Why is a meteor worshipped at Mecca? What's it's significance?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by Medicine*Woman, Jan 12, 2009.

  1. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,452
    What good comes from kissing space debris anyways? How has it affected the Muslims, good or bad?
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. swarm Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,207
    Well the hadj is famous for crushing people to death in mob hysteria. I think a bunch of people suffocated once too.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Kissing the debris as you call it, is just one of the rituals of umra or Haj. How has it affected Muslims? For better or worse, it keeps us as one people. Even if the Kaaba were to go away tomorrow, it would just be rebuilt, in and of itself, neither the Kaaba nor the stones have any value. They are just symbols of a shared history, an incentive to ask questions about the past of Islam, much like everything else in Mecca.
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,452
    Are Christians & Jews allowed to kiss it?

    Has the space rock ever been analyze as to composition? What's it made of?
     
  8. swarm Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,207
    THe black rock actually looks like the slag which formed from the impact of a meteor or from volcanic activity. This tends to be 90ish% fused glass from local sands and 5-10% iron/nickle and oxides. Here is some from the Wabar impact site

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    and a nice collection of similar glasses of volcanic and meteoric origin: http://www.b14643.de/Tektites/index.htm
     
  9. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Christians and Jews have been forbidden in Mecca since the Sauds started controlling Hejaz. Except when they let in French soldiers etc

    No, its never been analysed. Besides, there is no way of knowing if its the original black rock anyway.
     
  10. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,285
    Do you think that these magical stones will speak to you after you are dead IF you kiss them?

    How about Allah or Mohammad? Do you think that these magical beings will speak to you after you are dead IF you pray to them?


    I think that this is why the rocks are fascinating. How can a person, on the one hand, recognize that these people believe in kissing the magical rocks in the hopes that will help them after they are dead, while in the other, pray to magical beings in hopes they will help them after they are dead? It's odd, really.
     
  11. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    One of the common stories associated with the black rock.

    Also the Saudis are pretty good about standing there and telling anyone who looks too worshipful, Its only sunnah, don't make it shirk.

    They also do this at the Muqaam-e-Ibrahim.
     
  12. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,452
    Rock kissing is something I would consider paranormal. Yes, millions have done it but what is driving them to do it? What is the enticement, the allure, the reward for bussing a boulder?
     
  13. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    No idea, but its a pretty old tradition. You must have heard of the Blarney stone?
     
  14. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,452
    I have. In Newfoundland they have a ceremony for first time visitors where they make you an honorary Newfoundlander by Kissing the Cod. Now everyone knows its just for fun so I wonder if the meteor liplock started as a joke and somewhere along the line it became serious.
     
  15. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Like I said, it was a part of an earlier structure and became a point of diplomacy after the structure was rebuilt. Kissing is a very Arab thing.
     
  16. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,452
    Oh I wouldn't restrict kissing to the Arab domain. It's global. Are you referring to the man to man part of smooching?
     
  17. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,285
    It's perfectly fine to kiss these rocks. It's tradition.

    The funny point is Islam is supposed to be against idolatry yet practices idolatry right in it's most holy site.

    People are funny like that.
     
  18. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    No I mean the tradition of kissing as a way of greeting.
     
  19. swivel Sci-Fi Author Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,494
    Oh no you didn't.
     
  20. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Yeah, kissing a rock is clearly idolatory.

    Ever get the notion that atheists have very fixed beliefs as much as they claim theists do?

    /smooches rock on ring finger
     
  21. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,285
    To the OP: Why is a meteor worshipped at Mecca?

    For a few people it only a tradition.
    For most Muslims it's another superstition in their larger superstitious world view. Simply put, they truly believe the rocks are magical and will one day talk to them, or even bless them right then and there. Such superstitious belief is absolutely no different than believing in the lucky number 7 or lucky 8s or the magical Allah. It's all exactly the same.

    M
     

Share This Page