The Haj pilgrimage that began on Wednesday is among the largest annual international gatherings of its kind. India is one of the leading countries in terms of the number of pilgrims and this year saw its Haj quota being increased. Here’s a look at the pilgrimage that attracts more than 2 million people every year to Mecca.
The Haj ritual can be traced back to the time of the Prophet Abraham by Muslims. It is a religious obligation for all able-bodied Muslims who can afford it at least once in their lifetime. Hajj is observed for five days in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Religious significance of the Haj
People may be surprised to learn that the hajj has very little to do with the Prophet Mohammed. Rather, it mostly commemorates events in the life of the Prophet Ibrahim — that is, Abraham. Yes, that Abraham.
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If you’re from a non-Abrahamic faith tradition or if it’s just been a while since Sunday school, Abraham is a venerated patriarchal figure in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha’i faith. He is perhaps best known for being willing to personally kill his beloved son when God commanded him to do so. At the last minute, so the story goes, God stepped in and told Abraham to sacrifice an animal instead, rewarding Abraham’s unwavering faith.
In the Judeo-Christian narrative, the son Abraham almost sacrifices is Isaac. In Islam, however, it’s Abraham’s other son, Ismail (Ishmael), who is almost sacrificed. Muslims consider both Abraham and Ismail to be prophets of God, and Mohammed’s ancestry is said to be traced back to Ismail.
There is another event involving Ismail and his mother, Hagar, that looms large in the hajj. The story goes like this: God commanded Abraham, as a test of faith, to take Hagar and the infant Ismail out to a barren desert area located between the two hills of Safa and Marwah in Mecca, and leave them there alone with only basic provisions. Eventually the water ran out, and the increasingly frantic Hagar ran back and forth from hill to hill seven times searching for water for her parched child.
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Then a miracle occurred: A well, later called the Zamzam well, sprang from the ground, saving both of them. The story of how the well was discovered differs: Some accounts say it was the baby Ismail’s distressed kicking of his feet that scratched away the dirt and revealed the water source. Other accounts hold that the Angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic) tipped his wing into the dirt to reveal the well.
Abraham and Ismail later went on to build the Kaaba, the black cuboid structure in Mecca that Muslims face when they pray — together, as a place of worship of the one God. (Abraham eventually came back and retrieved his family from the desert, evidently.)
Soon after they built the Kaaba, tradition holds, God commanded Abraham to proclaim a pilgrimage to the site — in other words, the Haj — to all mankind (well, all monotheists) so that they can come together in one place to show their devotion to God.
What is Kaaba
Muslims around the world face the direction of the Kaaba — Arabic for “cube” — when they pray, but they do not worship the Kaaba (or the Black Stone). Rather, it is a place of worship of the one God. It is also a focusing mechanism, a central point on the globe toward which all Muslims, in a symbol of unity, direct their thoughts and prayers to God.
According to Islamic tradition, the site of the Kaaba was originally a sacred place where angels would worship God in the days before man was created. Later, Adam (yes, that Adam, partner to Eve) built a shrine to God on that spot, but it too was destroyed by the ravages of time. When Abraham came along, he and his son Ismail rebuilt the Kaaba on the foundations of Adam’s earlier shrine as a place of worship of the one God.
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The structure consists of four walls and a roof, all made from stone from the hills surrounding Mecca. The four corners roughly face the four points of the compass. The building is often referred to as a “cube” (that’s where “Kaaba” comes from, after all), but this is not technically correct. To be a true geometric cube, all its edges must have the same length, and every corner in the cube must have an angle of 90 degrees. The Kaaba’s edges are not all the same length, so therefore it is best described as a “cuboid,” not a “cube.” It is covered by a black silk cloth decorated with verses of the Quran in gold-embroidered Arabic calligraphy. This cloth is known as the kiswah, and it is replaced yearly, on the second day of the Haj.
While Abraham was building the Kaaba, so the legend goes, the angel Gabriel came down and gave Abraham the famous Black Stone, which he placed in the eastern corner of the structure. There is another squarish stone on the ground a few feet away from the Kaaba with what look like two footprints in it. This is known as the Station of Abraham and is said to be the stone where Abraham stood while watching over the construction of the Kaaba. Today it is encased in a beautifully ornate golden glass-and-metal structure.
जरूर पढ़ें – बारिश में ईद-उल-अजहा की नमाज़ पढ़ने के लिए खोले गुरुद्वारे के द्वार
There is a famous story in Islam about Mohammed and the Black Stone. By Mohammed’s time, the Kaaba had again been damaged and was being repaired (it has been damaged or destroyed and rebuilt or repaired numerous times over the centuries). The story goes that when construction was finished and it came time to place the Black Stone back in the eastern corner, the final step, the tribes of Mecca argued fiercely over who would get to do the honors.
They decided to ask the next man who walked by to decide for them, and that man happened to be Mohammed. His solution was to put the stone on a large cloth and have each of the leaders of the four tribes hold a corner of the cloth and carry the stone to its place. Mohammed himself then placed the stone into its final position.
This was back before Mohammed had received his first revelation from God. The next time Mohammed was involved with the Kaaba, though, would prove to be much less … harmonious.
Islamic tradition holds that although Abraham built the Kaaba to worship the one God, over time the Kaaba had been more or less co-opted by the various pagan tribes in the area, all of whom had placed idols to their preferred deity inside the Kaaba, thereby “corrupting” it.
जरूर पढ़ें – ईद पर खास : अरबी मदरसे से बोले योग गुरु
One particularly popular idol was a figure of Hubal, a moon deity worshipped by many in Mecca at the time. Access to the Kaaba (and thus the idol) was controlled by the powerful Quraysh tribe, of which Mohammed was a member, and they basically capitalized on this to get rich, charging fees and selling wares to pilgrims coming to worship the idol.
When Mohammed began receiving revelations from God (he received his first one about five years after the incident with the Black Stone) and preaching his message of monotheism, the rich Qurayshi merchants started getting a little antsy. Worried that the growing popularity of his decidedly anti-idol worshiping message could potentially hurt business, they ran Mohammed and his small band of followers out of town.
Ten years later, Mohammed and his now much larger and more powerful army of followers defeated the Quraysh tribe and took control of Mecca. One of Mohammed’s first acts upon taking control of the city was to go into the Kaaba and smash the idol of Hubal and the hundreds of other idols to pieces, rededicating the shrine as a place of worship of the one God.
Today, the Kaaba is kept closed during the Haj because of the overwhelming number of people, but those who visit the Kaaba during other times of the year are sometimes allowed to go inside. It’s quite beautiful: The walls are white marble on the lower half and green cloth on the upper half. There is very little inside it, though — just three tall stone pillars, a small table some hanging lamp–looking things, and a staircase to the roof.
Important Rituals performed during Haj
Male pilgrims wear two white seamless cloths called the Ihram, which is meant to show equality before Allah. One of the cloths is wrapped around the waist reaching below the knee while the other is draped over the left shoulder and tied at the right side. A Muslim pilgrim adjusts his ihram clothing on the top of Mount Al-Noor ahead of the annual Haj pilgrimage.
Female pilgrims are allowed to wear any white, modest dresses when they reach the Miqat (a destination where the intent to perform Haj is declared).
The pilgrims perform ablution at the Miqat, declare their intention for Haj and then refrain from all prohibited activities, including sexual relations, using perfumes, cutting nails, shaving and slaughtering animals during the duration of the Haj.
Day 1: Enter Irham
On the first day of Haj, pilgrims will walk seven times around the Kaaba for the welcoming Tawaf (also called the circumambulation of the Kaaba) and kiss the black stone. This is followed by prayers inside the mosque near the Kaaba and then drinking water from the Zamzam well which is believed to have gushed out when Abraham’s crying son Ishmael was placed when his mother went out looking for water for him.
The pilgrims then move to the Safa and Marwah hills near the Kaaba where they either run or walk seven times between the hills, to symbolically emulate the run Ishmael’s mother Hajjar did in search of water for her son.
Day 2: Day of Arafat
After the morning prayer, the pilgrims proceed to Mina where they spend the whole day in prayer. The pilgrims go to ‘Arafat. They perform Zuhr Salah (Early Afternoon Prayers) and ‘Asr Salah (Late Afternoon Prayers) together, in a shortened form (Qasr) at ‘Arafat. Pilgrims stand there with devotion, till sunset, praying and asking Allah’s forgiveness. This is known as Wuquf or standing. In the evening the pilgrims go to Muzdalifah and offer shortened Maghrib Salah (Sunset Prayers) and ‘Isha Salah (Night Prayers) prayer together. They rest there at the night, and collect small pebbles for stoning the Jimar in Mina.
Day 3: Throw stones at the Pillars
For those performing Haj, the day is known as yawm-ul hajj al-akbar (The big Haj day) and is probably the longest day of the pilgrimage, and the most dangerous.The 10th of Dhul-Hijjah is Eid al-Adha, a day celebrated by Muslims around the world as the greater of the two Muslim holidays.
Pilgrims start the day in Muzdalifah and begin heading back to Mina before dawn. Once in Mina, they perform the first rami, throwing seven pebbles at the largest of three columns known as Jamarat.
This act is a symbolic stoning of the devil, based on historical tradition. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, the story goes, as proof of faith. It is believed that at this spot in Mina, the devil appeared and tried to dissuade Abraham from heeding the command. Abraham responded by throwing stones to scare him off.
Millions of pilgrims converge at the Jamarat Bridge, which houses the three columns representing the devil, in order to re-enact the story.
After stoning, they offer sacrifice. They return to Makkah and perform the Tawaf (if they have not performed the Sa’i on 8th of Dhul Hijjah, then perform the Sa’i also). Then return to Mina and make sacrifice by slaughtering the animal. They trim the hair or shave the head.
Day 4, 5 Final days in Mina
On each day, they will again symbolically stone the devil – this time throwing seven pebbles at each of the three pillars.With the hardest part behind them, pilgrims will now spend the next two or three days in Mina.
When their time in Mina is finished, the pilgrims return to Mecca to perform the final circulation of the Kaaba, a “farewell” tawaf.
Before heading home, many also go to Madina, the second holiest city in Islam, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried along with his closest companions. Visiting Medina, however, is not part of the pilgrimage.
All pilgrims will move to Mina to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing seven pebbles or stones at the largest of three pillars.
Before leaving Mecca, the pilgrims perform another circumambulation of the Kaaba called the ‘farewell Tawaf’ for seven times. After this Tawaf, the Haj pilgrimage is finally completed.
Pilgrims from outside Saudi Arabia are required to leave the country by the 10th of Muharram, about one month after the completion of the pilgrimage. After Haj, pilgrims return home with renewed faith and are given honorific titles.
