Page 51 - New English Book L

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Chapter III

The Mystery of the “Mispa”

In this article, as the title shows, I shall try to give an

exposition of the ancient Hebrew Cult of Stone, which
they inherited from Abraham (pbuh) , their great progenitor,
and to show that this Stone-Cult was instituted at Makkah
by that Patriarch and his son Ishmael (pbuh) ; in the land of
Canaan by Isaac (pbuh) and Jacob (pbuh) ; and in Moab and
elsewhere by the other descendants of Abraham (pbuh) .

By the term “Stone-Cult,” let it be understood, I
do not mean stone-worship, which is idolatry; by it I
understand the worship of God at a specially consecrated
stone meant for that purpose. In those days of yore, when
the chosen family was leading a nomadic and pastoral
life, it had no settled habitation where to build a house,
especially dedicated to the worship of God; it used to erect
a particular stone around which it used to make a hajj;
that is to say, to turn round seven times in the form of a
dancing-ring. The word hajj might frighten the Christian
readers and they might shrink at its sight because of
its Arabic form and because of its being at present a
Muslim religious performance. The word hajj is exactly
identical in meaning and etymology with the same in
the Hebrew and other Semitic languages. The Hebrew
verb hagag is the same as the Arabic hajaj, the difference
being only in the pronunciation of the third letter of the
Semitic alphabet gamal, which the Arabs pronounce as
j. The Law of Moses (pbuh) uses this very word hagag or
haghagh. [1] when it orders the festival ceremonies to be
performed. The word signifies to compass a building,
an altar or a stone by running round it at a regular

[1] . Unlike the Arabs, both the Hebrew as well as the Aramaic peoples have no j
sound in their alphabet; their third letter, gamal, when hard has g sound and when
soft or aspirate becomes guttural and sounds gb. (The author).