The signs of the Station in Tafsir al-Manar

The Station of Abraham is mentioned in the Qur'an 3:97 among the "clear signs" in the Sacred House, and there is a mark of two feet in the rock near the Ka'ba. This entry concerns the meaning of the verse as the commentary reads it, not the stone itself. Muhammad Rashid Rida holds that the Station is the place where Abraham used to stand to worship, and that the Arabs knew the footprint by transmission. ^{1 2}

Rida relates from al-Razi that the Station includes many signs: the footprint in solid rock, the foot sinking into it up to the ankles, the softening of one part of the rock while the rest stayed hard, and its survival for centuries. Rida holds that it is a strain to make "station" a plural for signs, and prefers the view that "the Station of Abraham" explains "the clear signs". ^{2 3}

Rida reports that some exegetes counted as signs the breaking of tyrants who intend harm to the House, the failure of beasts of prey to hunt within it, and the deflection of birds from flying over it. Rida rejects these, either because they are not signs, or they do not hold true, or they apply to other places. All of this is his own argument. ³

Rida reads that the footprint was made in a rock that was soft at the time of treading and then hardened, and holds that this is a possible reading of the line of Abu Talib's poem in which he mentions Abraham on the wet rock, and says that the poet may have meant that its softness was a mark of honour for Abraham. Rida also mentions another view that makes "station" a noun meaning all the rites of the pilgrimage. He prefers what he explained in its own place, that the Station is the place of prayer. ³

The classical historical and jurisprudential reports on the location of the Station and its trace have not yet been added, nor the views of contemporary researchers. No date for the trace is given in this entry.