MUSLIMS CAN VIRTUALLY TOUCH KAABA’S BLACK STONE FROM HOME

Sat 25 December 2021:

Saudi Arabia has announced a new program that would allow Muslims all around the world to virtually touch the Black Stone in Mecca’s Kaaba using Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

Sheikh Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz Al-Sudais, the General President for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, announced the program.

تقرير مرئي| تدشين مبادرة “الحجر الأسود الافتراضي”#رئاسة_شؤون_الحرمين pic.twitter.com/aPLXOqOPgs

— رئاسة شؤون الحرمين (@ReasahAlharmain) December 16, 2021

The “Virtual Black Stone Initiative” will be run by the General Administration of Digital Exhibitions, which is part of the Kingdom’s Agency for Exhibitions and Museums Affairs, in collaboration with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research at the University of Umm al-Qura. The goal of the effort is to combine virtual reality (VR) and digital experiences to imitate real life.

Saudi Arabian authorities released new photos in May that show a never-before-seen close-up of the Black Stone in Mecca’s Kaaba.

The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques captured the details on the Black Stone – known as Hajar Aswad in Arabic – with a new technique that uses stacked panoramic focus.

However, not everyone is happy with the initiative.

Some social media users saw the use of virtual reality technology in holy places as “tampering with religion” and “fiddling with God’s Sharia”, while others wondered if Muslims will perform pilgrimage, which requires circumambulating around the Kaaba, using VR goggles from their homes instead of going to Mecca.

All able-bodied Muslims are expected to perform Hajj, the major annual pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in their lives.

The famed Black Stone, according to Muslims, came directly from heaven and was handed to Prophet Abraham by the angel Gabriel.

The stone is set within a pure silver coating and is roughly a meter and a half from the ground in the corner of the Kaaba.

This isn’t the first Black Stone-technology crossover Saudi Arabia has attempted this year.

In May, Saudi Arabia took 1,050 high-resolution photographs over seven hours of the Black Stone, which Muslims touch, kiss, or wave while walking past it.

NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN IMAGES OF KAABA’S BLACK STONE

The photographs, which were 49,000 megapixels in size, took more than 50 hours to develop, revealing in sharp focus the details of the holy relic, which was once white but has turned black over the centuries due to use.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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