Qualla: Black Stone https://qualla.com/black-stone en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Black Stone https://qualla.com/black-stone Black Stone: Introduction https://qualla.com/black-stone/ Photo credit Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 4.0. Touched by Adam, according to one tradition. Placed by Abraham, according to another. Set into the rebuilt Kaaba by the 35-year-old Muhammad in 605 CE, five years before his first revelation, with all the clan leaders holding the corners of a cloth so that none could claim the honor alone. Whatever its origin, the Black Stone - al-Hajar al-Aswad - has been handled, kissed, and venerated by more human beings than almost any other object on earth. It sits today in the eastern corner of the Kaaba, encased in a silver frame, polished smooth by so many hands that the rock underneath has become its own evidence of devotion. Muslim theologians are careful to say it has no divine power of its own. Its importance is historical, devotional, witness-bearing - not sacred in itself. And yet.

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Image: Yair Haklai | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/sgu3-black-stone-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Black Stone: What It Looks Like https://qualla.com/black-stone/ Photo credit N., Public domain. The stone is not one rock. It is several pieces cemented together, surrounded by a silver frame fastened to the Kaaba's outer wall with silver nails. In the 10th century, an observer described it as one cubit - about 46 centimeters - in length. The 18th-century Spanish traveler A...

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Image: N. | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/sgu3-black-stone-what-it-looks-like.mp3 0:06 2 full Black Stone: Before Islam https://qualla.com/black-stone/ Photo credit Angnation, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Kaaba existed long before the Prophet. It was a site of pilgrimage for the Nabataeans of northern Arabia and the southern Levant, who traveled there once a year. The Black Stone was already venerated - set into one wall of a shrine that allegedly held 360 idols of the Meccan ...

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Image: Angnation | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/sgu3-black-stone-before-islam.mp3 0:06 3 full Black Stone: The Prophet Sets the Stone https://qualla.com/black-stone/ Photo credit Amerrycan Muslim, CC BY-SA 3.0. A story preserved in Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad tells how the stone returned to its place in the rebuilt Kaaba. The clans of Mecca had renovated the structure after a fire. When the time came to replace the Black Stone, the clans quarreled. Each wanted the honor of setting...

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Image: Amerrycan Muslim | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/sgu3-black-stone-the-prophet-sets-the-stone.mp3 0:06 4 full Black Stone: Stolen, Shattered, Returned https://qualla.com/black-stone/ Photo credit mwanasimba, CC BY-SA 2.0. The most traumatic episode in the stone's history came in the 10th century. In 930, the Qarmatians - a Shia Ismaili sect in control of eastern Arabia - raided Mecca during the Hajj, killed many pilgrims, and carried the Black Stone back to their capital. They held it for twenty-t...

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Image: mwanasimba | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/sgu3-black-stone-stolen-shattered-returned.mp3 0:06 5 full Black Stone: The Ritual and the Science https://qualla.com/black-stone/ Photo credit Kskhh, CC BY-SA 4.0. During the tawaf - the seven counterclockwise circuits of the Kaaba that pilgrims perform during Hajj and Umrah - kissing the Black Stone, or touching it, or raising a hand toward it while saying Allahu Akbar, is traditional at the start of each circuit. Modern crowds make actual...

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Image: Kskhh | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/black-stone-wp/sgu3-black-stone-the-ritual-and-the-science.mp3 0:06 6 full