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When
Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him) completed the structure
of the Ka`bah, Allah (Glorified be He) commanded him to call the
people to Hajj. Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him) pleaded,
“O Allah! How shall my voice reach all of those people?” Allah
(Glorified be He) told him that his duty was only to give the call
and it was up to Allah to make it reach the people.
Ibrahim
(peace and blessings be upon him) then climbed Mount `Arafat and
called out in his loudest voice, “O People! Verily Allah has
prescribed upon you Hajj, so perform Hajj.”
Allah
(Glorified be He) revealed in the Qur’an: [And proclaim the Hajj
among mankind. They will come to thee on foot and (mounted) on
every camel, lean on account of journeys through deep and distant
mountain highways] (Al-Hajj 22: 28)
To
this very day, millions upon millions of Muslims continue to answer
the call of Prophet Ibrahim (peace and blessings be upon him).
Perhaps this year you will be among those who answer the call.
`Amr
ibn Al-`Aas narrated: When Islam entered my heart, I went to the
Messenger of Allah and said, “Give me your hand so that I may
pledge allegiance to you.” The Prophet spread his hand, but I
withdrew mine. He said, “What is wrong `Amr?” I said, “I want
to make a condition.” “And what is that?” he said. I said,
“That Allah will forgive me.” Then the Messenger of Allah said,
“Did you not know that Islam wipes out what came before it, and
that hijrah wipes out what came before it and that Hajj wipes out
what came before it!” (Reported by Muslim)
Hajj
is the fifth pillar upon which Islam stands. Allah (Glorified be
He) made it compulsory upon every able Muslim, male and female, to
perform it at least once in a lifetime. Allah revealed: [Hajj
thereto is a duty mankind owes to Allah, those who can afford the
journey, but if any deny faith, Allah stands not in need of any of
His creatures] (Al `Imran 3:97)
Performance
of the Hajj washes away all sins. Abu Hurayrah narrated: I heard
the Prophet say, “Whoever performs Hajj and does not commit any
rafath (obscenity) or fusooq (transgression), he returns (free from
sin) as the day his mother bore him.” (Reported by Al-Bukhari)
Hajj
is one of the greatest deeds a person can accomplish in his or her
lifetime. Abu Hurayrah narrated: The Prophet was asked, “What
deed is the best?” He said, “Faith in Allah and His
Messenger.” “Then what?” “Jihad for the sake of Allah.”
“Then what?” “Hajj mabroor, a Hajj accepted by Allah
(Glorified be He).”
Abu
Sha`tha’ said, “I contemplated the good deeds that a person
does. I found that salah (ritual Prayer) as well as fasting are a
jihad of the body. And that sadaqah (charity) is a jihad of
someone’s wealth. But Hajj is a jihad of both body and wealth.”
Hajj
is the greatest jihad. `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her)
asked the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), “We find that
jihad is the best deed; shouldn’t we (women) do jihad?” The
Prophet replied, “Rather the best jihad is a Hajj mabroor!” `A’ishah
later said, “I’ll never cease performing Hajj after I heard
that from the Messenger of Allah.” (Agreed Upon)
The
du`aa’ (supplication) of the one in Hajj will be accepted. The
Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) said, “The soldier in
the path of Allah and the one who performs Hajj and the one who
performs `Umrah, all are the delegation of Allah! He called them
and they answered. And they asked Him, and He shall grant them
(what they ask for)!” (Authentic, narrated by Ibn Majah and Ibn
Hibban)
In
the Islamic history books it was narrated that on the Day of
`Arafat, a man from Turkmenistan stood on the plains of `Arafat in
Hajj. To his left all he could see was Muslims crying and praying
to Allah (Glorified be He). To his right all he could see was
Muslims crying and praying to Allah (Glorified be He). Because of
his native tongue, he could not imitate the lengthy prayers of the
others. At this realization everything blurred in front of him. His
face reddened, his eyes poured tears as he raised his hands, “O
Allah! Grant me everything that they are asking for! Grant me
everything that they are asking for!” And Allah (Glorified be He)
accepted his du`aa’.
There
is not a single day that the sun has risen on more beloved to Allah
(Glorified be He) than the Day of `Arafat. The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) said, “There is no day on which Allah
frees more of His slaves from Fire than the Day of `Arafat, and He
verily draws near, then boasts of them before the angels, saying:
‘What do they seek?’” (Reported by Muslim) And in another
hadith: “Verily Allah boasts of the people of `Arafat before the
people of Heaven (angels) saying: ‘Look to My servants who have
come to Me disheveled and dusty.’”
`Abdullah
ibn Al-Mubarak narrated: I went to Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah as the Day
of `Arafat was setting. He sat on his knees, his hands raised to
the heavens, and tears moistened his cheeks and beard. He turned
and looked at me, so I asked him, “Among the people who have
gathered here for Hajj, who is in the worst state?” Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah
said, “He who thinks that Allah will not forgive him.”
`A’ishah
(may Allah be pleased with her) would see the Prophet (peace and
blessing be upon him) standing in Prayer at night so much so that
his feet would swell. She would ask him, “Why do you do this when
Allah has forgiven all your sins, the past and anything you may do
in the future?” And he would reply, “Shouldn’t I be a
thankful slave?”
With
this example of the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), what
should our attitude be when we hear of Paradise and forgiveness of
sin for those who perform Hajj? Does it mean that after Hajj we
fall back into all the disobedience that we went to Hajj with? Does
it mean that we are promised Jannah no matter what sin we do after
Hajj? Many people think this to be the case and it is a very
dangerous presumption.
You
will find in many of the hadith regarding the virtue of Hajj the
term Hajj mabroor. Do you know what mabroor means? It means an
accepted Hajj. A mabroor Hajj is one in which Allah (Glorified be
He) is not disobeyed during or after. Others have said that a Hajj
mabroor is one that is accepted, and the sign of its acceptance is
that a person will go back in a better state than when he came, and
that he will discontinue the sins that were between him and Allah
(Glorified be He).
I
once saw a group of Hajjis with all of their paraphernalia.
Plastered on their t-shirts and hats was “Hajj Mabroor 1997!” I
remembered then when Ibn `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was
on his deathbed and his son reminded him of all the good deeds that
he did with the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) and the
Companions. He told him, “Quiet! Don’t you know whom Allah
accepts from? Verily Allah only accepts from the God-Fearing (al-muttaqun).”
When
`Ali ibn Al-Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) wore his ihram
and sat upright on his camel in preparation for the journey to
Makkah, his face changed color, his skin shivered, and he cried,
unable to say the Talbiyyah, “Labbayk, Allahumma, labbayk…”
Someone asked him, “What’s wrong?” And he replied, “I’m
afraid that when I say it, it will be replied, ‘Laa labbayka wa
laa sa`dayk’ (May you never have come and may you not have
happiness).”
With
that spirit, let us march forward in the search of the mercy of
Allah (Glorified be He) and His forgiveness, to the first house of
Allah (Glorified be He) on earth, to Hajj.
You
may have heard of the Jamarat crowd in which 600 people died in the
Hajj of 1996. It was Zhuhr time that it happened and I had been
sitting there from the early morning waiting for noon to throw my
pebbles. About 30 minutes before Zhuhr, a wave of people like
dominoes toppled over us. I had said to myself earlier that if I
were ever in an emergency situation I would jump up on a bus or
anything high to escape the crowd. Now, I saw people doing just
that and I knew this was the situation that I had feared. My friend
said, “What shall we do?” With a glance over the sea of people
I knew there was no way we could walk opposite of the crowd and so
I replied, “Go and throw our Jamarat.”
People
died that day. Ambulance sirens were blaring and helicopters were
thundering above. In the pain and exhaustion, losing my friend, I
sat leaning, my back on a sister and her back on me. We did not
even realize what we were doing. I tasted what the Prophet (peace
and blessing be upon him) meant when he said that on the Day of
Judgment people would be naked and `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased
with her) asked him, “Won’t the men and women look at each
other?” And he replied, “`A’ishah, the issue is more severe
than that.”
I
saw three men looking anxiously for their friend and I just sat
staring at them. All of a sudden their faces exploded in happiness,
“Ahmad! Ahmad!” they called, and one of them could not handle
the happiness and he cried and cried.
Limping
back to the Ka`bah, I found a place with shady trees and a carpeted
patio leading to a villa. The owner, an older man, stood watching
as all the people walked by. And I sat watching him.
People
would come up to him and beg for a glass of water. He would jump
and bring them the coldest water he had. They would pray from the
bottom of their hearts for him. I knew what kind of du`aa’ that
was because I was feeling the same thirst that they all felt.
Whenever he saw someone sick, he would spring out to the road and
invite him in, giving him a bed and food to relax him.
I
was shy at first, but the thirst overcame me and I asked him for
water. I had been on that patio for some time and when I asked him,
he realized he had not offered me anything. He ran inside, and in
addition to the water, he brought me packets of fruit juice. I
thought about this man as I made my way back to the Ka`bah. If a
human was so merciful to these people who had come for Hajj, these
people who had come for no other reason than to say “Laa ilaha
illa Allah,” how merciful was Allah (Glorified be He) going to be
to these Hajjis?
Indeed,
the Prophet said, “And there is no reward for an accepted
Hajj…except Jannah!”
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