“…A single prayer in this mosque of mine is better than a thousand prayers elsewhere—apart from the Sacred Mosque.”

The second mosque, of course, is the one whose pilgrimage and circumambulation Allah has made obligatory and which He has appointed as the qiblah of His believing servants. Yet even in these two sanctuaries nothing is to be kissed with the lips or touched with the hand except that which Allah has placed on earth as the counterpart of His Right Hand—the Black Stone. How, then, could al-Masjid al-Aqṣā contain any object that is to be stroked or kissed?

The Rock itself was left uncovered, and none of the Companions—whether governors or scholars—ever singled it out for any act of devotion. It remained exposed during the caliphates of ʿUmar and ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with them both—while they held authority over Syria, and the same was true in the caliphate of ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—though he did not rule the region directly. The situation continued likewise under the governorship of Muʿāwiyah, his son, and his grandson.

When the time of ʿAbd al-Malik arrived and the civil strife between him and Ibn al-Zubayr intensified, it was ʿAbd al-Malik who erected the dome over the Rock. It is said that people would set out for the Hajj and gather around Ibn al-Zubayr, or travel to him under the pretext of pilgrimage, so ʿAbd al-Malik magnified the Rock’s standing by building the dome upon it and draping it with ornate coverings