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Your Questions Answered

What is the significance and message of Hajj?

Man should turn towards God, making God the central focus of his life, this is the significance and message of the pilgrimage. Although hajj lasts for just a few days, the lessons it provides have a much broader significance. Hajj is a comprehensive guide for the entirety of one’s life. When we take leave of our homes and families and set off for hajj, we feel that we are journeying towards God. It is as if we have left our world and are entering the world of God. We feel we are heading towards the House of God, to the abode and place of action of God’s Prophet and his Companions—to the historically significant places of people who had devoted their entire lives for the sake of God, and who gave their lives in God’s path.

With this, the pilgrim also realizes the fact that he is setting off for that place which God specially chose to reveal his final guidance to humankind. In this manner, hajj leads the pilgrim towards becoming a God-oriented person. He recalls and remembers God. His mind is filled with thoughts of God. If earlier he used to think principally about himself, now he thinks mainly of God.

What is the meaning and importance of the words which a pilgrim utters repeatedly during the journey?

During the journey, the pilgrim calls out the following words:
God is the Greatest! God is the Greatest! There is none worthy of worship other than Him! And God is the Greatest! God is the Greatest! And all praise is for Him!

Repeating these words constantly, a consciousness develops in a hajj pilgrim that all greatness is for God alone. In comparison to God, everything else pales into insignificance. This is the real secret of social consciousness. You cannot have unity and harmonious collective living where every person thinks that they are greater than the others. On the other hand, when everyone surrenders their sense of individual greatness, they will find unity and harmony. Disunity is a result of the dispersal of greatness and unity is a result of the acknowledgement of a single greatness. People can live harmoniously together only when everyone surrenders their sense of greatness before a single being.

What is the spirit behind the words ‘Labbaik! Allahuma Labbaik! (Here I am at Your service! O God, Here I am at Your service!)

When the pilgrim utters the above-mentioned words, he does not mean to say that he has come to settle in Makkah. It is not a declaration of his having left his homeland and arriving in Makkah. It is actually a declaration of having left his previous conduct or behaviour. It is an announcement to say that, ‘I am here with complete willingness to obey You (God), and do whatever You (God) command. To submit my life and soul to Your command.’ Although the pilgrim declares, Labbaik, ‘Here I am at Your service!’ at the place of hajj, he must stand by this declaration in practice in his personal life on his return from hajj.

Is the square structure around which the pilgrims circumambulate like an Idol for the Muslims and what is the meaning of going around it?

The square structure is a historical structure originally built by Prophet Abraham in the centre of a large courtyard also called the House of God. It is not an idol for the Muslims. It is known as the Kabah. The pilgrims go around the Kabah seven times, symbolizing their willingness to have God as the centre of their lives. They affirm that they will consider God as the focus around which their lives will revolve. It is as if scattered bits of iron are being pulled towards a divine magnet. The circumambulation (tawaf) is symbolic of making all one’s efforts constrained around a single focus.

Believers all over the world turn towards the Kabah every day, offering their five daily prayers. When they pray together facing the direction of the Kabah, they experience an amazing sense of unity. The tawaf during hajj provides the pilgrims an invaluable lesson—of working together, of doing things together in harmony. Differences between rulers and subjects are eliminated completely, as are ethnic differences. It is as if every single person has just one status; as a servant of the one God.

What kind of personality should emerge after one performs Hajj?

The personality that should emerge after performing hajj is one in which a two-fold activity is set in motion, one form being external; and the other internal.

External activity refers to conveying the word of God peacefully. Pilgrimage inspires a devotee to continue the prophetic mission of calling people towards a God-oriented life. Internal activity refers to a heightened sensitivity and awareness towards piety, self-control, the avoidance of violence and aggression and the need to lead a life which is devoted to God, instead of one devoted to self-glorification.