17/06/2024
BismiAllahi Arrahmani Arraheem.
As salamu allaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu my dearest brothers and sisters & all muslims ummah.
Alhamdulilah rabbi al ameen 🤲 today is the second day "EID UL ADHA"
A look back at the PROPHETIC HISTORY behind HAJJ and how it’s performed
Millions of MUSLIMS UMMAH around the world travel to ISLAMS most sacred city to PERFORM RELIGIOUS duties. THIS annual journey has symbolic rites rooted in the deep prophetic HISTORY extending from Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
More than a million MUSLIMS UMMAH have begun the HAJJ PILGRIMAGE by gathering in MAKKAH Saudi Arabia, where the Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in 610 CE.
The HAJJ will end on June 16 2024/1445 with the sacrifice feast, a MUSLIM tradition, which has roots in the time when Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) (Abraham Alayhi Salaam) was ordered by Allah ﷻ to SACRIFICE his son, Ismail (Alayhi Salaam) MUSLIMS believe that Prophet Ismail (Alayhi Salaam) is a distant ancestor of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
In the JUDEO - CHRISTIAN tradition, Ibrahim’s son on the line for SACRIFICE was Ishaq (Alayhi Salaam), the father of Yaqub (Alayhi Salaam), the progenitor of TWELVE (12) JEWISH TRIBES.
Many rites of the HAJJ PILGRIMAGE are SYMBOLIC acts in a universal context, aiming to pay tribute to how Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam), his son and his second wife, HAJAR, the African mother of Ismail ( Alayhi Salaam) submitted themselves to Allah ﷻ Will.
But the HAJJ is also a GLOBAL annual summit of the world’s MUSLIM communities from different social classes, races and essentially states.
HAJJ is an Arabic word, which is etymologically related to the Semitic word, hag, meaning festival.
- A prophetic legacy.
In the ISLAMIC context, the HAJJ refers to “hitting the road to WORSHIP Allah ﷻ in an extraordinary journey” to perform rituals, including tawaf, which means turning around the KAABAH, ISLAM'S most sacred SITE.
It is to honour the unbreakable PROPHETIC lineage flowing from Prophets Adam (Alayhi Salaam) to Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) and to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, he says.
After having a serious religious fight with Ni**od, an advocate of polytheism, Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) a defender of monotheism, decided to move away from northern Mesopotamia, which now refers to TURKEY southeastern area, to a faraway land that came to be known as MAKKAH.
Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) brought HAJAR and Ismail (Alayhi Salaam) who was a baby, along to MAKKAH, a desolate desert at the time. AS per the tradition, Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) left Hajar and their child, in MAKKAH on their own. BUT before his departure, he prayed to Allah ﷻ.
Our Lord! I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley, near Your Sacred House, our Lord, so that they may establish prayer. SO make the hearts of ˹believing˺ people incline towards them and provide them with fruits, so perhaps they will be thankful.”
• Quran, Chapter 14:37.
This Sacred House was KAABAH, which was first built by Adam (Alayhi Salaam) the first PROPHET, and later built by Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) with the help of his grown-up son, Ismail (Alayhi Salaam), according to ISLAMIC TRADITION.
HAJJ ritual clearly demonstrates that Ibrahim’s PRAYER is accepted by Allah ﷻ because MUSLIMS love to see KAABAH [the living quarters of HAJAR and Ismail (Alayhi Salaam) and other religiously significant locations with Abrahamic legacies around Mecca and miss them a lot right after they leave these AREAS.
During the HAJJ, MUSLIMS also walk around the KAABAH, between Safa and Marwah, the two hills between which a desperate HAJAR ran to find water for Ismail (Alayhi Salaam)
LIKE HAJAR, now all MUSLIMS walk back and forth in a hope to recall her heartbreaking effort to find water in the same area between Safa and Marwah, which has been called sa’ay in HAJJ terminology, a critical part of pilgrimage RITUALS.
Eventually, thanks to Allah ﷻ divine grace, HAJAR, a BLACK WOMEN who was once a slave, discovers a water source, called the Zamzam Well. SINCE then, Zamzam has quench the thirst of MUSLIM PILGRIMS.
HAJJ is not only an individual experience to deepen one’s commitment to religious beliefs but also a form of collective WORSHIP.
The Holy Quran made the HAJJ mandatory for MUSLIM adults. It is one of the tenets of the ISLAMIC FAITH, like daily PRAYERS and FASTING.
THE HOLY QURAN describes the KAABAH as the House of Allah ﷻ. THIS means that Allah ﷻ has hosted MUSLIMS during their HAJJ.
As a result, due to Hajj’s significant importance in ISLAM, MUSLIMS need to understand its rites, their order and the way those rituals have been PRACTICED.
HERE is a step-by-step guide to what Muslim PILGRIMS do during their RELIGIOUS JOURNEY in Makkah.
- Spiritual and physical preparation.
LIKE prior to every journey, pilgrims need to prepare themselves for HAJJ both physically and spiritually, “A pilgrim should pack his/her clothes for the journey, but more importantly, he/she needs to wear the garment of PIETY.”
HAJJ is only mandatory to MUSLIM adult men and women, who have the financial resources and physical strength to endure the JOURNEY.
Before PILGRIMS leave for the HAJJ, they have to pay off their financial debts and ask forgiveness from people with whom they might have had quarrels or fights in the PAST.
- Ihram and Talbiyah.
When the HAJJ journey starts, every pilgrim should enter a state of purity, called ihram, before their departure. THE place from where the pilgrims depart is called Miqat, “a meeting point,”WHERE pilgrims wear two white seamless cloths designating that they are now entering a new stage in their LIVES.
After pilgrims enter into the state of ihram, they should be careful about their behaviour, which requires them not to kill any animals - be it an insect or fly - staying away from sexual contact and other actions like clipping nails and shaving any part of the body.
After entering the state of ihram, PILGRIMS invoke a PRAYER called the talbiyah, which indicates their intention for HAJJ. THEY chant “Labbayka - Ilahumma Labbayka,” which MEANS “Here I am [AT YOUR SERVICE] O Allah ﷻ HERE I AM AM.”
With the utterance of his PRAYER, the pilgrim has stepped into his/her HAJJ, until the pilgrim sees the KAABAH, he/she will continue to repeat this prayer, which is the ultimate pledge of loyalty to Allah ﷻ.
- Tawaf.
When the pilgrims reach the KAABAH, they enter the second stage of the HAJJ. THEY salute the House of Allah ﷻ and immediately begin to walk around it in circles, which is called tawaf. In order to complete a tawaf, the PILGRIM needs to walk around the KAABAH SEVEN (7) TIMES.
PRIOR to every tawaf, the pilgrim needs to make an intention for it and at the beginning of each turn, he needs to salute Hajar al - Aswad, the HOLY BLACK STONE of KAABAH, “It’s a kind of salat (PRAYER),” he adds. The PILGRIM then drinks the ZAMZAM WATER 💦.
- Sa’ay.
After tawaf, pilgrims go to the area of Safa and Marwah to honour Hajar’s efforts to find water for her infant son. Sa’ay means “WALKING".
According to the Holy Quran, Safa and Marwah are the important "SYMBOLS" of Allah ﷻ, HE says. TO complete a Sa’ay, the pilgrims need to walk between Safa and Marwah seven times.
When the Sa'ay ends on the HILL of Marwah, pilgrims pray, turning their direction toward the Kaaba. AFTER this PRAYER, PILGRIMS cut some of their hair.
- From Umrah to Hajj.
At this point, pilgrims, who do HAJJ al - Tamatt'u, a common type of Hajj, leave their Ihram for a few days, which also marks the end of their UMRAH, a part of the pilgrimage.
UMRAH, which means a visit to the Kaaba, is the first part of HAJJ al - Tamatt'u, which allows PILGRIMS to take a break from their state of Ihram.
DURING HAJJ al - Qiran, a more difficult version of the pilgrimage practised by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, pilgrims continue to be in the state of Ihram without any break until the very end of their HAJJ.
Until the 8th day of Dhu al - Hijjah, a month in the ISLAMIC CALENDAR, pilgrims continue to pray and perform the Tawaf. On this particular day, pilgrims of HAJJ al-Tamatt'u again don their Ihram clothes, and this time, they demonstrate their intention to complete the HAJJ by going to Mount ARAFAT, the most crucial part of the pilgrimage. THEN, they move to Mina, an area between MAKKAH and MOUNT ARAFAT.
The Day of Arafah.
The next day, pilgrims arrive at ARAFAT, a mountainous area 20 km from MAKKAH to repent and contemplate.
IF pilgrims do not have this contemplation period in Arafat, their pilgrimage can not be considered a real one.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also clearly emphasised the importance of the DAY of ARAFAH, which is one day before the first day of the SACRIFICE FEAST. HAJJ means to be in ARAFAT.
After offering noon and afternoon PRAYERS together, PILGRIMS offer prayer in ARAFAT here, 'standing before Allah ﷻ (Wuquf of Arafat), which marks that they are qualified to become PILGRIMS.
THEY greet each other for the achievement.” Pilgrims should stay in Arafat until sunset, spending their time praying in a standing position. THIS place is also where Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave his last SERMON.
After sunset, pilgrims move to Muzdalifah, an area between Arafat and Mina, to spend the night there. THEY collect stones for the next day’s stoning of the DEVIL in Mina.
- Stoning Satan.
Reaching Mina on the first day of the Sacrifice Feast, pilgrims perform the Stoning of the DEVIL by throwing seven stones toward a pillar known as Jamrat al - Aqabah. THIS also symbolises Prophet Ibrahim’s (Alayhi Salaam) struggle against Satan’s temptation in regard to his son’s SACRIFICE.
- Sacrifice Feast.
After the STONING of the DEVIL il, PILGRIMS offer their animal sacrifices, which is also another SYMBOLIC act going back to Prophet Ibrahim’s (Alayhi Salaam) difficult test. WHEN Prophet Ibrahim (Alayhi Salaam) was able to fulfil Allah ﷻ “VISION”, an animal, which was a RAM in the opinion of many MUSLIM scholars, appeared in place of Ismail (Alayhi Salaam) and the sacrifice was fulfilled by slaughtering it, according to the Holy Quran.
After sacrificing their animals, pilgrims shave their hair and leave their state of Ihram.
- Last tawaf.
Pilgrims move back to Mecca to revisit KAABAH for their last tawaf, which is called Tawaf Ziyarat or Tawaf al-Ifadah. Like their first tawaf, they complete their seven rounds of KAABAH and move to perform Sa’ay for a second time.
With the completion of Sa’ay, the PILGRIMAGE ends.
.
/2024.
° Do not forget to share this with your family and friends & all muslims ummah.
You may like, comment, share my dawa'ah page with friends and all muslims ummah.
𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡 | 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 | 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘.
© Learning Islam Together.
© Islamic Daawah Organization.
