By Abul A`la Al-Mawdudi
Hajj, or the Pilgrimage, is the last among those acts of worship which Islam enjoins upon you.
Like the Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving, it moulds your life and prepares you so that you may live in surrender to Allah.
The word Hajj means to make a resolve to visit a holy place: visiting the Ka`bah in Makkah is therefore called Hajj.
How did it begin?
The origin of Hajj is rooted in the Prophet Ibrahim’s life (peace be on him). That story is very instructive, and illustrative, too, of the true meaning and significance of Hajj. That story you must know to fully understand the benefits Hajj can bring to you.
Life and Mission of the Prophet Ibrahim
Which Muslim, Christian or Jew does not know the name of Ibrahim (peace be on him)! Two-thirds of mankind revere him as their leader. The Prophets Musa, `Isa and Muhammad (peace be on them) are all his descendants. It is the lamp of guidance lit by him that has for long illuminated the whole world.
Ibrahim was born in what is now Iraq, over four thousand years ago. At that time, the people had forgotten the One God. No one recognized Him as the Master, no one lived in surrender and obedience to Him.
The people among whom Ibrahim was born, while the most advanced in the world in art and science, industry and agriculture, were also the most steeped in ignorance and error.
One simple thing they, despite their technological advance, could not understand: anything which has itself been created cannot be worthy of worship.
Idolatry was the norm. Superstitions like astrology, idol-worship, divination, witchcraft and use of talismen and amulets were widespread.
A priest class controlled the temples, supervised worship rites and rituals, conducted marriage and funeral ceremonies, and claimed to be oracles, able to disclose the unknown, foretell the future, and determine Divine wishes.
And the people, in general, believed that they indeed had such powers, that they had access to their deities, that they could intercede with them on their behalf or invoke their wrath to fall upon them. For them, the priests were the lords of their fate.
The kings were in collusion with the priests, the two sides working together to keep the people under their servitude.
They gave full backing to the priests, and the priests made the people believe that the king of the day, as well as being the owner of his country and complete master of his subjects, was also a god among other gods. His word was the supreme law; his power over their lives and properties was absolute.
Indeed, worship rites were performed for and before the king so that the belief in his godhood came to be entrenched in the minds of his subjects.
In times like this, the Prophet Ibrahim was born into a family of privileged priests. His forefathers were high priests and it was quite natural that he should follow in their footsteps. He received the same education and training; the same gifts and offerings were awaiting him.
Many adherents were eagerly waiting for the moment when they could bow their heads before him with folded hands. The ancestral seat of priestly power could be his for the taking.
In this dismal darkness, where not a single soul existed who knew or believed in the Truth, it would not ordinarily have been possible for a man like Ibrahim to find its light, nor break away from the life of comfort and power mapped out for him by his family.
Commitment to the Truth
But the Prophet Ibrahim was no ordinary man; he was made of different stuff. On reaching maturity he began to reflect thus: How can the sun, moon or stars, which are rotating as if by order like slaves, and these stone idols, which are made by man himself; and these kings, who are human beings like ourselves, be gods?
What is there in these powerless objects, which cannot move of their own volition, which have no power to help themselves and have no control over their own lives and deaths, that man should worship them, seek fulfillment of his wants from them, fear their powers and submit in obedience to them?
Among all the objects on earth and in the heavens, there is not a single one which itself is not subject to some higher power and which does not fade away into oblivion at some time or other.
When none of them is my creator, when neither my life nor death is in the hands of any of them, when none of them possesses the key to my means of sustenance or the fulfillment of my needs, why should I accept them as lords, surrender to them, and obey them? Only that Being can be my Lord who created all things, on whom depends everything and in whose hands are the lives and deaths of all people.
These thoughts led the Prophet Ibrahim to the decision that he would never worship the deities which his people worshipped, and he openly declared before them:
O my people, I am quit of all those you take as gods beside God. I have turned my face unto Him who brought into being the heavens and the earth, having turned away from all false gods; and I am not of those who take gods beside God. (Al-An`am 6:79-80)
To be continued…
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The article is an excerpt from Abul A`la Al-Mawdudi’s Let Us Be Muslims.