.” (Arthur Jeffrey, ed., Islam: Muhammad and His Religion (1958), p. 85.)

The literal name of Mohammed's father in Arabic is Abd Allah. His uncle's name Obred Allah. These names show the devotion of Mohammed's families pagan roots, and also prove that Allah was part of a polytheistic system of worship before Allah was made the supreme and only god from the other God's. This should be proof to the pre- Islamic root of the name of Allah to the Muslim. Remember they were pagans who used this name. He kept his family name above all the other names. Mohammad had good intentions in removing the people from their polytheistic worship however he did not go far enough in his reform.

Mecca was the place where the idol Allah was located, so the people would face in that direction when they prayed. Prior to Islam the people would pray 5 times a day facing Mecca (The Encyclopedia of Islam p.303) Prior to Islam's beginning each Arab tribe used Allah to refer to its own particular high god. This is why Hubal, the Moon god, (known by other names) was the central focus of prayer at the Kaabah and people prayed to Hubal and they used the name Allah. The crescent moon was the symbol of the moon God Allah (Hubal) and is still used as a symbol of Islam today (although they have changed the meaning to be -from Mecca to the moon Islam will spread). Today there is hardly a Muslim that knows its ancient origin. History records it as an ancient pagan fertility symbol that is found throughout the Middle East. Mohammed smashed all the idols that led the people into idolatry but the black stone was kept which Muslims continue to kiss today. This was another practice that preceded Mohammad.

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Answer 2

Muslims do not pray to a rock. Secular historians point to the history of meteorite worship, in pre-Islamic Arabia, and say that it is likely that the Stone is a meteorite or possibly a Tektite, from the meteor crater at Wabar, about 100 km from Mecca.

Mecca is a city in Saudi Arabia. It is to this city that Muslims make a haj (pilgrimage) during the month of Ramadan. In the city is a small cube-shaped building, the Kaa'ba الكعبة. The Kaaba is a large masonry structure roughly the shape of a cube. (The name Kaaba comes from the Arabic word meaning "cube"). It is made of granite from the hills near Mecca. The most current dimensions for the structure are: 15 m high (49') with sides measuring 10.5 m (34') by 12 m (39').

The eastern cornerstones of the Kaa'ba is the rukn-al-Aswad or al-hajr ul-aswad الحجر الأسود (black cornerstone). The northern cornerstone is the rukn-al-Iraqi (the Iraqi cornerstone); at the west lies rukn-al-Shami (the Levantine cornerstone) and at the south rukn-al-Yamani (the Yemeni cornerstone).

During the haj, pilgrims circumnavigate the Kaa'ba and the ones closest may kiss the hajr aswadالحجر الأسود.

Inside each masjid (mosque) is a mihrab (niche). The mihrab is the direction from that location to the Kaa'ba. The direction is called the qibla قبلة‎

Muslims pray to Allah. Allah is the Arabic word for God. Arab Christians such as Lebanese Maronites and Iraqi Chaldeans also pray to Allah. Muslims do not pray to Muhammad, nor do they believe that Muhammad can intercede for them. Muslims do not pray to the hajr aswad but rather to the direction of the Kaa'ba so that 5 times a day 1.2 Billion Muslims pray in unision.

Answer 3

We pray towards Ka'abah, which serves as focal point for which direction to pray to, anywhere in the world. No, we don't pray to a rock.

Judaism has the wailing wall, Hinduism has the river ganges, Buddhish has karma and re-incarnation, Catholics has the Vatican. Each religion has something they hold sacred.

Maybe if we all respect what others hold sacred instead of ridiculing them, the world might be a better place. Just a thought.

Answer 4

The rock you are referring to is not an idol but a meteorite that once belonged to Adam (peace be upon him). It was pure white at one time, but over time, has turn black. It is said this is because it absorbs the sins of man. However, nobody prays to that rock. The rock is there as a symbol that man is not of this earth, that man was once from the garden of Eden. The cube building is called the Kaaba. It is not an idol either... it was a house of worship built by Abraham and his son Ismail as a house to live in. Historically, it was first built by the first man, Adam, but was destroyed over years. The foundation remained and God commanded Abraham & Ishmail to build a house of worship there. Ishmail lived in the house for a while. It later became a house of worship for the village that formed there in Mecca. Over time, people forgot it was built to commemorate the One God... so they started putting idols in there as well. When Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) came along, he was commanded by God to pray in the direction of Jersulem... until God order him to purify the Kaba of idols. So Muhammad and the first Muslims eventually destroyed all of the idols. Muhammad was at one point commanded by God to turn the direction of prayer from Jeruselam to Mecca. Since then, Muslim prayer is done facing the Kaba as God commanded. Muslims worship the One God... not any physical structure or idol.

Answer 5

ka'bah is just a rock, its not our God. muslims use it as a centre point so that when its time for or prayers, we all face the same direction,irrespective of old or young, rich or poor, poweful or weak, thus bringing universal brotherhood. when we dont beleive that a man can be God then how will we worship or even consider a stone.

muslims are'nt fools to kneel down before a statue or rock or any dead man. we still follow what was revealed to moses-pbuh.

The earth trembled as God began to speak. Moses later recorded, “And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME” (Ex. 20:1-3). This is the First Commandment.

Exodus 20:4-6 records the Second Commandment. Here is God’s explicit directive: “YOU SHALL NOT MAKE UNTO YOU ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.”

God specifically defined the forbidden ways that were used to worship idols. He realized human nature’s tendency to justify loopholes around His instructions.

Answer 6

Muslims pray to Allah (God in English).

As for rocks, there is a mosque in Jerusalem called the Dome of the Rock.

Answer 7

Kaaba is the Qibla i.e. the direction Muslims face during their prayers. It is important to note that though Muslims face the Kaaba during prayers, they do not worship the Kaaba. Muslims worship and bow to none but Allah.

It is mentioned in Surah Baqarah:
"We see the turning of thy face (for guidance) to the heavens: now shall We turn thee to a Qiblah that shall please thee. Turn then thy face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque: wherever ye are, turn your faces in that direction."
[Al-Qur’an 2:144]
Islam believes in fostering unity
For instance, if Muslims want to offer Salaah (Prayer), it is possible that some may wish to face north, while some may wish to face south. In order to unite Muslims in their worship of the One True God, Muslims, wherever they may be, are asked to face in only one direction i.e. towards the Kaaba. If some Muslims live towards the west of the Kaaba they face the east. Similarly if they live towards the east of the Kaaba they face the west.

Tawaaf around Kaaba for indicating one God
When the Muslims go to Masjid-e-Haram in Makkah, they perform tawaaf or circumambulation round the Kaaba. This act symbolizes the belief and worship of One God, since, just as every circle has one centre, so also there is only one Allah (swt) worthy of worship.

People stood on Kaaba and gave the adhaan
At the time of the Prophet, people even stood on the Kaaba and gave the ‘adhaan’ or the call to prayer. One may ask those who allege that Muslims worship the Kaaba; which idol worshipper stands on the idol he worships?

Answer 8

There is a Black Stone embedded in the Kabaa at Makkah which some folks believe to be a meteor from the skies. Is this the rock you are referring to?

As for Idolatry, there are many more examples of it in contemporary Islam.

Answer 9

excuse me dear, may i know from where u retrieve that info? what rock are u talking about???

that's not " a rock" that the Muslims pray to. i believe u're referring to the Ka'abah in Makkah, the qiblat for us Muslims, a direction we should face to when we pray.

we Muslims worship no God but ALLAH. and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His messenger.

Answer 10

Seeker - excellent answer. However, these people are unbelievers; may ALLAH open their eyes so that they can see the light. May ALLAH take them out of the darkness and the shadow of the SATAN. Ishallah.

KORAN SAYS :
".... Allah guides him who will follow His pleasure into the ways of safety and brings them out of utter darkness into light by His will and guides them to the right path"