Hajj
The last of the fundamental duties in Islam is the Hajj. Laying it down
as an essential religious obligation of Muslims, the Quran says:
Pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to God, those who can afford the
journey, but if any deny faith God stands not in need of any of His
creatures.
In this verse while the Hajj has been declared obligatory it has been
made clear that it is applicable only to those who possess the means
and material resources to undertake it. But care has been taken, in
the last part of it, to warn that if Muslims whom God has blessed with
the necessary material means to perform the pilgrimage still fail to
carry out the duty through sheer ingratitude (as is common among the
wealthy classes these days) then God does not stand in need of their
pilgrimage. The Almighty, definitely, is not going to lose anything
by their not performing the Hajj, the loss will entirely to theirs.
They will forfeit His good graces, they will deprive themselves of His
benevolence, and God-forbid, a most lamentable fate will be waiting
for them in the Hereafter. The Prophet is reported to have gone as far
as to say:
“A person whom God has given enough to perform the Hajj, if he
still fails to do so then it does not matter at all whether he dies
a Jew or a Christian,”
Brother, if there is any regard in our hearts for Islam, if we can boast
of the least attachment to God and the Prophet, none of us who can afford
to make the journey should remain without performing the Hajj after
we have known this Traditions.
Spiritual
Merit
The importance of the Hajj and the spiritual meritoriousness of those
who perform it have been emphasized in a number of Traditions. We will
reproduce a few of them here.
“Those who make the pilgrimage for the Hajj or the Umra they are
guests of God: their petitions, if they make any to God, will be granted,
and if they seek deliverance from sins, their sins will be forgiven.”
“He who performs the Hajj and commits no wicked or sinful deed
during it and does not disobey God, he will return from it as pure and
guiltless as he was at the time of his birth.”
“The reward for a pure and untainted hajj is paradise itself and
nothing short of it.”
Immediate
Gains
The remission of sins and the enjoyment of the supreme blissfulness
of paradise as a result of the spiritual auspiciousness of the Hajj
will, Insha Allah, surely be granted to the faithful in full measure
in life to come, but the exquisite thrill and the sublime joy one experiences,
the soul-stirring sensation of delight and wonderment one feels, on
seeing that choicest seat of Divine splendour the House of Ka’aba
and on visiting those special places in Mecca where the memories of
Prophet Abraham and of our own Prophet (peace be upon whom) are still
alive, are also things of the celestial world on the earth. Then the
pilgrimage to the Prophet’s mausoleum at Medina, the offering
up of Namaz in his own mosque, the addressing of the salutation and
the benediction to him directly, the aimless wanderings in the streets
and the wilderness of that blessed city, the breathing in of its air
and the fragrance which always seems to be filling its atmosphere, the
ethereal joy of his remembrance bursting upon one sometimes in laughter
and sometimes in tears-all these things provided, of course, that one
is blessed enough to feel them are the immediate rewards a pilgrim gets
when he betakes himself to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Five
Pillars of Islam
The five fundamental teachings of Islam we have discussed so far the
Kalima, Namaz, Zakat, Roza and Hajj are known as the ‘Five Pillars
of the Faith’.
A well-known Tradition of the holy Prophet tells us that, “The
foundation of Islam rests on these five things:
(i) The affirmation of Oneness of God, (ii) the establishment of Namaz,
(iii) the payment of Zakat, (iv) the observance of Roza in the month
of Ramzan, and (v) the performance of Hajj by those who can afford to
make the pilgrimage.”
When these five items are spoken of as the ‘Pillars of Islam’
it means that these are the fundamental duties of the faith. If carried
out properly these duties are capable of producing in us the ability
to fulfill our other religious obligations as well. Here we have dwelt
only on their importance and the intrinsic spiritual virtue that underlies
them. Detailed rules and principles governing them can be learnt from
reliable books on Islamic Jurisprudence or directly from a Muslim theologian.
