The Message of Pilgrimage

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Prior to 1982, my knowledge of Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) had been limited to what I could gain from books, and so, when at last in that year I had the privilege of performing this religious duty I felt myself singularly blessed. Although the rites of Hajj are spread over only a few days, as symbolic guidelines they stand a man in good stead for the rest of his life. The message of Hajj, as I now comprehend it from the study and performance of it, is that man should make the Almighty the very pivot of his existence, hastening at His call to do His every bidding.

When a man leaves his home and country to go on such a pilgrimage, he brims over with all the emotions aroused by the thought that he is embarking on a course which will lead him directly to God. He is, in effect, sloughing off his own world, leaving it behind him, and reaching out for the world of the Almighty. He is on his way to the House of God, a place where the great deeds of God’s messengers and his followers have been preserved for all eternity; where we find the hallowed impressions of the lives of those who lived and died for the cause of God. The haji is then filled with the realization that he is bound for that very destination which God has specially chosen for His Last Revelation. Once launched on this course, the pilgrim is imbued with the awareness of God and His truths, as well as the feeling that it is imperative that he become God-oriented. If, up till then, he had been self-centered in his thinking, he now turns his thoughts to God, and his entire behavior is molded and transformed by these new thought processes.

Once the pilgrim’s train of thought has become God-oriented, he begins to ponder over major issues: God’s act of creation, particularly His creation of himself. His affording him diverse opportunities of bettering himself in this world, His very benevolence which makes it possible for him to set forth on this journey to the House of God. The pilgrim also gives his mind to the day when he will meet his death and be summoned to the court of God. This trend of thought turns the ostensible physical journey of the pilgrim into an intense, spiritual venture.

When the time nears for his entrance into the Haram (sacred territory), every pilgrim divests of his clothing in order to don a new kind of ‘uniform’—an unstitched, plain, white garment which serves to heighten his consciousness of entering a new world. The very act of shed ding his normal clothes (and with them all signs of status and ethnicity) signifies that he is separating himself from the way of life peculiar to his environment, and is now ready to become suffused with such emotions as are desired by God. In this way, thousands of men, in casting off their own hues, take on the hue of the Almighty. After clothing himself in ihram (godly raiment), the pilgrim finds his tongue of itself beginning to utter godly words—‘Labbayk! Labbayk!—and he continues, as if hastening to answer God’s call, to repeat the word ‘labbayk’—"Oh God, I am here, I have come!"

Labbayk (I am here) does not mean just that the pilgrim has come to stay in Mecca. It means that in leaving his normal abode, he has cast aside his whole way of life. It means, ‘I am here, at Your command, and, with all my heart and soul, I am ready to obey You.’ While on their pilgrimage, pilgrims simply give utterance to the word labbayk, but when they return to their own countries, they must put it into practice in their everyday lives.

On reaching Mecca, the pilgrim must perform tawaf (circumambulation). To do this, he enters the House of God (Baitullah), the great mosque in whose spacious central courtyard stands the Ka‘bah, which was erected by the Prophet Abraham in ancient times. Then he goes round the Ka‘bah seven times to demonstrate his willingness to make God the pivot of his whole existence.

After the tawaf, there comes the ritual of sa‘i, which entails brisk walking from the hill of Safa to the hill of Marwa and back again. This procedure is repeated seven times in symbolic enactment of a promise, or covenant, to expend all of one’s energies in the path of God. The form which this ritual takes, can be traced back to the Prophet Abraham’s wife, Hajar, running from one hill to another in a frantic search for water for her young baby when they first arrived there.The most important period of worship during Hajj is the day-long sojourn on the plain of Arafat. It is, indeed, an awesome spectacle, with people from all over the world, clad in identical, simple, white garments, chanting, "Lord, I am present, Lord, I am present." This serves to impress upon the mind of the pilgrim how great a gathering there will be in the presence of God on the Last Day of Reckoning. Once he becomes aware of its true significance, all his problems fall into their true perspective, and his life cannot but take a turn for the better.

Another practice during Hajj is the casting of stone at Jamrae-Uqba. This is a symbolic act through which the pilgrim renews his determination to drive Satan away from him. In this way, he makes it plain that his relationship with Satan is one of enmity and combat. The next step for the pilgrim is to turn his piece of symbolism into reality, so that he may be purged of all evils, for all the evils besetting man are there at the instigation of Satan.

After this, the pilgrim sacrifices an animal to God, an act symbolizing the sacrifice of the self. (This is referred to in the Qur’an as sha‘airullah—signs of God). His faith is such that even if it comes to giving his life—the last thing that he would normally be ready to part with—he will not hesitate to do so in the service of God.