Pilgrimage to Mecca is the Fifth Pillar of Faith in Islam

Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Wolffe whom I met whilst attending a meeting at my granddaughter’s school. We chatted briefly and though a short chat, it was a most engaging one.

I found Mr. Wolffe to be well versed in his understanding of Islam; why Mr. Wolffe even reminded me that in a few weeks the pilgrimage would take place in Mecca and thus inspired me to write about the Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam. Hajj activities take place six days (8th to13th) of Dhul-Hijjah (twelfth month of the Islamic year).

The Muslim concept of worship is very broad and Muslims consider everything they do in life to be an act of worship when done in accord with Allah’s guidance.

There are also five formal acts of worship which help strengthen a Muslim’s faith and obedience. They are known as the “Five Pillars of Islam”.

The five pillars of Islam are the foundation of Muslim life:

• Shahadah or Declaration of Faith – namely the belief in the Oneness of Allah (God) and the prophethood of Muhammad (pbuh);

• Salaat — Establish-ment of the daily prayers;

• Zakat — Concern for and almsgiving to the needy;

• Fasting/Sawn — Self-purification through fasting specifically during Ramadan; and

• Hajj — The pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are able.

Hajj is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca; the Hajj is required of any Muslim with the physical and financial capability to make the journey.

The close of the Hajj is marked by a festival, the ’Id al Adha, which is celebrated with prayers and the exchange of gifts.

Each year, over 2.5 million Muslims travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage. The Hajj is considered to be one of the largest gatherings of humanity at any one time or place; hence truly the culminating spiritual experience of a Muslim.

Muslims have performed the Hajj every year for the past 14 centuries. In earlier times, the Hajj was literally the journey of a lifetime, a dream for which a person spent an entire lifetime saving for.

The trip itself was an arduous and difficult one, often taking months or even years on horseback or on foot, through mountain terrain and desert.

Today, the pilgrims travel vastly different from the pilgrims of old. We descend upon Mecca with speed via luxury airliners, boats and trains.

May Allah justly reward the pilgrims of old for the hardship of travel they had to endure.

 “And proclaim the Pilgrimage among men. They will come to thee on foot and (mounted) on every kind of camel, lean on account of journeys through deep and distant mountain highways...” (Qur’an 22:27)

The rites of the Hajj, which are of Abrahamic origin, include going around the Ka'bah seven times, and going seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwa as did Hagar (Hajir, Abraham's wife) during her search for water.

The pilgrims later stand together on the wide plains of ’Arafat (a large expanse of desert outside Makkah) and join in prayer for God's forgiveness, in what is often thought as a preview of the Day of Judgment.

The bonds of brotherhood among the pilgrims have remained the same throughout history. Pilgrims wear special clothes: simple garments that strip away distinctions of class and culture, so that all stand equal before God. 

Nowhere else on earth can you find millions of people, different in language, race, colour, gender, and culture, united in faith and purpose, acting with complete goodwill, discipline, generosity and brotherhood.

He saw brotherhood and the brotherhood of different races which led him to disclaim racism and to say as excerpted from The Autobiography of Malcolm X: “I am not a racist... in the past I permitted myself to be used... to make sweeping indictments of all white people, the entire white race, and these generalizations have caused injuries to some whites who perhaps did not deserve to be hurt.

“Because of the spiritual enlightenment which I was blessed to receive as the result of my recent pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca, I no longer subscribe to sweeping indictments of any one race.

“I am now striving to live the life of a true Sunni Muslim. I must repeat that I am not a racist nor do I subscribe to the tenets of racism.

“I can state in all sincerity that I wish nothing but freedom, justice and equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.” 

Such is the power of the Fifth Pillar of Faith.

May Allah grant me before I die, and in fact all Muslims, the chance to experience that beautiful Hajj experience. Ameen.