Stone Worship Among the Semites and the Origin of the Black Stone The Complete Works Volume 25

Description

“As we saw in our discussion of the emergence of the symbol of divinity, this symbol may be derived from the animal world, such as the head of a bear or the head of a bull. Here, the animal is not worshipped for its own sake, but because it represents a reality that transcends it. The symbol may also be derived from the human world without the intention of bestowing a human form upon divinity.”

This book is divided into three sections. The first section addresses the phenomenon of stone worship in ancient human civilizations, culminating in the veneration of the Black Stone before and after Islam. It begins by exploring the origin of deities and the earliest manifestations of the sacred icon, whether in animal, plant, natural, or human forms, while also examining the removal of the stone from its natural environment and its elevation to the status of a sacred object. The second section, “Israelite Studies,” examines the history of Jerusalem and Palestine during the first half of the first millennium BCE, as well as the origins of Judaism and the worship of Yahweh. The third section compiles several studies, all revolving around the history of religions, including one on King Saul in the First Book of Samuel in the Torah, and another on the concept of the Messiah in the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran.