While navigating through different social media platforms, you might have come across numerous Christians who, instead of addressing the societal failures of Western Christianity, tend to be overtly critical of Islam, despite Muslims not holding any sort of authority in the West, especially not when it comes to socially engineer it towards liberalism and secularization.

Among the many accusations they throw one of the most common talking points is that of Muslims supposedly “worshipping” the Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad), found in the eastern corner of the Ka’abah.

Because of the virtues associated with it (such as the expiation of sins), Muslims tend to touch and kiss it, which for these particular Christians is an act of idolatry.

Such a line of reasoning is faulty for different reasons.

The Black Stone On Its Own

To begin with, “worshipping” entails the notion that the object of worship is considered divine on its own authority, but the Black Stone has no such status, as otherwise we’d find Qur’anic verses about its special status; in fact in a well-known authentic hadith ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) famously says that he kisses the Black Stone only because he saw the Prophet (ﷺ) do so (it goes without saying that kissing in itself doesn’t necessarily mean worship, like you’d kiss some family member).

We thus read in Sahih Bukhari 1597 (there are many other versions of this hadith with just the wording differing slightly, such as in Sahih Muslim 1270):

Narrated `Abis bin Rabi`a: `Umar came near the Black Stone and kissed it and said “No doubt, I know that you are a stone and can neither benefit anyone nor harm anyone. Had I not seen Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) kissing you I would not have kissed you.”

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“Mariolatry” Contrasted

This is not even comparable to when Protestants accuse Catholics of “Mariolatry”, as the latter have a specific form of devotion for the mother of Jesus (peace be upon him), hyperdulia, qualitatively below the worship of God or the Trinity (latria) but above that of saints (dulia).

Catholics would reply that the idea of Mary being “mother of God” (theotokos) was endorsed by the early Church theological authorities and formalized later in the ecumenical councils, as we read in the Chalcedonian Creed (451) for example:

(…) begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood (…)

This is an intra-Christian debate, but the point is, they can’t accuse Muslims of idolatry because they “kiss the Black Stone”, considering they have a whole theology of worship for Mary who’s not even included in their divinized pantheon (the Trinity).

The Black Stone not being in any way or form comparable in Islam to the place Mary symbolically occupies in Christianity, like too often, this Christian argument becomes self-defeating.

We just have to read the numerous “Marian prayers” and see if we could find similar “Black Stone prayers”, as Muslims are accused of “worshipping it”.

Excerpts from one of those famous Catholic Marian prayers, “Our Mother of Perpetual Help”

Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners who have recourse to thee; come to my aid, dearest Mother, for I recommend myself to thee. In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, dear Mother, I fear no thing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them, nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all Hell together; nor even from Jesus, my Judge, because by one prayer from thee, He will be appeased.

Could a Christian find for us a similar “Black Stone prayer”? After all, if it’s indeed worshipped, it should be the object of numerous prayers, hymns, and generic devotional poetry directed towards it and highlighting its unique and distinctive qualities.

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…Self-Own?

Another counter-argument is that, due to practical reasons, mainly overcrowding, many if not Muslims would not even touch nor kiss the Black Stone, which is recommended but not necessary, thus further confirming that the Black Stone is not “worshipped (on its own)”, as otherwise, the ritual would be unfulfilled, but it isn’t the case.

Perhaps the worst for Christians is that all of this narrative in fact is a sort of self-own: Indeed, because they implicitly admit that they indulge in open forms of idolatry, they stop rationalizing the Trinity and just want to drag Muslims back into the same mud, “yes we’re idolaters, but so are you!”.

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We hope Christian apologetics can finally rise above such petty arguments and try to defend their theology through intellectual reasoning instead of attacking Islam on the basis of groundless emotionalism.