Hajj: Meaning and Blessings

Hajj is an important pillar of Islam. It has many benefits and meanings for Muslims. Hajj has a form and a spirit. Its form is to have ihram, perform tawaf (circumambulation of the Ka`bah) and sa`i (walking between the two hills), go to Mina, `Arafat, Muzdalifah, do the rami (throwing pebbles) at the Jamarat and make sacrifice of a sheep, goat or camel. The spirit of Hajj includes love, devotion, sacrifice, patience, mercy, harmony, unity, etc.

Elaborating more on this, The late eminent Muslim scholar Sayyid Abul A`la Maududi states:

During the period of two to three months, from the time of deciding and preparing for Hajj, to the time of returning home we can judge what great effects are produced in the heart and mind of man. The process entails sacrifice of time, sacrifice of money, sacrifice of comfort, sacrifice of several worldly affairs as well as sacrifice of many carnal desires and pleasures; and all this is simply for the sake of Allah, with no selfish end. Then, together with piety and virtuousness, the incessant remembrance of Allah and the longing and love of Him pervade the mind of the pilgrim, leaving a firm impression on him which lasts for years to come.

On reaching this sacred land he witnesses at every step the relics of those who sacrificed everything they owned in servitude and obedience to Allah. They fought against the disbelievers, suffered torture, were forced to migrate from their land, went through unbearable hardship and tribulations, but ultimately elevated the Word of Allah and did not rest content till they subdued every false power that wanted man to become subservient to entities other than Allah.

A lesson in courage and determination, which a devotee of Allah can draw from these clear signs and sacred relics, can hardly be available from any other source. Through the circumambulation of Ka`bah (Tawaf), the rehearsal of a Mujahid's life consisting of the rituals of Hajj (such as running between two points, and repeated departures and halts), which are combined with Prayer, fasting and Zakah, you will realize that these processes constitute a training or some big task which Islam wants Muslims to execute. For this reason, Hajj has been made compulsory for those who have paid all their debts and are capable of undertaking the journey to the Ka`bah so that, as far as possible, Muslims in the largest possible number remain equipped at every period after having fully gone through this training.

Hajj brings about immense reward. Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The performance of one `Umrah and another expiates and blots out all the sins committed in between, and Hajj Mabrur (Hajj performed typically according to the rules of the Qur'an and Sunnah) has no reward but Paradise." (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

In another authentic Hadith, Ibn Jurayj reports on the authority of Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "This House of Allah (the Ka`bah) is the pillar of Islam; so whosoever heads for it with the intention of performing Hajj or `Umrah is under Allah's Protection. If he should die (during this journey), he will be admitted to Paradise, and if he should return home safely, he will return with reward and gain."

Hajj, moreover, blots out all sins. Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever performs Hajj solely for Allah's Sake and, in the course of it, abstains from obscenity and disobedience, returns after Hajj as immaculate as a child just born." (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

`Amr Ibn Al-`Aas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: "When Allah guided me to Islam, I went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said to him: 'O Messenger of Allah! Stretch out your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you.' The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stretched out his hand to me, but I withdrew my hand. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked, 'O `Amr! What is the matter with you?' I said: 'I would like to stipulate a condition!' The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked, 'What is that condition you want to stipulate?' 'It is that all my past sins be forgiven,' I said. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'O `Amr! Do you not know that embracing Islam removes all the sins committed before it; that Hijrah (migration in Allah's Cause) wipes off all sins; and that performing Hajj blots out all one's past sins!"' (Muslim)

`Abdullah Ibn Mas`ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Alternate between Hajj and `Umrah, for these two remove poverty and obliterate sins just as the blacksmith's bellows removes all impurities from metals like iron, gold and silver. The reward for Hajj Mabrur (Hajj performed typically according to the rules of the Qur'an and Sunnah) is nothing short of Paradise." (An-Nasaa'i and At-Tirmidhi)

In this Book, the Holy Prophet's life, the history of the Arabs and the events which occurred during the period of the revelation of the Quran have no

In this Book, the Holy Prophet's life, the history of the Arabs and the events which occurred during the period of the revelation of the Quran have not been mingled with the Divine Verses, as is the case with the Bible. The Quran is the pure word of God. Not one word therein is not divine. Not a single word has been deleted from its text. The Book has been handed down to our age in its complete and original form since the time of Prophet Muhammad. From the time the Book began to be revealed, the Holy Prophet had dictated its text to the scribes. Whenever some Divine Message was revealed, the Holy Prophet would call a scribe and dictate its words to him. The written text was then read out to the Holy Prophet, who, having satisfied himself that the scribe has committed no error of recording, would put the manuscript in safe custody. The Holy Prophet used to instruct the scribe about the sequence in which a revealed message was to be placed in a particular Surah (chapter). In this manner, the Holy Prophet continued to arrange the text of the Quran in systematic order till the end of the chain of revelations. Again, it was ordained from the beginning of Islam that a recitation of the Holy Quran must be an integral part of worship. Hence the illustrious Companions would commit the Divine verses to memory as soon as they were revealed. Many of them learned the whole text and a far larger number had memorized different portions of it. Method of preservations of the Quran during the Prophet's time: Besides, those of the Companions (pbut) who were literate used to keep a written record of several portions of the Holy Qur'an. In this manner, the text of the Holy Qur'an had been preserved in four different ways during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (PBUH): The Holy Prophet (PBUH) had the whole text of the Divine Messages from the beginning to the end committed to writing by the scribes of revelations. Many of the Companions learned the whole text of the Qur'an, every syllable of it, by heart. All the illustrious Companions, without an exception, had memorized at least some portions of the Holy Qur'an, for the simple reason that it was obligatory for them to recite it during worship. An estimate of the number of the illustrious Companions may be obtained from the fact that one hundred and forty thousands Companions had participated in the Last Pilgrimage performed by the Holy Prophet (PBUH). A considerable number of the literate Companions kept a private record of the text of the Qur'an and satisfied themselves as to the purity of their record by reading it out to the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Method of preservations of the Quran after the demise of the Prophet: It is an incontrovertible historical truth that the text of the Holy Qur'an extant today is, syllable for syllable, exactly the same as the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had offered to the world as the Word of God. After the demise of the Holy Prophet, the first Caliph Hadhrat Abu Bakr (PBUH) assembled all the Huffaz and the written records of the Holy Qur'an and with their help had the whole text written in Book form. In the time of Hadhrat 'Uthman (PBUH) copies of this original version were made and officially dispatched to the Capitals of the Islamic World. Two Of these copies exist in the world today, one in Istanbul and the other in Tashkent. Whosoever is so inclined may compare any printed text of the Holy Qur'an with those two copies, he shall find no variation. And how can one expect any discrepancy, when there have existed several million Huffaz in every generation since the time of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and in our own time? Should anyone alter a syllable of the original text of the Qur'an, these Huffaz would at once expose the mistake. In the last century, an Institute of Munich University in Germany collected FORTY-TWO THOUSAND copies of the Holy Qur'an including manuscripts and printed texts produced in each period in the various parts of the Islamic World. Research work was carried out on these texts for half a century, at the end of which the researchers concluded that apart from copying mistakes, there was no discrepancy in the text of these forty-two thousand copies, even though they belonged to the period between the 1st Century Hijra to 14th Century Hijra and had been procured from all parts of the world. This Institute, alas! perished in the bombing attacks on Germany during World War II, but the findings of its research project survived. Another point that must be kept in view is that the word in which the Qur'an was revealed is a living language in our own time. It is still current as the mother tongue of about a hundred million people from Iraq to Morocco. In the non-Arab world too, hundreds of thousands of people study and teach this language. The grammar of the Arabic language, its lexicon, its phonetic system and its phraseology, have remained intact for fourteen hundred years. A modern Arabic-speaking person can comprehend the Holy Qur'an with as much proficiency as did the Arabs of fourteen centuries ago. This, then, is an important attribute of Muhammad (PBUH), which is shared by no other Prophet or Leader of Religion. The Book which God revealed to Him for the guidance of mankind is today's in its original language without the slightest alteration in its vocabulary.