and where he first received revelation. This was a place where people worshipped before Islam, for Hirā’ was the highest mountain there. After Islam came, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—visited Mecca several times, having lived there for ten-odd years before the Hijrah. Nevertheless, neither he nor his Companions would go to Hirā’.

When the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—performed Hajj, he touched the two Yemen-facing corners but did not touch the two Syria-facing corners, because the latter had not been built upon Abraham’s foundations, for most of the Hijr enclosure belongs to the House. He touched and kissed the Black Stone, but touched the Yemeni Corner without kissing it. He prayed at the Station of Abraham, but neither touched nor kissed it.

This shows that rubbing the walls of the Kaaba, apart from its two Yemen-facing corners, and kissing any part of it other than the Black Stone are not part of the Sunnah. It also shows that touching and kissing the Station of Abraham are not part of the Sunnah. If this applies to the Kaaba itself and the Station of Abraham beside it, then it is well known that all mosques are less sacred than the Kaaba, and that Abraham’s stations in Greater Syria and elsewhere, and all the other stations of the prophets, are inferior to the Station concerning which Allah said:

“Take the Station of Abraham as a place of prayer.”

It follows that the other stations are not to be deliberately sought out for prayer, just as pilgrimage is not to be made to other shrines, nor are they to be rubbed. No part of the prophets’ stations, the mosques, the Rock, or anything else is to be kissed. Nothing on the face of the earth is to be kissed except the Black Stone.