Islam, like other religions, has its rituals but, unlike other religions, Islamic rituals are no ends in themselves. Nor are they the means of ministering to, appeasing or otherwise humoring the higher powers. For Allah, unlike the gods of man's own making, is above all need. And the demands and dictates of His dispensation are no matters of mere sport or of pastime to Him. They are intended and designed, each and all, to advance man's own well being. This is as true of the Hajj as of all other Islamic observances and institutions.

In the rituals of the Hajj the individual sees the means of obtaining indulgence and mercy, of achieving personal piety, and of entering into some sort of communion with Allah. Muslim leaders have found and occasionally used the opportunity to get together as the means of establishing contacts, of exchanging ideas, of agitating issues and generally of understanding the common concern and promoting the common causes of the Ummah. Even the outsider notes the efficacy of the Hajj as a means of achieving and maintaining the solidarity of the Ummah. The Hajj is all that, and more.
But the prime purpose is that set forth in the proclamation of the Hajj in the Qur'an:

'And proclaim unto mankind the Pilgrimage. They will come unto thee on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every deep ravine. That they may witness things that are of benefit to them...'1

‘So that they may witness thing that are of benefit to them' is, then, the prime purpose of the institution. All other virtues and values that admirers and students of Islam and of the Hajj have noticed or named are incidental to that central purpose; thus anyone who wishes to comprehend the Hajj must begin by asking what it is that the pilgrims do, in fact, witness.

The answer to this question is not really too difficult to uncover; much of it is, indeed, only too well known. That it is equally well understood cannot be confidently or categorically asserted. What benefit accrues to the pilgrims from what they witness is even less confidently and clearly understood. We shall try in the following pages to read, and reflect upon, the Qur'anic content relative to these matters.

By way of preface, it may be stated that the pilgrims witness four classes of things. They behold, first, the ‘plain memorials' of and about the life of the Prophets Ibrahim and Isma'il and Allah's affair with them. They behold, secondly, the institution of the Hajj itself, living witness to the example and inheritance of Ibrahim and Isma'il. They behold, thirdly, the connection between their commitment as Muslims and their convergence upon the Ka'bah. And they behold, finally, the transcendent setting of their commitment and convergence, and the roles and relations consequent upon this.

Of pivotal importance in the entire Hajj experience are the life and works of Ibrahim. Whatever the Pilgrims witness during the Hajj centers on the example and inheritance of that prophet. A pertinent passage in the Qur'an reads:

'So follow the religion of Ibrahim, the upright; he was not of the idolaters. Lo! The first Sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Bakkah, a blessed place, a guidance to the peoples; wherein are plain memorials [of Allahs' guidance]; the place where Ibrahim stood up to pray; and whosoever entereth it is safe. And pilgrimage to the House is a duty unto Allah for mankind, for him who can find a way thither. As for him who disbelieveth, [let him know that] lo! Allah is Independent of [all] creatures'.2

What we learn from this passage is that the ‘first Sanctuary appointed for mankind', which the pilgrims witness during the Hajj, is not a just a signpost of the past but ‘a guidance to the peoples', a matter of future and continuing relevance. It is guidance to the religion of Ibrahim which, in turn, continues to be a living religion. Thus, the future generations are commanded to ‘follow the religion of Ibrahim.' The sights the pilgrims behold during the ceremonies are designed to instruct them in the ways of that religion.

The passage also refers to the prayer of Ibrahim in verse 97. This aspect of the matter is treated in great detail elsewhere in the Qur'an.3

The prayer of Ibrahim is five-fold and is forward-looking in each of its several aspects. There is, firstly, the prayer for the leadership of the Prophet's progeny. Secondly, there is the prayer for the security and prosperity of the people of the region of the Ka'bah. Thirdly there is the prayer for acceptance of the dutiful observance. Fourthly, there is the prayer for inculcating submissiveness and instituting a submissive nation and orienting it aright. And finally, there is the prayer for a messenger who shall recite Allah's revelations and shall instruct in the Scripture.

These prayers and the Divine response provoked by them and their over-all context spell out the inheritance even as they perpetuate the example of Ibrahim. The inheritance was earned because of submission and instructing in its ways. The passage begins and ends with a recital of the relationship of command and obedience. Thus, Ibrahim was tried with commands and he fulfilled them. It is particularly significant that after setting out the example and inheritance of Ibrahim the Qur'an goes on:

'Those are a people who have passed away. Theirs is that which they earned, and yours is that which you earn. And you will not be asked of what they used to do'.4

The pilgrims witness the things they do, not to improve their knowledge of the past, but to orient their own conduct in the light of experience. They share in the inheritance to the extent that they themselves live by the example. The Qur'an brings out this point elsewhere in its argument with the Jews and the Christians.5

The prayer as well as the promise is anchored in the ideology and ethic of obedience and observance, of Divine sovereignty and human subjection. And it is that exercise that each finds its fulfillment. It is to the ideal of absolute submission that Ibrahim aspired. It is by that ideal that be excelled, it was that ideal that he inculcated in and urged upon his seed, it was that ideal that he wished to be actualized in and through the specially commissioned Ummah and ultimate Prophet raised in and for it.

‘Show us our ways of worship,' he prayed to his Lord, ‘And raise up in their midst a messenger from among them who shall recite unto them Your revelations, and shall instruct them in the Scripture and in wisdom and shall purify them.'

It is strictly this prayer that the coming of the Ultimate Prophet answers. Notice the correspondence between the terms of the prayer and those of fulfillment:

'Even as We sent unto you a messenger from among you, who recites unto you Our revelations and purifies you and teaches you the Scripture and wisdom, and teaches you that which you knew not'.6

It is particularly significant that this announcement comes at the end of the passage dealing with the appointment of the Qiblah. The context brings out the significance of the appointment of the Qiblah and of the pilgrims' witness of it. The context places the pilgrims' witness in an even more inclusive and efficacious setting for the verse immediately preceding the appointment of the Qiblah reads:

'Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that you may be witness unto mankind, and that the messenger may be a witness unto you'.7

This significance of the appointment of the Qiblah is more directly brought home in the verse dealing directly with appointment. It reads:

'Whencesoever you come forth, turn you face towards the Inviolable Place of Worship; and wheresoever you may be (O Muslims) turn your faces towards it so that people may have no arguments against you, save such of them as do injustice - fear them not, but fear Me! - and so that I may complete My grace upon you, and that you may be guided'.8

‘So that people may have no argument against you', ‘so that I may compete My grace upon you', and that ‘you may be guided', are the three reasons assigned here for the appointment of the Qiblah. Each of those reasons relates back to the prayer of Ibrahim and the Divine promise held out to him, and the fulfillment of that promise. When the pilgrims come directly to face the Ka'bah, they witness the prayer, the promise and the fulfillment, in their inter-relation, and their comprehensive ideological and ethical setting. It is the Muslim commitment to the faith and ethic of Ibrahim that justifies the special grace and guidance being provided to him. And it is the observance of that ethic that is so disarming for others: ‘...so that people may have no argument against you, save such of them as do injustice'.

That the appointment and observance of the Qiblah is not an end in itself but only a token of the right commitment and conduct is explicitly state by the Qur'an:

'It is not righteousness that you turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believes in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scriptures and the Prophets; and give his wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free; and observes proper worship and pays the poor-due. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who are sincere; such are the God-fearing.9

The passage of the Qur'an dealing with the appointment of the Qiblah10 repeatedly affirms that it is ‘the Truth from your Lord', that those who have received the Scripture before knew that ‘it is the Truth from their Lord' and that ‘a party of them knowingly conceal the Truth'. There is a reference to some such thing in the Qur'an's argument about the religion of Ibrahim.11 The repeated and insistent reference to the hiding of the Truth in this particular context makes it necessary to inquire what the testimony that is being hidden is and how it bears upon the appointment of the Qiblah.

The Qiblah is appointed for the Muslims not that because it makes any difference whether they face east or west, but because it helps them orient their commitment and conduct. By centering their attention upon the Ka'bah it imparts to their life the impulse that brought the Ka'bah into being and broadcast its message of unity to the ends of the earth. It is that meaning that the Jews and the Christians knowingly conceal. They know that the religion of Ibrahim and of all the other Prophets was one of submission to God and of neither racial choice nor of indulgent grace. They also know that the grace and guidance that Allah had promised to the submissive Ummah was to be that which was requisite for proper submission: communication of His true and proper revelations.

It was this that Ibrahim was seeking in his suplication.12 When the Muslim faces towards the Ka'bah and, more, immediately and directly, when the pilgrim stands face to face with it, he renews his commitment to the religion of Ibrahim and refreshes his consciousness of its true nature. He is rendered immune to the possibility o f misdirection of the sort that has led to the widespread misguidance of the Jews and the Christians. And as a conscious and committed participant in a transcendent process. Other experiences incident upon the Pilgrimage make his participation even more personal and livelier. It is to this aspect of the pilgrims' experience that the Qur'an refers when it says:

'Allah has appointed the Ka'bah, the Sacred House, a standard for mankind, and the Sacred Month and the offering and the garlands. That is so that you may know that Allah knows whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and that Allah is Knower of all things'3

About the offering, or the sacrificing of animals, which is an integral part of the pilgrimage process, the Qur'an says:

'Their flesh and their blood reach not Allah, but the devotion from your sacrifice reaches Him. Thus have We made them subject unto you that you may magnify Allah that He has guided you'.14

That sacrifice itself, like everything else of and about the Hajj is an exercise in submission and surrender; like everything else, it recalls and revive the example of Ibrahim even as it aspires to that great Prophet's inheritance and ideal. It is no mere commemoration of historical event. It affirms, confirms and continues the commitment to the ethics of observance and obedience, of surrender and submission which every pilgrim owes Allah in his own right, and for his own benefit, as likewise every other object of creation. The terms ‘sacrifice' and ‘surrender' are bracketed together in the Divine dispensation:

'And whoso magnifies the offering consecrated to Allah, it surely is from devotion of the hearts. Therein are benefits for you for an appointed term; and afterward they are brought for sacrifice unto the ancient House. And for every nation have We appointed a ritual, that they may mention the name of Allah over the beast or cattle that He has given them for food; and your God is One God, therefore surrender unto Him'.15

In the sacrificial example of Ibrahim, likewise it is the element of ‘surrender' that stands out uppermost.16

Ibrahim's example marks the farthest possible extent man can reach in surrender and submission; by that criterion nothing is too dear to be spared to excepted. No caveats qualify the quality of the submission; no remission or substitution is offered or accepted; neither hesitation nor remorse attends upon the affair; no compulsion or coercion urges or enforces it. It is altogether a free and voluntary exercise; only the indication of Divine will suffices for argument.

There is another aspect of this relationship which the Hajj reminds and revives no less effectively: it is the utterness of Allah's sovereignty; there are no limitations to the Divine sovereignty; no limits or restraints hinder His authority or his power. Legality and legitimacy issue from His command instead of imposing themselves upon it; right and wrong are determined by His dispensation, instead of determining and directing it.

The Hajj rituals also call attention and invite commitment to yet another aspect of Allah's sovereignty. The pilgrims ‘hasten onward from the place whence the multitude hasteneth onward.'17 And they ‘remember Allah by the sacred monumnet.'18 Those are the reminders of Allah's providence, of how the most inhospitable of places can become so abundantly bounteous if only the Divine sovereignty so wills. It was in reliance upon that absolute and unfailing providence that Ibrahim prayed:

'Our, Lord! Lo! I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivable valley near to Your holy House. Our Lord! That they may establish proper worship, so incline some hearts of men that they may yearn toward them, and provide Thou them with fruits in order that they may be thankful'. 19

It is particularly significant that this is part of the prayer that follows immediately upon the express intimation of Allah's sovereignty in Surah 14, verses 32-4.

The Prayer of Ibrahim, the details and fulfillment of which the pilgrims witness, has an antecedent history which tells of yet another dimension of Divine sovereignty recalled in the Qur'an.21

How wholly exclusive and utterly unfailing Allah's sovereignty is, the Qur'an brings out in the detailed account of Ibrahim's encounter with his father.22

Not least, the pilgrims witness the institution of the Hajj itself, they observe how hosts of men and women converge upon the Ka'bah from the farthest corners of the globe. People with nothing in common except their humanity, their commitment to One God, their community of purpose and their concurrent practices, for in terms of blood, of culture and of society they are strangers one to another yet they feel a bond as strong as only brotherhood can be. The sovereign/servitor relationship between Allah and man is seen here in its universal perspective. And in its fullness no law other than that of Allah applies; no other power or force operates; no pretenders thunder, and no princes parade around; no one invites attention, and none receives it. Every pilgrim openly and insistently proclaims that he is there at the service of the Lord Who has no partner and to Whom belong all praise, all grace and all sovereignty.

This commitment needs to be carried home, and the obligations implicit in it scrupulously fulfilled ever afterwards. For the Qur'an commands:

'And when you have completed you devotions, then remember Allah as you remember you fathers to with a more lively remembrance. But of mankind is he who says:'Our Lord! Give unto us in the world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good, and guard us from the doom of Fire.' For them there is in store a goodly portion out of that which they have earned. Allah is swift at reckoning. Remember Allah through the appointed days. Then whoso hastens [his departure] by two days, it is no sin for him, and whoso delays, it is no sin of him; that is for him who wards off [evil]. Be careful of your duty to Allah, and know that unto Him you will be gathered. And of mankind there is he whose conversation on the life of this world pleases you [Muhammad] and he calls Allah to witness as to that which is in his heart; yet he is the most rigid of opponents. And when he turns away [from you], his effort in the land in to make mischief therein and to destroy the crops and the cattle; and Allah loves not mischief. And when it is said unto him: Be careful of your duty to Allah, pride takes him to sin. Hell will settle his account, an evil resting-place. And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the pleasure of Allah; and Allah has compassion on [His] bondmen. O you who believe! Come wholly into submission; and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! he is an open enemy for you. And if you slide back after the clear proofs have come unto you, then know that Allah is Mighty, Wise'.23

In this parting prescription for the pilgrim there is a triple warning against hypocrites. There is a warning, firstly, against those who base their calculations exclusively on material considerations, secondly, against those who please by their language rather than their practical conduct; and lastly, against those who, when remind of their duty toward Allah, respond with arrogant conceit. These warnings pilgrims and other Muslims need urgently to heed, so to beware of hypocrites.

There is hardly any Muslim State that does not pride itself wholly on material achievements. Most Muslim governments project their performance surely in economic terms: rise in the GNP,, the growth rate and the balance or payments position, are regarded as unmistakable indicators of success. Political parties vie with one another in offering alternative programmes to achieve their goals. Even private individuals speak elatedly of their income and standard of living; indeed, the entire Ummah is engaged in providing essentially job-oriented instruction to each new generation.

Had the millions of pilgrims that spread out into the world each year taken Allah's warning against the hypocrites more seriously and ordered their roles and relations accordingly, this mischief would certainly have been less menacing. Had they come ‘wholly into submission', and been ready and willing to sell themselves, seeking the pleasure of Allah, it would have made a material difference. The Qur'an has spelt out fully what coming ‘wholly into submission' means and involves:

'Say Lo! Allah has brought form the believers their lives and wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur'an. Who fulfills his convenant better that Allah? Rejoice then in the bargain that you have made, for that is the supreme triumph'.25

Such, then, is the intensity and extent of commitment that Islam demands of its followers: total in degree as well as depth. It is in that totality of commitment that the pilgrims are instructed in and through the rituals of the Hajj. This totality of commitment they witness in both its universal and transcendent perspective, and having observed it they bear it thence to broadcast it to the ends of the earth.

Total and intense though the commitment of the pilgrim is, it is such only in aspiration and ideal, it gains a great deal in its practical relevance when it is carried home. For the Hajj is not an end in itself but an integral part of the Islamic dispensation. It is like an orientation course, a training camp, which prepared less for immediate application than for future and further achievement. No one is asked to be a pilgrim in perpetuity, and when he is no longer a pilgrim, his commitment, refreshed and revitalized, calls him to be mindful of a wider range of duties.