Hajj: Trusting in the Promise of Allah
The
Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is reported to have said that the one
who performs Hajj and does not commit any obscenity and wrongdoing will come
out as the day he or she was born – pure and free from sins.
The Hajj season is
upon us once again with millions of pilgrims preparing to don their ihraam and
travel to the holy cities in search of Allah’s mercy and forgiveness, striving
to turn over a new leaf in their lives and come closer to their Creator. In
preparation for this journey, pilgrims will have spent many hours hunting for
the best value Hajj packages by speaking to friends and family, checking
references, and comparing price plans. Hard earned savings, which may have been
accumulated over a lifetime will be invested for this 3-4 week journey. Wives
and children may be left at home alone for this entire period. Basic luxuries
such as a change of clothes, toothpaste, and scented soap will be abandoned for
those precious few days when the pilgrims undergo severe hardship in the most
testing conditions, even sleeping outdoors in the desert beneath the stars
without a tent amongst millions of others from all over the world, all dressed
identically in a humble pair of towels. The question inevitably arises as to why
these pilgrims voluntarily subject themselves to such difficulty. What
motivates them to leave their families, spend their life savings and suffer
such troubles? The answer is simple – it is the promise of Allah.
The Messenger of Allah
(peace be upon him) is reported to have said that the one who performs Hajj and
does not commit any obscenity and wrongdoing will come out as the day he or she
was born – pure and free from sins. In another hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) said that the reward for an
accepted Hajj is nothing less than the gardens of Paradise. It is belief in this promise of complete
forgiveness, of the treasures of Paradise and the eternal pleasure of Allah
that drives Muslims to make these sacrifices for His sake.
In essence, the
historical background to the Hajj is about trusting in the promise of Allah.
Almost every ritual performed and every step taken derives from a moment in
which a member of the family of the Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) trusted
in the promise of Allah with complete submission.
Let us reflect upon
the moment when Ibrahim was commanded to abandon his wife Hajar (peace be upon
her) and their baby son Ismail (peace be upon him) in the empty barren desert
of Makkah with not a living soul for miles. At that time, Makkah had neither
inhabitants nor a known source of water. He left them there alone with them a
bag full of dates and a waterskin. For any father, it is difficult to leave his
infant child in such circumstances. For Ibrahim (peace be upon him), it would
have been even more heart-wrenching, for Allah had blessed him with this son
after he was childless until he was 86 years old. Now, he had been commanded by
that same Lord to leave his precious son in a barren desert valley.
When Ibrahim started
to depart, Hajar followed him, saying, 'O Ibrahim! Where are you going and leaving us in this valley that
does not have any inhabitants or anything else?' She repeated this several times, but he was not paying any attention
to her. She then said to him,
'Did Allah command you to do this?' Ibrahim replied, 'Yes.' She said, 'Then certainly, He will not abandon us.' She went back, while Ibrahim kept on walking,
until he was next to a hill where he could no longer be seen. He then recited
the following supplication,
"O our Lord! I
have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivated valley by Your
Sacred House; in order, O our Lord, that they may perform prayer, so fill some
hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits
so that they may give thanks." [Quran 14:37]
Imagine Hajar sitting
with her baby in the scorching desert sands alone in glaring silence not
knowing what was to be their fate, how they would survive and how she would
raise her child. It was not long before the water ran out and baby Ismail began
to become weak with thirst. With not a drop of water in sight and her infant’s
cries echoing in her ears, Hajar began climbing the hills of Safa and Marwa
repeatedly, desperately searching for anyone who could help. Due to her
sincerity and her faith and most of all, her trust in the promise of Allah,
Gibreel descended from the Heavens to dig the well of zam-zam which continues
to flow and quench the thirst of pilgrims to this day. Moreover, after a few
days a group of Bedouins, seeking new pastures, happened to pass by the mouth
of the valley. Whe n they saw flocks of bird circling over it, they concluded
that there must be water. Some of their men rode into the valley to explore it
and found a lonely woman with a child sitting by the rim of an abundant well.
By the mercy of Allah, the tribesmen asked Hagar’s permission to settle in her
valley. She agreed with the condition that the well of Zam Zam forever remain
the property of Ismail and his descendants. Today, during our Hajj, we
literally follow in the footsteps of Hajar as she ran frantically between these
hills in the roasting desert sun, believing in the promise of her Lord, which
He fulfilled.
Years later, Allah
commanded Ibrahim (peace be upon him) to return to Makkah where he found his
wife and son alive and secure, as was promised by Allah. But Ibrahim’s (peace
be upon him) test of belief in the promise of Allah was not over as he was
commanded to sacrifice his son Ismail (peace be upon him) for Allah, his son
for whom he had yearned for decades, his son who he had not seen for years. As
Syed Qutb explains,
“We see here Abraham
in his old age, cut off in a foreign land, having deserted his homeland and his
people, being given a child. The child turns out to be a model son, with his
forbearance confirmed by God Himself. Hardly had Abraham enjoyed his son’s
company and seen his youth blooming so as to become his companion and
assistant, when he sees in his dream that he should slaughter him. He
understands that it is a sign from God requiring sacrifice. What is his
attitude now? He does not hesitate for a moment. The thought of disobedience
does not even occur to him. He thinks only of submission. It is true that the
dream was only a signal, not a clear and direct order issued through
revelation. It was a signal by his Lord though, and that was enough for Abraham
to co mply, not to delay, and not even to ask why.”
“Moreover, his
compliance did not betray any feeling of distress, horror or panic; it was
marked by calm acceptance and reassurance, reflected in his words as he put
this most grave matter to his son: “My son! I have seen in a dream that I
must sacrifice you. Tell me, then, what you think.” [Quran 37:102].”
These are the words of a man in full control of himself and his feelings,
knowing that he is only doing his duty and trusting that it behoves him to
comply. We do not see any element of panic driving a person to do even what he
feels to be repugnant, in order to get it done and finished with.
That it was hard for
Abraham is beyond doubt. He was not required to send his only son to war, nor
to put him to a task that would end in his death. Nothing of the sort. Instead
he was required to undertake the task himself, by his own hand. And what task
was that? It was to slaughter his own son by way of sacrifice. This was the
order he received calmly, the one that he put to his son and asked him to
consider carefully. He did not take his son by surprise and do what was bidden.
Rather, he puts the question to him as if it were both normal and familiar. To
Abraham, the question was one of obedience. Since his Lord wanted something, so
be it, without hesitation. His son should also know and accept it willingly,
with submission so that he too would earn the reward of obeying God and
experienc e the pleasure of submission to Him. He himself had known that
pleasure and now wants his son to feel it as the pure goodness that surpasses
all else that life can offer.”
The reply of Ismail
(peace be upon him) can only be the response of the child of a mother and
father who sacrificed all comforts out of a firm belief in the promise of their
Lord. “He said: My father! Do as you are bidden, and, God willing, you
will find me to be patient in adversity.” [Quran 37:102].
The response is not
one of mere obedience and resignation but marked with acceptance and certainty.
Ismail (peace be upon him) addressed his father with love and affection and
fully surrenders to the will of his Lord, trusting in His promise.
During Hajj, the
pilgrims commemorate Ibrahim’s (peace be upon him) stoning of shaitaan who
tried to tempt him away from obeying Allah in this command by the stoning of
the pillars, thereby displaying our enmity towards shaitaan and our allegiance
to Allah. Muslims the world over celebrate the trust that Ibrahim (peace be
upon him) and Ismail (peace be upon him) had in the promise of their Lord by
sacrificing an animal at the end of the Hajj.
Finally, let us ponder
on the moment after this noble father and son have built the Ka’bah when Allah
commands Ibrahim (peace be upon him) to make the call for pilgrimage promising
him that “They will come to you walking or riding on every kind of
fast mount. They will come from the farthest locations” [Quran
22:27].
When Ibrahim (peace be
upon him) made this call, how many people would have heard it that people would
come from the farthest regions of the world? Yet, due to Ibrahim’s (peace be
upon him) unwavering belief in the promise of His Lord, he obeyed without
question. The phenomenal result of this call to Hajj can be seen today when
millions of Muslims from the four corners of the globe make the journey by
plane, by ship, by road, by camel and even by foot. All answering the call of Ibrahim
made thousands of years ago. All firmly believing in the promise of their Lord
to forgive them and cleanse them to the state they were in when their mothers
gave birth to them – pure and without sin.
Source:
www.islam21c.com | -by Fahad Ansari
Thu 23 Mar 2023 - 2:31 nga 
