Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Black Stone (while performing Tawaf), kissed it, and said, “I know that you are a stone, you do not cause benefit or harm; and if it were not that I had seen Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) kiss you, I would never have kissed you.” (Al-Bukhari) The great companion and caliph Umar reminded us in this narration that benefit and harm are not caused by created objects and thus no benefit or harm should be sought from them. Only Allah has control over these things. We also learn that acts of worship are taken from Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him). A person is not supposed to make up his own way of worship. He must follow the manner of worship which the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught and practiced. Moreover, once an action is confirmed in the Sunnah, the believer submits, complies with it and implements it in his practice, though he may not know the wisdom behind it. This is because it was Allah's Messenger who did it. This narration is also an example of how a responsible person tries to clarify and do away with any misunderstanding that people may have about matters of faith. The people during Umar's time had recently renounced their disbelief and polytheism, so Umar wanted to make it clear that kissing the Black Stone is by no means an act of devotion to it, as the people used to do with their stone idols. – Adapted from Ibn Hajr, Fath Al
