12/04/07: Hajj pilgrimage reinforces oneness of God, humanity

News- 12/04/07

Faith and policy

Hajj pilgrimage reinforces oneness of God, humanity

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi

More than two million Muslims are on their way to for the annual hajj pilgrimage. Hajj is one of the pillars of the Islamic faith and an obligation for every Muslim who can physically and financially afford it.

The goal of hajj is to replace our secular culture with the culture of total submission to the will of God. It reinforces a message of universal brotherhood under God that could save our planet.

The city of is in a desert area surrounded by mountains in . According to Islam, Abraham's descendants fell away from monotheism but continued to make pilgrimage to for thousands of years. The Prophet Mohammad cleaned the pagan idols out of the Ka'bah -- the world's oldest house of worship, which the Prophet Abraham constructed in 2000 B.C. -- and established the Muslim hajj, which has continued for more than 1,400 years.

Male pilgrims wear the ihram, consisting of two sheets of seamless white cloth and a pair of sandals. Women may wear any style of modest clothing, but they cannot veil their face. All signs of selfishness or class superiority are prohibited, as are other distractions including cosmetics, perfume, sex, swearing, quarreling and even looking at a mirror during the ritual.

In Mina, the pilgrims re-enact the story of Abraham on Mount Al-Jamarat by throwing pebbles against the Devil who tried to stop Abraham from fulfilling the Divine command.

When Abraham passed God's test, God sent a ram as a ransom to be slaughtered in place of his son. In commemoration, more than 2 million animals are slaughtered at hajj, and their meat is packed for charity in poor nations.

The most central part of the hajj is the Tawaf or circling the sacred house seven times. The pilgrims walk seven times between the mountains Safa and Marwa to commemorate the desperation of Hagar, a black Ethiopian slave who became the wife of Prophet Abraham and mother of Prophet Ishmael, to find water for her son in the desert. This is how Islam honors a righteous and responsible woman.

Then, pilgrims drink from the spring of Zam-Zam, which is the water that miraculously appeared when the angel told the thirsty child, Ishmael, to kick the sand with his feet.

At his first and last hajj in March 632, Prophet Mohammad said: "You are one brotherhood! Protect people's life, property and honor. Don't oppress and don't be oppressed!"

After Malcolm X made hajj to in 1964, he changed his name to Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He wrote in a letter from to his folks in : "I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color."

He concluded that if Americans could accept the Oneness of God, they too could accept the Oneness of Man.

It's time for Muslims, Christians, Jews and other faith communities to unify our voices, stop the warmongers and terrorists from hijacking our religious traditions and work together for a world free of injustice, racism, war and poverty.

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi heads the Islamic House of Wisdom