The 365 · Sunnah · Day 238 · Special Days
The Stoning of the Pillars
The hadith
قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ: إِنَّمَا جُعِلَ الطَّوَافُ بِالْبَيْتِ وَبَيْنَ الصَّفَا وَالْمَرْوَةِ وَرَمْيُ الْجِمَارِ لِإِقَامَةِ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ
The Prophet ﷺ said: Verily, ṭawāf around the House, walking between Ṣafā and Marwah, and the stoning of the pillars have been ordained for the remembrance of Allah. (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī)
Svenska: Profeten ﷺ sa: Sannerligen, tawāf kring Huset, vandringen mellan Ṣafā och Marwa, och stenkastningen vid pelarna har föreskrivits för Guds åminnelse. (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi)
Sunan Abū Dāwūd 1888, Sunan Tirmidhī 902, on the authority of ʿĀʾishah radiya Allāhu ʿanhā. The reason for every Hajj ritual is the remembrance of Allah.
The story
Iblīs appeared to Ibrāhīm at three points along the path: the first jamrah, the middle jamrah, and the great jamrah. Each time he whispered: do you really intend to slaughter your son? Each time Ibrāhīm picked up seven pebbles and threw them. Each time Iblīs sank back into the earth. The Prophet ﷺ said: When you stone the jamrah, what you are stoning is the throwing of Ibrāhīm (Aḥmad). The act is a continuation of his refusal.
Why it's here
The pilgrim picks up seven small pebbles, climbs to the great pillar (Jamrat al-ʿAqabah), and throws them while saying Allāhu akbar with each throw. The pebbles are tiny: the size of a chickpea, not a stone of violence. The act is a re-enactment: Ibrāhīm ʿalayhi al-salām, on his way to sacrifice his son Ismāʿīl, was met three times by Iblīs trying to talk him out of obedience. Each time, Ibrāhīm threw stones and Iblīs fled. The pilgrim re-walks that path. Each pebble is a public refusal of the voice that says: you do not have to obey.
Try it today
1) Identify your three Iblīs whispers from this week: the recurring suggestions you keep entertaining. 2) Prepare a takbīr for each: when the whisper comes, say Allāhu akbar aloud and do the opposite of what it suggested. 3) Carry a small pebble in your pocket as a private tactile reminder: I am still throwing.
In your day
The pebble is small because the temptations of Iblīs are small at the surface. He does not whisper 'abandon Islam'. He whispers 'skip this prayer'. 'Look once.' 'Stay one more minute on the screen.' 'Argue back this time.' The believer's response is small too: a takbīr, a tongue bitten, a phone put down, a foot turned toward the masjid. The smallness is the point. You do not defeat Iblīs in one heroic act; you defeat him seven small pebbles at a time, three times a day, every day.
A reflection to carry
Notice the architecture of the rite. The pillars stand where Iblīs stood. The pebbles are small, almost laughable. The throwing is brief. But you do it three days in a row, twenty-one pebbles per day at maximum, in a sea of millions of pilgrims doing the same. The repetition is the teaching. Iblīs is not defeated by one big moment of clarity; he is defeated by a habit of refusal. Every prayer you protect is a pebble. Every honest word is a pebble. Every gaze lowered is a pebble. The point is not the size of any single throw; it is that you keep throwing.
Read the longer reflection
There is something easy to miss in this rite. Iblīs cannot be killed; he was given respite until the Day. The pilgrim does not finish Iblīs. He only refuses him. And the refusal is what is honored, not the elimination. This is huge for the believer who keeps losing the same battle. You will fight the same nafs your whole life. You will throw at the same Iblīs your whole life. The promise is not that the enemy disappears; the promise is that every throw is recorded as a public refusal that Allah accepts. The Prophet ﷺ said the throwing is ordained for the remembrance of Allah. That is the secret. The pebble is not aimed at Iblīs; it is aimed at proving to Allah that your hand is on His side. Every takbīr with every throw is a tiny renewal of the alliance. Yā Allāh, let our small refusals count as our great obediences. Let every pebble of resistance against the whisper of Iblīs be inscribed on the Day among the deeds we sent forward. Āmīn.
Sources: Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ahmad. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free