The baby Jesus was presented to God in the temple at Jerusalem. A temple that has never been defiled by an idol. As a child, he participated in the custom of his people by going to worship in the temple. For example, in the book of Luke, chapter 2 verse 41 to 50, we read that when Jesus was twelve years old, he was in the temple of Jerusalem in the midst of doctors of the law discussing the Holy Scriptures with them, and the doctors of the law were startled by his intelligence and took pleasure in staying with him. Meanwhile, when Muhammad was a child, he showed strange signs to the point where his own nurse was afraid to keep him and return him to his mother. On page 53 of the biography of ibn Hicham, we read that when the nanny brought Muhammad back to his mother, she asked her: do you fear Satan for this child? And she answered “Yes ”. The nurse saw that Muhammad was showing signs of someone possessed, and brought him back to his mother. She was afraid to keep a child influenced by demons.
Idolatry Practices Before Islam
Before Islam, Muhammad also followed idolatrous customs. One of these customs consisted of turning around the Ka’aba; which was filled with 360 idols, naked and to kiss the black stone which was in one of its corners. From page 79 to page 80 of the biography of ibn Hicham, we read that Muhammad used to make a month-long retreat every year at hira in two places in Mecca where he fed the poor who begged him. The text then tells us this: “It was a practice of hanifiyya which was carried out by some men of the Quuraish before Islam. After a month, he left his retreat and even before returning home he went to the Ka’aba and performed around it a 7 rounds ritual. So, you see that Muhammad was not the only one to make this retreat but it is written that it is a practice of idolaters for their god. And this took place before Islam. This means that Muhammad performed these 7 rounds ritual around the Ka’aba filled with 360 idols.
But before Islam, this ritual was carried out naked and it was Abu Bakr, the first Caliph who banned it after the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad. In Sahih Bukhari volume 1 hadith no 1622, we read “Abu hurayra says: The prophet entrusted the patronage of the hajj which preceded the pilgrimage of farewell to Abu Bakr as siddiq. On the day of the sacrifice, Abu Bakr sent me among a group of people as herald to announce the decree that after this year no polytheist is allowed to come on pilgrimage and no pilgrim is allowed to do tawaf naked. One of the proofs that shows that kissing the black stone was a pagan ritual in which Muhammad was indulging was that, even after the advent of Islam, the second Caliph Omar was not convinced to kiss it, because it was the same stone that Arabian idolaters kissed before Islam. In Sahih Bukhari volume 1, hadith no.1597, we read: Omar ibn al Khattab walked towards the black stone of the Ka’aba, kissed it and said: Certainly! I know you are just a stone with no action for good or bad! If I hadn’t seen the prophet kissing you, I wouldn’t have.
