The Hajj [Pilgrimage]
The Light (UK), April 1997 Issue (pp. 1–2)
Hajj or The Pilgrimage is one of the fundamental duties of a Muslim. It is to be performed once in a lifetime, after one has fulfilled ones other duties. Eid-ul-Adha follows the Pilgrimage. It commemorates the supreme sacrifice that the Prophet Ibrahim [Abraham] was commanded to make by Allah. The sacrifice related to the sacrifice of his beloved son Hazrat Ismail [Ishmael]. A son that had been born to him in old age.
Hazrat Ibrahim bowed his head to Allah’s command and went to his son Hazrat Ismail to tell him the news of what Allah had Commanded. Hazrat Ismail also unflinchingly bowed his head to Allah’s Command. He told his father to carry out the Divine instructions without fear. Allah then sent down an angel to inform Hazrat Ibrahim and Hazrat Ismail that they had passed the test of faithfulness and obedience and that the sacrifice of a lamb would be sufficient to satisfy the Command.
This glorious deed on the part of both the father and the son became a shining example of complete and total submission to the Will of Allah. Muslims commemorate this event every year and shall continue to do so until the Last Day because Allah has made this remembrance a part of our faith.
Allah does not send down commands without purpose. There is a deep significance in asking us to remember the supreme sacrifice by Hazrat Ibrahim, Hazrat Hijrah [Hagar] and Hazrat Ismail.
Hazrat Ibrahim had longed for and prayed for a son for years. Our desires and ambitions are the most important things that we have. If we attain our desires or achieve our ambitions, we value this fulfilment more than any thing else. How difficult is it then to sacrifice these achievements for the sake of Allah. If these are in danger we do every thing in our power, whether or not lawful, moral or legal, to protect them. We do not want the results of a lifetime’s work and effort wasted. Yet here was this man who was not only not making any effort to protect the results of a lifetime’s prayer but he was happy to sacrifice them.
We all also make provision for our future. Our future security is important to us. We save, take out insurance and pensions, etc., to provide for our financial wellbeing and security in old age. At a time when these financial products were not available, the only means of future financial wellbeing and security were sons to look after one in old age. Yet Hazrat Hijrah was prepared, nay happy to throw it all away because her husband said that Allah had Commanded him to sacrifice their son.
Leave alone desires, ambitions and future wellbeing, life is the most precious thing that we have. If one’s life is in danger one would sacrifice all of a lifetime’s achievements and savings for the sake of just one more day in this world. It does not matter whether we are young or old, rich or poor, male or female, healthy or sick, we would all give up everything we have for the sake of one more day. A king may have a plane fitted out with the latest medical instruments to keep him alive until he can be taken to the world’s most advanced medical facilities. A poor person may walk hundreds of miles to seek medical attention. The purpose of both is the same — to use every means at their disposal to stay alive.
Hazrat Ismail did not flinch. His father may have been sacrificing a lifetime of prayer. His mother her future security. But it was, after all, his life that was going to be sacrificed. Yet his answer to his father was: to do his duty and he will find that his son is faithful to Allah’s Commands.
To us, those who commemorate this event, it seems an effort to give up a small amount of our time or money for the sake of Allah. We always have something more important to spend our time and money on. Human beings may be dying of hunger, of disease or poor water quality but saving their lives is not as important as a second car or new sofas or some other material object which we want to show off to our neighbours and friends.
We extol the virtues of those who are rich or powerful. We seek out connections with them. We want to be known as friends or relations of the rich or powerful. Yet, if we had a relation who was poor but virtuous, it would not seem important to us to make known to the world that this poor but virtuous person is our relation or friend. Indeed, many of us would be embarrassed to admit to any association with him. We would not seek advice from such a person in worldly affairs because his advice may be based on principles which may harm our temporal affairs. If we were required to give evidence against our own children and this person advised us to do so, we would laugh at him. If he pointed out the verse of the Holy Quran where we are Commanded to bear true witness even against our own children, our response would be to ask if others do so. If he reminded us that we are responsible for our own actions and no one else’s, we would call him mad and walk away. After all, we would tell ourselves, and anyone else who cared to listen, we have to live in this world and therefore we have to behave as others do.
The most important thing however is that we regard such people as failures. We feel that they have not achieved anything in this life. Our yardstick for measuring success in this life has become riches and possessions. A man who does not posses these whatever else he may have achieved is not successful, so far as we are concerned. Yet the Holy Quran tells us that the life of this world is mere sport. Once Hazrat Umar (rta) went to see the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him). He saw him laying on a rough bare bed which had marked the Prophet’s body. Hazrat Umar broke down in tears at this sight.
“Why is it that Kings of Persia and Byzantine live in riches and you cannot even afford a bed?”
asked Hazrat Umar.
“O son of Khitab, does it not please you that they have this world and I have the Hereafter!”
replied the Holy Prophet.
At another place he compared himself to a traveller who, while on a long journey, stops for a short while under the shade of a tree to take rest. He does not amass huge quantities of possessions while resting. Having rested, the traveller is on his way again and does not even look back.
The real purpose of remembering the deeds of great people of times gone by is not only to keep their sacrifices alive but also to try and emulate them. They were human beings just like us. If they could truly obey Allah’s every Command without question, so should we.