Hajj

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Every Muslim Should Take a Hajj Once In His or Her Life

This hajj is an extremely important pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim is required to make at least once in his or her life. So important is it, in fact, it is the Fifth Pillar of the Islamic faith. The name for the special state that Muslims live in while on the pilgrimage is called the Ihram. Of course, it will also depend on the financial state of the person, but it is better that they can perform this act of devotion

The pilgrimage begins on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar, which is also the last month of their year. It will take four days to complete by the several hundred thousand of Muslims who arrive there at the Mecca to perform all the parts of the Hajj.

This trek has been around since the seventh century when Muhammad and even before. Back at the very beginning, the pilgrimage was still made by tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, although it did not matter what religion they were or what faith they followed. Arabs that were Christian were just as likely to appear for it as the Pagans of that time. These Pagans followed different Gods, such as Hubal and Manat.

Muhammad was a participant before he received enlightenment from God. But in six thirty one CE he had a group of his followers from Medina to Mecca, and destroyed all the Pagan artefacts, cleansed the area, and re-devoted the building to God. This was the only pilgrimage that Muhammad personally made, and from then the Fifth Pillar of the Islamic faith was born.

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The Early Pilgrims Paid a Heavy Price for Hajj

Although the Hajj has been around for thousands of years, it has not been without a heavy price during those years on people’s lives. Thirst was a big killer, as was other factors that made life very difficult for these early worshippers, including members of the Arab world themselves.

Thieves, sand-dwellers and others were quite happy to attack a caravan of pilgrims, rob, rape and murder them or take slaves if they so desired, in order to obtain even more money later. Both boys and girls were taken from these caravans and treated cruelly until they either died, or finally got sold into slavery.

Sometime in the seventeenth century a convoy of Egyptians who were on pilgrimage lost an estimated total of over fifteen hundred people and nine hundred camels. In the early twentieth century one-fifth of a lot of Syrians died, and within two years another twelve thousand were estimated to have died.

Although things nowadays are much simpler and safer for the pilgrims, it still has some dangers to it. Some get caught up in panics which start from very little and are badly hurt or killed in the confusion that follows. Others met equally nasty ends when enmity reaches boiling point. But all the problems that can occur do not deter a determined pilgrim from following what he or she perceives as his duty to God.

Hajj is obligatory for Muslims only when the person can afford to go. Before he plans to perform hajj there are many factors that he need to consider thoroughly before leaving house. Hajj is not an obligation if any Muslim has any sort of debt to clear, has unmarried children at home and have any other obligatory duties and rights to perform.

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Hajj Pilgrims Usually Travel In Groups

In this day and age not too many Muslims take a camel to Mecca, but they still do travel in groups. This can be viewed as an expression of unity as well as safety. Also these days, airlines take Muslins to Mecca and these airlines can give special packages for this reason, as the India subsidy does. Often ships take the pilgrims to Mecca so they can pay their own pilgrimage. Many travel companies offer hajj packages which include the transportation, stay and food including guide facility for sightseeing of the holy places.

Some pilgrims still use their feet to walk to Mecca, but it is still a dangerous trip, no matter how much security is available. Others may choose to drive, complete with the family, or take a train or a bus. But they do get there some way or another.

The preparations for Hajj are quite simple. Clothes that are taken consist of two parts for a male, of some clean white cloths or Ihram, garments that cover the chest and the bottom piece secured by a sash and a pair of sandals Women can simply wear their ordinary hijab, a normal modest dress.

There is significance to the Ihram as well. It proposes to show that the person concerned is an equal to anyone else and is virtuous and pure. All sins of the past have been granted pardon and the pilgrim is free of any type of sin or misdeed. There is a place to change into these garments of Ihram should the pilgrim need to, called a misqat.

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