Hajj: The Fifth Pillar of Islam
Dr. Mozammel Haque
[The First of Dhul-Hijjah 1439H will be
on Sunday 12 August 2018. Islamic Cultural Centre & Regents Park Central
London Mosque congratulates all Muslims in the world and wants to take this
opportunity to ask Allah the Almighty to accept all our deeds. It also
announces Eid al-Adhaa will be on Tuesday 21 August 2018 corresponding to 10
Dhul-Hijjah 1439 after the day of Arafah. I wish everyone a blessed life full
of happiness, peace and prosperity.]
ISLAM IS A PRACTICAL RELIGION which
lays down a complete code of life. Its training starts from childhood. The
final pillar of Islam or the Fifth Pillar of Islam comes after the successful
completion of the first four pillars of Islam. The training of five times prayer
every day started from the local Masjid, meeting with local people, with
neighbours five times every day.
But the ultimate objective or the
summum bonum of Islam is establishing peace and harmony in the whole universe,
and for that reason, it makes various provisions for creating peace and harmony
in the lives of mankind as well as in the universe. Peace and harmony can be
achieved only when there is solidarity and universal brotherhood among human
beings. Islam preaches this concept and puts it into practice through the
unique annual assemblage of the pilgrims during Hajj.
The institution of Hajj in Islam is
quite extraordinary and unparalleled. It is only Islam that has made the annual
assemblage at one place, Makkah, an obligation for the capable Muslims from all
corners of the world. In other words, it may be called the World Muslim
Congress. This assembly has many distinctive features which no other gathering
has and no other religion stipulates. The concept of unity and brotherhood is
embedded in Islam in such a way that one is truly amazed to see millions of
Muslims dressed in two white sheets of cloth gathered at one particular place,
i.e. in Arafat during a fixed time on certain fixed days in the year. All human
and man-made barriers and distinctions are demolished during that assembly.
We shall deal here with the aspects of unity and
universal brotherhood which, besides others, are quintessential among the
concepts of Hajj. First, let us take universal brotherhood. This universal
brotherhood emanates from the following basic concepts and is demonstrated in a
most authentic and brilliant manner here on this occasion:
Adam is the
first man from whom all human beings have sprung up;
Abraham is the
father of monotheistic religion;
Acceptance of
all prophets as prophets of God;
Belief in all
revealed books of Allah.
Thus, this acceptance of Abraham as the
patriarch of the concept of Tawheed and recognition of the continuity of
Prophethood from Prophet Adam to the Last Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him
all) and having faith in all revealed books keeps up a chain of faith known as
Islam throughout the world. This binds the whole humankind into a bond of
brotherhood whose genealogical father is Adam and the spiritual father Abraham.
Thus Muslims believe in the continuation of the human race on earth. There are
no conflicts and controversies in the monotheistic religion decreed by God. All
Muslims (those who consciously and willingly surrender to the Will of the
Creator) belong to this Ummah and therefore constitute a fraternity of faith.
This is one way the Hajj conveys the message of universal brotherhood.
This aspect of universal brotherhood
can also be noticed during Hajj when Muslims come from remote corners of the
world and congregate in Makkah in the vicinity of the House of God, i.e.
Baitullah. Though they might have come from the east or west, north or south,
and all differences in colour, language, race and nationality notwithstanding,
they find their oneness on the basis of their faith in One God, One Qiblah, One
Book and One Prophet.
The practical training for this
universal brotherhood starts from the local or neighbourhood level with the
five times daily prayers in the mosque, which gets enlarged with the Friday
prayers once a week. The circle is again made substantially larger during the
Eid prayer, and it becomes internationalised transforming into a global
gathering once in a lifetime. So, as I mentioned at the beginning, the concept
and training in universal brotherhood, which reaches its peak, starts from the
very childhood at the local level.
Islam places emphasis on unity and unifies mankind
on the basis of one God, one Book - the Qur’an,
one Qibla - the Ka’aba and one leader -
the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The Noble Prophet’s mission was to establish unity
and peace throughout the world. The Islamic concept of unity
transcends all other forms of unity based on territory,
geographical boundary, linguistic and ethnic affinity.
He united Muslims on the basis of faith,
which is the Oneness of God, Islam.
As regards unity, Islam, first of all,
removed all man-made bonds and barriers bringing all human beings into one
global family tracing their genealogical origin to common parents and
biological chemistry to one element, i.e. clay. Almighty God has laid down in
the Holy Qur’an, “O Mankind, We have created you from a male and a female.” (49:
13) This establishment of absolute equality on the basis of their ancestral
origin and biological composition removes all artificial differences between
man and man.
The enforcement of the concept of Muslim
brotherhood is the greatest social ideal of Islam. Islam places emphasis on
unity and unifies mankind on the basis of one God, one Book - the Qur’an, one
Qibla - the Ka’aba and one leader - the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The Noble Prophet’s mission was to establish unity and peace throughout the
world. The Islamic concept of unity transcends all other forms of unity based
on territory, geographical boundary, linguistic and ethnic affinity. He united
Muslims on the basis of faith, which is the Oneness of God, Islam.
On this vital concept was based the
Prophet’s sermon in his last pilgrimage, which shows that Islam cannot be
completely practiced until this ideal is achieved. Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) unified and cemented the Muslim Ummah under the banner of La ilaha
illallah Muhammadur-Rasoolullah by establishing the first-ever Islamic state in
Madina, which later on took the shape of a grand Caliphate. Under the Caliphate
the Muslim Ummah was unified and integrated. Thus the first concept of
universal and worldwide unity was demonstrated by Prophet Muhammad more than
fourteen hundred years ago having been guided and inspired by God for
establishing unity and peace in the world.
Islam is essentially a community and
group-oriented religion. So, the practical lesson in unity and equality first
starts within the family, then in the neighbourhood, especially through the
institution of five daily prayers in the mosque and still on a larger scale in
the locality, during weekly Friday prayers, and then in much larger gatherings
in the two Eid prayers and ultimately in the international or global gathering
during Hajj. This very characteristic and feature of Islam demonstrates the
universality of this religion and its heavenly origin which transcends all
worldly barriers of race, colour, class and nationality.
Pilgrimage is the best occasion to bind
again the loose threads, tighten them on the basis of belief and in the
presence of God and frustrate the nefarious machinations of the enemies of the
Ummah’s unity.
Another aspect of Hajj is making
sacrifice in the way of God for the cause of Islam. As Islam itself is a
religion of sacrifice, its different pillars also contain the same features and
characteristics. It is a known fact that the Islamic or Hijra calendar starts
with the month of Muharram and ends with the month of Hajj. The first month of
the Islamic calendar, Muharram, is the month of sacrifice – a sacrifice made by
the grandson of Muhammad, Hussain ibn Ali, who laid down his life at Kufa in
the cause of Islam and its ideals. Similarly, the 12 months of the Hijra
calendar, the month of Hajj, marks the remembrance of the sacrifice made by the
Prophet Ibrahim for the sake of God and His Pleasure.
The Patriarch, the first Prophet of
monotheistic religion, Islam, the Prophet Ibrahim was ready to sacrifice his
most loved one for the sake of God. He loved his only son, Ismail, more than
anything else. God asked him to sacrifice Ismail. Ibrahim was going to
sacrifice Ismail, in the way of God by His Order. The Holy Qur’an explains the
story of Ibrahim and his son Ismail thus:
Then when (the son) reached (the age
of) (serious) work with him, he said: “O my son; I see in vision that I offer
you in sacrifice. Now say what is your view.” (The son) said: “O my father; do
as you are commanded; you will find me, if God so wills, one practising
patience and constancy.” So when they had both submitted their wills (to God),
and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), We called out to
him, “O Ibrahim; you have already fulfilled the vision; thus indeed do We
reward those who do right.” (37:102-105) The Qur’an says: “And We ransomed him
with a momentous sacrifice.” (37:107)
The sacrifices made by Prophets Ibrahim
and Ismail for the love of God left an indelible imprint on the history of
mankind. This sacrifice is still remembered and re-enacted during Hajj. Ibrahim
left a glorious record of sacrifice to please God.
In modern times, sacrifice is
symbolised by an act of slaughtering a camel, cow or lamb for the sake of God
during the days of Eid-al Adha, i.e. starting after the Eid prayer till the
sunset on the third day of Eid. Sacrifice is a strongly recommended Sunnah of
the Prophet and was introduced in the second year after Hijra. The purpose of
sacrifice is to remind oneself of the great sacrifice of Ibrahim.
The sacrifice of life and wealth in the
way of God is the zenith of a man’s belief. God says: “By no means shall you
attain righteousness unless you give (freely) of that which you love; and
whatever you give, of a truth God knows it well.” (Al-Qur’an 3:92) This means
that when something, which has been held so dear, is sacrificed in the way of
God one may hope to secure God’s Pleasure. The verse tells us that to attain
righteousness one has to sacrifice things, but to attain it in perfection one
has to sacrifice things, dearer to one.
Every sacrifice and every effort is to
be aimed at seeking God’s Pleasure. That God be pleased with us is the real
capital of our lives and it is to win this pleasure that everything should be sacrificed.
In the words of the Qur’an: “Surely my prayers and my sacrifice, my life and my
death is for God alone, the Lord of the Universe.”
In the modern age, the pilgrims, when
they start their journey to Makkah for performing Hajj with only two white
sheets on their bodies leaving behind their wives, children, kith and kin and
their wealth and properties, they practically exemplify their act of sacrifice
for the love of God.
Hajj is the greatest training and
practical demonstration of the spirit of sacrifice and the spirit of Jihad in
the way of God. It shows that Islam does not end with giving some utopian
ideals for the human life. It is not only a religion; it is the guidance for
the whole mankind to shape their lives in this world and hereafter. That’s why
God makes provision for the teaching and training of humankind in every quality
through practical implementation.
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