Hajj: Going Beyond the Rituals

Contents:

What is the purpose of Hajj and why is it important to Muslims - Muslim Ink

His life is worth reading about before going for Hajj or if you simply want to understand Hajj better. When Muslims perform Hajj, they are reminded of his powerful legacy which recharges their commitment to the religion and thus helps them attain pure faith in God. The fact that Hajj has been going on every year for thousands of years of human history shows that it has to be divinely legislated.

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Human beings are incapable of starting such a movement. Many of us who go for Hajj focus a lot in learning the rituals, and of course we must. However, preparing the heart for the pilgrimage should not be any less important. We must prepare our heart to attain the purpose of Hajj. This is called tawheed in Arabic. This is the heart of our belief.

The moment pilgrims enter ihraam ritual state to perform hajj , they start proclaiming the Talbiyah. Repeating the Talbiyah makes the heart firm on the fact that Allah is one and that there is no partner besides Him. He, our Creator, is sufficient for us and He alone is in control of everything. Hajj is a worship prescribed by Allah on mankind so we listen and obey. The ultimate purpose behind every worship is obedience to Allah. Taqwa is translated as piety in English. Piety is the fruit of obedience and is also a purpose in itself.

Obedience to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ

Since Hajj is the Ultimate Goal. This is what inspired me to write this book to give you the procedures and other important information in making this final Goal. Worldly and otherworldly benefits Muslims view the material world as a bridge to the Hereafter A Muslim needs this world and employs it to achieve his.

In Hajj, Muslims practice piety from the time they decide to enter the state of performing the pilgrimage. The pilgrims also abstain from what is normally permissible outside Hajj. It also means a journey or search, especially one of exalted purpose. In the legal sense, Hajj refers to pilgrimage to the House of Allah, the Ka'bah , in a specific bodily and mental state, and within a specific time frame to perform specific rituals. As such, Hajj is a broad and extensive form of worship that requires one to put together and manage his financial, physical, mental and emotional resources for an extended period of time in which one has to perform a large number of deeds of varying religious weights-prerequisites, obligatory and recommended acts-which require of one a reasonable knowledge of what, how, and where to do each one of these particular acts.

Those who have been to Hajj or studied it attest to how intricate performing Hajj can be. Yet, performing the Hajj rituals in accordance with the Shari'ah is not of much concern in the discussions that follow. Instead, our focus will be the other aspects of Hajj, alluded to in the aforementioned verses and ahadeeth. We seek to shed light on some of the significant concepts and meanings Hajj epitomizes, meanings to which many pilgrims are, unfortunately, either oblivious or indifferent, a fact succinctly depicted in the story of the man who remarked out loud as he saw the massive crowds of pilgrims sweeping through the valley of Muzdalifah: Look at the number of pilgrims!

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The passengers are many, but the pilgrims are few. On the face of it, Hajj rituals may seem to be mostly physical and financial in nature, but when we deeply consider what is being carried out, in any of Hajj's various stages, we realize that it is these other meanings and objectives so-called maqasid or ultimate goals and intents of Shari'ah that are being emphasized to the pilgrims, not the rituals themselves.

It is true such maqasid as well as the spiritual dimension are essential to all types of worship in Islam, but the variety of the acts forming Hajj worship and the magnitude of the maqasid and the meanings implicit in them are of a far more impressive measure-and so too their spiritual impact-than any other Islamic form of worship. Here is a brief discussion of some of these maqasid. Ihram is the first pillar of Hajj and probably the most powerful form of Islamic worship a Muslim can ever experience.

It is a time when one consciously declares intention to begin the Hajj rites. Thus Ihram is an act through which the pilgrim acknowledges the sacredness and reverence of the worship of Hajj, God's House Ka'bah and the Sanctuary Haram surrounding it, which one does by not passing the miqat way mark, which establishes the worshipful precincts of the Ka'bah without being in the state of Ihram. All pilgrims of all social, racial and economic backgrounds remove all apparent signs of their differences by donning the same two pieces of simple, white cloth.

Moreover, every pilgrim declares the same intention and utters the same words of submission to Allah, the One God, known as the talbiyah.

Hajj 2017 emotional scenes

Each one asserts out loud: Ever at your service! This they proclaim in response to Allah's Call pronounced by Abraham, alayhes salam , to humankind to submit to Allah and come in pilgrimage to Allah's House and Sacred place. Every pilgrim is to avoid all that is not of concern to one, give up many desires, permitted and prohibited, diminish all causes of division and schism, magnify equality and fairness, and sanctify life and the rights of others, Muslims and non-Muslims. These are some of the main dimensions the acts of Ihram seek to emphasize.

In this sense, Ihram not only symbolizes but helps pilgrims actually embody a return to fitrah , the original state of goodness: Loving God, loathing all that He forbade, and being in a state of submission to His Commandments and Will. Emigrating to Allah One may look at Hajj as a physical-spiritual journey to God, because in essence, a pilgrim parts with his loved ones, wealth, and work and heads to the Sacred Places hoping for Allah's reward and forgiveness.

Hajj is also a way of commitment in which one demonstrates one's determination to free oneself from wrong and bad, and to engage life afresh in a new existence, as it were, centered on Allah's love and obedience. Indeed, Hajj, as one Muslim sage has so aptly stated it, is "a long journey, but of returning, not going. The pilgrim is not going to Makkah. He is returning to his source, Allah, the Source of Everything. Another way of understanding this statement is possible if we realize that Hajj's ultimate benefit and impact is in the return home-the lightness that every pilgrim feels and the happiness that overtakes one at the moment of finishing all the rites and getting prepared to go back to family and loved ones.

In this sense and for this reason, the scholars put much emphasize on what happens after Hajj and how a pilgrim handles his relationship with Allah thereafter. Muslims go to Hajj in response to Allah's call to them, through Prophet Abraham, to immigrate physically and spiritually to His House. They will come to you on foot and mounted on every kind of lean beast, coming from every remote path" [ Answering Allah's call, Muslims emerge from every corner of the world, "fleeing" to Allah, turning to Him and taking refuge in Him from disbelief and disobedience, thereby escaping His punishment-a concept which the Qur'an refers to as fleeing evil as well as anything that takes one away from leading a pious life: Unfortunately, the idea of "fleeing" or separation from sin, which Hajj deeply implies in its rituals, escapes the minds of many pilgrims.

If a pilgrim really grasps the immigration concept implicit in the acts of Hajj, he or she will distance him- or herself from disobedience like the east is from the west. For the hadeeth has is it that ". Thus, missing out on this great concept of separation that the Hajj implies prevents one from achieving the optimal benefits and possibilities embedded in this incredible act of worship. Pilgrims must keep this in mind. Hajj motivates one to struggle in the path of Allah, bolsters one's ability to see it through, and creates willingness in one to take obedience of Allah to the next level.

While in Hajj, a Muslim is to endure, graciously, all the difficulties the trip to the Sacred Places involves to please his Lord. And since that entails a lot of patience and steadfastness, the Hajj was described by the Prophet, sal-lallahu alayhe wa sallam , as an act of jihad , " Moreover, Allah guarantees full reward for the pilgrim.

The Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , said: The tazkiyah one is to gain from this struggle with his or herself and this guarantee from the Lord of the Worlds are great motivations for Muslims to take Hajj seriously and expect a major enrichment in their relationship with Allah upon returning from it. Muslims, from Adam, alayhes salam, to the end of time, belong to a single brotherhood ummah. They are bound together by the concept of Tawheed Monotheism.

What is the purpose of Hajj and why is it important to Muslims - Muslim Ink

In Hajj, this concept of Tawheed -based solidarity is translated into deeds as Muslims from a wide range of backgrounds stand united in one place, worshipping one god, undivided by race, color, language or nationality. The Qur'an taught in many verses that all human beings descend from a single ancestor, that none has an intrinsic right of superiority over another, whatever one's race, nation, or social standing.

Also, this concept of unity and equality is highlighted in many ahadeeth, like the one narrated by Jabir who reported that the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , addressed his followers on the second day of the Days of Tashreeq that is, the days of where the meat one has sacrificed is dried, the 11th, 12th, and 13th of the month of Thul Hijjah.

Indeed, you have one Lord Allah and one father Adam. No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, or a non-Arab to an Arab; and no white is superior to a non-white or a non-white to a white. Superiority is by righteousness and conscious fear of God in piety [alone]. We will definitely miss the gist of our Prophet's preaching about the oneness, equality, and brotherliness of all Muslims if we discriminate against one another; if, in our dealings with one another, we allow ourselves to be swayed by considerations of ethnicity, social standing, or national backgrounds; or if we cut ourselves off from the ummah , become cocooned in the den of our personal concerns and wallow in stoicism and indifference when all sorts of sufferings, injustices, and aggressions are heaped on the heads of our Muslim brothers and sisters, and of so many of our fellows in humanity.

A Muslim is by definition one that honors the deen of Allah and places it before anything else. He or she never allows contradicting human-contrived views to take precedence over Allah's divine commands. A Muslim sees the Shari'ah as infallible; accepts and submits to all of its dictations even when it is hard to grasp the Divine wisdom in them. Even though most of the Shari'ah is understood and its rationality may be appreciated, there are certain aspects of it matters of strict rituals that are intended to be less clearer-with at least one of their purposes being to differentiate those who believe from those who don't.

If something is factually established as part of the Shari'ah , it should be glorified and applied. This position is so clearly reflected throughout the rituals of Hajj, but more explicitly, in the act of kissing al-Hajar al-Aswad The so-called Black Stone.

Reward Yourself

On page 2, although trivial, instead of the word "the" the word "die" has been used. For the hadeeth has is it that ". Surely we are from Allah, and surely we are returning. Rather, it stems from the desire to know the reasons behind Hajj's consequential status, in order to make this knowledge a motivation to perform Hajj and do it in the best way possible. The pilgrim's prize is nothing other than the full forgiveness of one's entire misdeeds. Muhammad Baqir Haideri Haideri.

As we know, the Black Stone is just a stone and is incapable of benefiting or harming anyone. But because die Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , used to kiss it whenever he circled the Ka'bah, Muslims follow faithfully and kiss it too. This understanding is best illustrated by the statement of Caliph Umar ibnul Khattab who said, addressing the Black Stone: I know that you arc just a stone that is incapable of either benefiting or harming anyone.

Thus had I not seen the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , kiss you, I would not have kissed you" Bukhari. A standard feature of Islam that is very clearly and unquestionably demonstrated in the Qur'an and the Sunnah is the obligation that Muslims should part ways with polytheists. We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone" [ The Hajj rituals display and consolidate this notion of Muslims' disassociation from concepts, practices, and ways of disbelievers. We learn from seerah the biographical accounts of the Prophet's life, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , that the actions of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , in Arafah and Muzdalifah, as well as his attitude, were dissimilar from those of the polytheists in these two places in the Pre-Islamic era.

He explained, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam , the reasons for his act by saying: It is indeed a significant lesson concerning the Muslim's attitude toward the actions, attitudes, and rituals of polytheists and idol worshippers. Anyone who emulates the polytheists and adopts their ethics, conduct, appearance, or lifestyle has indeed failed to appreciate the Prophet's teachings in this regard, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam.

Allah Says what means: Al-Qurtubi commented on this verse thus: Indeed, the polytheists are unclean, so let them not approach Al-Masjid Al-Haraam after this year Here I am at Your service. You have no partner.

Assuredly, all praise and gratitude are for You, and all dominion. You have no partner! Beware invalidators and detractors.

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The following acts are strictly prohibited while in state of Hajj: Committing all or some of the above-mentioned acts either divests one from the Hajj rewards altogether or diminishes his share of them. Commenting on this verse, Abu Bakr Al-Jassaas said: And the emphasis on the prohibition of such acts in the state of Ihraam doesn't mean that they are permissible in other settings; rather, it indicates that committing them while one is in state of Ihraam makes one liable for more of the Divine Wrath than if he perpetrates them somewhere else.

The pilgrim's prize is nothing other than the full forgiveness of his entire misdeeds.

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And what an honor! For a pilgrim, what could be more fulfilling or dignifying than to successfully offer Hajj properly and return from it invested with Allah's Pleasure and Blessings, and with his balance of sins zeroed out! About Us Contact Us. Tuesday, September 18, Muharram 6, What is your top aim for Hajj?