Stoning of the devil
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Stoning of the devil is an annual ritual of pilgrims throwing pebbles at a pillar in Mina, Saudi Arabia. This ritual reenacts Abraham's pilgrimage to Mecca, as explained by the Muslim historian al-Azraqi:
- When he [Abraham] left Mina and was brought down to (the defile called) al-Aqaba, the Devil appeared to him at Stone-Heap of the Defile. Gabriel said to him: “Pelt him!” so Abraham threw seven stones at him so that he disappeared from him. Then he appeared to him at the Middle Stone-Heap. Gabriel said to him: “Pelt him!” so he pelted him with seven stones so that he disappeared from him. Then he appeared to him at the Little Stone-Heap. Gabriel said to him: “Pelt him!” so he pelted him with seven stones like the little stones for throwing in a sling. So the Devil withdrew from him.
—F.E. Peters, A Reader on Classical Islam, Princeton University Press, 1994
The ritual stoning is performed by Muslim pilgrims who travel to the city of Mina just outside of Mecca. The act requires pilgrims to collect a number of pebbles from the ground on the plain of Muzdalifah (various Hajj accounts list the number of pebbles as between 49 and 70), and throw the pebbles at the three pillars at Mina, which represent the devil. All three pillars represent the devil: the first and largest is where he tempted Abraham against sacrificing Ishmael, the second is where he tempted Abraham's wife Hagar to induce her to stop him, and the third is where he tempted Ishmael to avoid being sacrificed. He was rebuked each time, and the throwing of the stones symbolizes those rebukes.
It is the most dangerous part of the pilgrimage because of the crush of people; oftentimes many hundreds have suffocated or been trampled to death. Some modern day Muslims also critize the manner in which the Stoning of the Devil is modernly portrayed, in that the ritual has taken a political meaning. In the January 2005 Hajj nearly one fourth of Muslims, present at the Stoning of the Devil ceremony, admitted that they were throwing stones not at the actual Devil, but at a representation of George W. Bush and American policies in the occupation of Iraq.
References
- F.E. Peters, A Reader on Classical Islam, Princeton University Press, 1994 (ISBN 0691033943)