I wish I could be with each of you when you make the trip to our revered places - the Haramain -at Mecca and Medina.
How I would instruct in the beauty of how our religion has made our history part, and parcel, of the rituals that we perform.
So much so that when you perform those rituals with those events that shaped them in mind, you feel at one with our history, as if you were there.
Many of these rituals existed two millennia before the Messenger of God. And were both confirmed and purified by him.
For the Arabs revered Ibrahim (as), the father of the Prophets two millennia prior to 700CE. They took great pride in him having raised the House of God at Mecca.
Since that time they had venerated it, and made pilgrimage to it.
*THE CALL*
وَأَذِّن فِي النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّ يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالًا وَعَلَىٰ كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ يَأْتِينَ مِن كُلِّ فَجٍّ عَمِيقٍ
And proclaim among men the Pilgrimage: they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every remote path. (S Hajj, v27).
And God commanded Ibrahim (as) to announce the Pilgrimage to Mecca amongst all men. Mecca was newly established as a place of destination, by that proclamation.
And in answer to that three millennia call the Pilgrim when he dons the two seamless and unstitched pieces of cloth, and throws off the World, intones with vigour and loudly -
Labayak Allah Humma Labayk. *1
Here I am O God, here I am.
In answer to ibrahim’s proclamation that God carried to us down thirty centuries.
It is the this verbal intonation that marks out a pilgrim, and it is sufficient as a dedication and an intention.
*WHATEVER MECCCA GIVES TO YOU TAKE, WHATEVER IT LEAVES FOR YOU, YOU LEAVE*
When Ibrahim (as) raised his hands in supplication to God, he asked that God bless the progeny of his second son, Isaac (as) with Prophets and God accepted the supplication and replied “but not those that transgress”.
And for his first born son Ismail (as), as he had left him in the barren valley of Becca *2, was for God to bless that place.
This supplication God accepted without qualification.
That is Mecca, a place of infinite blessing without end.
And that is how you approach it.
You approach it as Muhammed (saw) approached it as a conquering hero.
He did not lead his men that day, but he gave over the command to others that entered the city from its several tracts.
He himself rode on his camel Qaswa, which whom he had left as a hunted man nine years previously.
And he (saw) entered Mecca with his head bowed.
Any that came to petition him that day of conquest, found him ready and willing. And he gave generously to all. *3
That is how you approach Mecca.
Things will go wrong, and you willingly accept them and pay. *4
You do not complain, for all is the will of God- but most of all at that place.
And as you enter the Grand Mosque that houses the Kaba that Ibrahim raised, you make your shoulders low and lower your eyes and slump the frame of your body low and forward in the manner of a beggar approaching his master.
Arrogance resides not just in the chest but also in the shoulders.
This is the manner of Muhammed’s (saw) approach to Mecca. And as you approach be well to remember it.
*THE RAML*
After entering the Holy Mosque and making supplication at the sight of the Kaba, then you fully uncover your right shoulder in preparation for the Tawaf.
Circumbulating the Kaba is the greatest worship, greater than the ordained and heaven sent prayer. And so there is no prayer before the Tawaf.
For the first three circuits around the Kaba you perform them as Raml, and you recall the Umrah after the treaty of Hubabiyyah.
At that treaty which God declared as a clear victory, the Muslims were required to depart from the Haram not having completed the sacred rites of the Pilgrimage. Then to return a year later, at which point Quraysh would vacate Mecca so as to allow the Muslims to perform their Umrah unhindered.
With the Raml we enact the command that the Messenger (saw) gave to his men that day. We move vigorously with our arms swinging, at a trot *5, this to show our fearlessness to the Quraysh that looked on the companions from the mountains surrounding the Kaba.
So when you do the Raml, imagine you are at that time and place. And ask God to count you amongst those that were there that day with the Messenger (saw).
*THE PRAYER IN FRONT OF THE KABA*
وَاتَّخِذُوا مِن مَّقَامِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ مُصَلًّى
“and take ye the station of Abraham as a place of prayer” S2, v125
When we stand for prayer we enter into a state of complete humility, and our normal stance is that our eyes are lowered.
Abu Haneefa (rm) held that looking on the Kaba is itself worship and that in front of the Kaba when you stand in worship you should look on it.
Humility in such a state resides in your shoulders. Make them low. And when you stand for prayer in front of the Kaba let your eyes rest on it and drink deeply from its Barakah.
This is something phenomenal that a lot of Muslims miss. *7
*THE SAI*
After the Tawaf we go to the hillock of Safa to perform the Sai, and to remember the first Muslim family.
Ibrahim (as) saw in a dream to leave Hagar his handmaiden and his first born son, Ismail (as) in the barren valley of Becca.
That first family were fully trusting of God. And so it is reported that as Ibrahim (as) left them, he did not look back, but instead supplicated for God to look after them and care for them.
Hagar also believed that Ibrahim was a Prophet of God and put her full trust in God.
When Ismail (as), as a young child or even baby, began to cry from thirst. Hagar ran between the two hillocks of Safa and Marwa.
She was not looking for water for the valley was barren. But she looked for a caravan of nomads who would give her shelter and help her.
She went seven times between the hillocks in desperation hoping for some succour. In the dip between them she ran because she could not see Ismail (ra).
When you run remember the desperation that she felt. But then more so remember how God gave her succour.
For whilst she looked for the company of a caravan, God gave to her a water gushing forth from where Ismail lay*6. And it is this Zam Zam that drew a caravan of people to her. And that was the foundation of Mecca as a destination, and as a town.
This is the grace of God, that whilst you look to alleviate some hardship, for those that put their trust in God, He sends you something far better than you could have imagined.
So when you run in the Sai recall the first family and their trials, and how God’s mercy sent them a water unlooked for.
That is today the unending blessing of Zam Zam that quenches the thirst of the ever growing hoards of pilgrims.
*THE SHAVEN HEADS*
The honour of the Hajj and the Umrah is the shaven head.
It is the release from the pilgrim garb of the two unsown pieces of cloth that mark the ihram. And a release from the obligations that make you separate yourself from the World.
Whenever I shave my head I remember Khalid bin Walid (ra) return to his army clean shaven after passing through the empty quarter (so named because in that dessert nothing can survive, and navigation through it was perilous with the shifting sand dunes.)
Khalid as commander of the Muslim fought many battles in Persia, and was required to join his forces and take command of the joint forces in Syria.
He dispatched his army headed by a captain and explained that he would come up in the van. Unbeknownst to the rest of the army he couple a couple of captains and rode through the empty quarter, performed the Hajj and rode back.
The first his men knew of his daring venture was on his return his head clean shaven.
At Hudabiyyah after the Messenger had instructed his companions to shave their heads as a release from the Ihram, he supplicated thrice that those who shaved their heads be blessed. And at the third included those that cut their hair short.
To shave your head in the honour of the Umra’ and Hajj. Wear it with honour and dignity.
*MEDINA*
Try and gain all of your Fardh in the Prophets mosque.
Behave as if you are one of the Companions of the Blessed Messenger (saw). They would never leave the Mosque until they presented themselves to him and gained permission to leave.
This in case he needed for them to do something for him.
So when you go to leave the Mosque present yourself to him and give salutations to him.
Do not overcomplicate things, just send your salutations to him.
And then after him the two buried next to him. *8
There are three gates, the Messenger and the two rightly guided are at the second gate, and not the first one.
*QUBA*
Visiting Quba, the first Mosque built by the Messenger, is the equivalent of an Umra to the Holy Sanctuary.
I would suggest that you going immediately after the Fajr prayer and gain your Ad-Duha (forenoon) prayer there.
The journey time is around 10 minutes.
*UHUD*
The Messenger (saw) said that Uhud is like a mountain of gold for the believers.
Visit it, contemplate it.
*FURTHER STUDY*
I will try and write about the Hajj and it’s rituals and how they recall to us our common history.
But if you have the opportunity to go, then go first for the Umrah to fully experience our history as part of our rituals.
The above is not a full exposition.
Please refer to a suitable book for a fuller understanding of our rituals and how and where you should perform them.
*END*
NOTES-
*1- the full pilgrim chant reads as follows:
*2 the reputed name of Mecca before it became a place of destination.
*3 this generosity was inherent within Arab culture even predating Islam.
At Hudabiyyah we see the Messenger (saw) instructing that the sacrificial animals be paraded in front of a notable Qurayshi idolater, so that he could be impressed with the generosity shown by the Messenger (saw) and therefore wish to come more readily to terms of agreement.
*4 God’s bounty will descend upon Mecca despite of you. But to be a vessel for that descent …. Then wonder at that.
*5 obviously
*6 The Messenger (saw) reported that had Hagar not sought to dam it, then Zam Zam would have been a river on the Earth.
*7 One of the arkaan of the Tawaf is that you circumbulate the Kaba without looking on it. The symbolism is phenomenal but I’ll let you deliberate on that.
*8 Abu Bakr (as) was buried next to the Messrnger (saw) as he was the father of Aisha (ra), mother of the believers. And the Messenger (saw) was buried in her house because that is where he passed on. The third burial place had been reserved for Aisha (ra) but at the time of Umar (ra) Caliphate he requested her that he be given the place and she (ra) acquiesced.
No comments:
Post a Comment