Apart from being a religious journey to Makkah that all Muslims try to make at least once in their lives, Haj is also an unparalleled spiritual experience
THE grand annual congregation of millions of the Muslims from all parts of the world during the lunar month of Zil Haj is not only a religious ritual, but also an occasions to pay homage to Hazrat Ibrahim (Biblical Abraham), the founder of monotheism, or “belief in a living God”, as Montgomery Walt defines it in Muhammad at Madina. According to him, “it is Islam alone which has preserved this reality”.
All rites performed in this pilgrimage and a series of actions prescribed for Haj date back to 2000BC or the period when Mohenjodaro was exporting textiles to Mesopotamia, the birthplace of Hazrat Ibrahim. It was then that this prophet and patriarch of the Semitic race, Hazrat Ibrahim, reconstructed the Kaaba, “the ancient house (of worship)” as the Holy Quran calls it (Sura: 22, verse: 29) when his son, Hazrat Ismail (Ishmael) came of age and was able to assist his father.
The Holy Quran describes the reconstruction of Kaaba “by raising the foundations of the house” in these words: “God made the house a resort and a sanctuary for mankind, where believers should pray at the place where Abraham stood to pray. And God has taken the commitment from Abraham and Ishmael to purify the Kaaba (literally a four-walled structure) for those who will circumambulate or go round it and those who will meditate therein and those who will bow down and prostrate themselves in worship,” (2:125-27).
In its post-Islamic refined form, by disallowing certain profane practices which were in vogue in ‘Jahilia’, or the period of ignorance, the Haj pilgrimage is a practical demonstration of the belief that Kaaba is the primeval centre of monotheism round which the believers, who can afford to visit it from all corners of the world, should rally physically and go round it, barefoot, wrapping themselves up in two sheets of unstitched and undyed cloth, wearing primitive kind of sandals (not modern shoes or boots) with the sole fastened to the coot by a strap and avoiding all sophistication as prophet Abraham would have done four millenniums ago.
The Old Testament tells us that Prophet Abraham used to erect a stone to make an altar and a place for God’s worship wherever he felt the land was suitable for this purpose (Genesis 12:7-8). So, an altar for sacrifice had to exist close to the Kaaba, the place of worship, if one goes by what the Genesis informs us about the location of the altar near the place of worship. This fact supports the traditional Muslim belief that the intended sacrifice of Hazrat Ismail took place near the hillock peak of Marwa close to the present plain ground of Mina, the suburb of Kaaba.
The mountain of Moriah below which is Mina, the place of animal sacrifice during Haj exists. It is actually the peak of Marwa which is now enclosed in the Haram at Makkah where the pilgrims perform ‘Sayee’ enacting Hazrat Hajira’s desperate running between the two peaks of Safa and Marwa in search of water for her infant son, and according to another account, Hazrat Ibrahim went hastily from Safa to Marwa to sacrifice his adult son in compliance of divine wish.
Makkah, according to the Holy Quran, happens to be the first human settlement and Kaaba, “the first house (of worship) set up for mankind at Bacca, (the pre-historic name of Makkah), a blessed place and guidance for all the world” (3:96-97).
No discussion of Haj can be complete and conclusive without throwing light on Makkah and the Haram-i-Kaaba located in this city’s confines. Ibne Khaldun writes in his Muqaddima that ‘Makkah is said to have originated when Adam built it opposite “the much frequented house”, as the Holy Quran refers to the Kaaba (952:4). Later on, Makkah was destroyed by the flood (Noah’s deluge) ... There is no sound historical information in this connection, expect the indication in the verse of the Holy Quran “when Abraham raised the foundation of the house” (2:127).
According to the Islamic belief, Hazrat Adam was the first man as well as the first prophet and Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon both) the last Prophet of God. It is, therefore, more logical than illogical to assume that the Almighty raised the last prophet with perfect and final message at the same place where the first prophet had laid the foundation of the first place of God’s worship in the beginning of human history.
Phillip Hitti, basing his opinion on the archaeological and philological evidences, considers the Arabian peninsula as “the cradle of the Semitic family, which nursed those peoples who migrated into the Fertile Crescent and, subsequently, became the Babylonians, the Assyrians the Phoenicians and the Hebrews of history. Arabia, which once formed the natural continuation of the Sahara and the sandy belt which traverses Asia through central Persia and the Gobi desert was pre-eminently habitable grassland” (History of the Arabs). This provides a scientific prop to the theory of Adam being the founder of Kaaba and Makkah.
According to Muslim gnostics or the Sufis who perceive the truth not by reasoning but through mystic contemplation, Kaaba has been the place of Allah’s worship since the advent of man on this planet. Allama Yusuf Ali, in his English translation of the Holy Quran, says: “Makkah is being traditionally associated with Abraham and with Adam and Eve.” About Arafat, mentioned in verse 197 of Surah Baqrah, he records that it “commemorates the reunion of Adam and Eve after their wanderings”. Literally, Arafat means ‘recognition’ marking the place where both of them recognized each other and prayed to God on the nearby Jabal-i-Rahmat (mount of mercy). Hardby is Muzdalfa, literally meaning ‘meeting place’, where Adam and Eve are said to have rested and stayed together. This place has been named in the Holy Quran (2:198) as ‘Masharul Haraam’ meaning ‘sacred monument’. These places in the outskirts of Makkah are required to be visited by pilgrims during Haj as part of the prescribed rituals.
These details make it evident that Haj comprises performing prayers at those places in and around Kaaba which, being ‘sacred monuments’ reminding the believers of their importance in human history have a halo of veneration and sanctity; and offering prayers there with the consciousness that they are benchmarks of the spiritual evolution of human race from the simple natural early state of pre-historic lifestyle to present-day sophisticated, ornate and pretentious state of existence tend to create in the pilgrims the urge to reform themselves and make amends for the faults and failings of their life prior to the pilgrimage.
According to a saying of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him), “the stone throwing, running between Safa and Marwa and going round the Kaaba are nothing else than imbibing God-consciousness and His remembrance” (‘Mishkat’). The Quranic verses 27-28 in Surah Al-Haj confirm this tradition of the prophet by saying: “Proclaim to mankind the pilgrimage. They will come to you on foot and lean camel (from distant places); they will come from every deep ravine, to witness things that are of benefit to them and to mention the name of Allah on appointed days.”
It is also incumbent on the pilgrims that during the pilgrimage they don a special unstitched garment (Ihram) till they complete the prescribed rites and take off the Ihram; they should be a living embodiment of nobility, piety and peaceful conduct, abstaining even from petty quarrels, let alone violent fight and serious clash, and adopt the posture of non-violence to the extreme extent that not even an ant or a fly gets killed even inadvertently. The pilgrims are not permitted to indulge in hunting for sports or for food. These are not mere sermons but are divine injunctions whose breach nullifies the purpose of Haj. The relevant Quranic verses are as follows: “The intending pilgrim must remember that there is no lewdness, nor abuse, nor angry conversation during the pilgrimage” (2. 197). “Hunting is unlawful when you are on pilgrimage” (5:1).
On completion of the rituals of Haj that come to an end with sacrificing animals at Mina, to commemorate the event of the intended sacrifice of his son by Prophet Abraham and symbolical sacrifice of the pilgrims’ own physical comfort, Ihram can be taken off and heads can be shaved off.
So, these rites have a deeper significance of which most pilgrims are unaware. Awareness will make them realize how serious and grave the real implications of these rites are and some, if not all of them, will find spiritual uplift when they come back home with such awareness. Performing these rites mechanically hardly brings about any spiritual improvement in the pilgrims.
Denying themselves of even those conveniences like wearing unstitched garment which is not only permitted but obligatory, was common in pre-Islamic days and was meant to show complete renunciation of luxuries for God’s pleasure. Obviously, this was an indecent custom which a divinely-revealed religion like Islam could not countenance and it was decreed through a revelation during the prophet’s last year in Makkah: “Take care of your adornment at every place of worship” (7:31).
While the main purpose of Haj is to commemorate Prophet Abraham’s personal effort to re-build the Kaaba with his son’s assistance as also to remember his intent to sacrifice his own son in compliance with God’s desire which was communicated to him indirectly, in a dream, there appears to be another important purpose — provision of food and other necessities of life in Makkah, which, according to the Holy Quran (14:37) was “an uncultivable valley” when Abraham had prayed to God while leaving his progeny there “to provide them with fruits in order that they may be thankful”.
Thus, Haj is one of the ‘five pillars’ of worship that also serves many other purposes, including spiritual and moral uplift of the pilgrims and bringing prosperity to the city around the house of God.
Apart from being a religious journey to Makkah that all Muslims try to make at least once in their lives, Haj is also an unparalleled spiritual experience
