Hajj & Umra

 "..And Hajj (pilgrimmage to Makkah) to the House (Ka`abah) is a duty that mankind owes to Allah, those who can afford the expenes (for one's conveyance, provision, and residence)..."Al-Quran:Surah 3 (Al-Imran); Verse 97

Hajj in Islam, the major pilgrimage to Mecca, a city located near the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia. The term hajj means “standing before a deity in a sacred place” or “voyage to a sacred place,” and Mecca is considered month the most scared Muslims city.

Only Muslims are permitted access to the region of the pilgrimage—that is, to the holy places of Mecca, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat, all located in Saudi Arabia. During the hajj pilgrims must enter a state of ritual purity before they reach Mecca by performing ritual bathing and wearing the ihram, a white seamless shroud they keep for the rest of their lives as their burial garb. While in the state of ritual purity the pilgrim is denied various activities, such as sexual relations. After arriving in Mecca, the pilgrim carries out a set of rites as an individual. These rites culminate in the circling seven times, or tawaf, of the Kaaba (a rectangular building that contains the sacred Black Stone) and the quick, sevenfold crossing back and forth, or say, between two hills, Safa and Marwa. In addition to these rites, which make up the umra, the hajj includes certain other rituals performed by pilgrims collectively. Among these are the stopping on a hill in the valley of Arafat from noon until sunset, the symbolic stoning of the devil in the valley of Mina, and the sacrifice of sheep and goats.

Once Muslims have carried out the hajj, they may use the title Hajji if male and Hajjah if female. During the first half of the 20th century about 30,000 Muslims annually made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Today, the number is closer to 2 million.

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Kaaba, the central shrine of Islam, a cube-shaped, one-room stone structure in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It already attracted pilgrimages as the most important sanctuary (haram) in pre-Muslim Arabia, and the traditional belief that it was built by Abamrah and Ishmael (to whom the Arabs trace their descent) was confirmed by the Qur'an (Koran). The annual pilgrimage to the Kaaba takes place in the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja, the last lunar month of the Islamic calendar. The Black Stone set on the outside of one corner of the structure is solemnly kissed by all pilgrims who can gain access to it. Lesser pilgrimages are performed throughout the year.

For Muslims, The Kaaba is the “House of God,” where the divine touches the mundane. It is washed annually and covered with a dark silk cloth. The Kaaba has been greatly expanded since Muhammad's times, a mosque-court having been built around it; recently a gate of solid gold was added.

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Only Muslims are permitted access to the region of the pilgrimage—that is, to the holy places of Mecca, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat, all located in Saudi Arabia. During the hajj pilgrims must enter a state of ritual purity before they reach Mecca by performing ritual bathing and wearing the ihram, a white seamless shroud they keep for the rest of their lives as their burial garb. While in the state of ritual purity the pilgrim is denied various activities, such as sexual relations. After arriving in Mecca, the pilgrim carries out a set of rites as an individual. These rites culminate in the circling seven times, or tawaf, of the Kaaba (a rectangular building that contains the sacred Black Stone) and the quick, sevenfold crossing back and forth, or say, between two hills, Safa and Marwa. In addition to these rites, which make up the umra, the hajj includes certain other rituals performed by pilgrims collectively. Among these are the stopping on a hill in the valley of Arafat from noon until sunset, the symbolic stoning of the devil in the valley of Mina, and the sacrifice of sheep and goats.

Once Muslims have carried out the hajj, they may use the title Hajji if male and Hajjah if female. During the first half of the 20th century about 30,000 Muslims annually made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Today, the number is closer to 2 million.

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Mecca

Mecca, also Makkah (ancient Macoraba), city in western Saudi Arabia, located in the Al Ḩijāz (Hejaz) region, near Jiddah. Mecca is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad (the founder of Islam), the center of pilgrimage for Muslims, and the focal point of their daily prayers. In Arabic, the city is known as Makkah al-mukkaramah (“Mecca the blessed”). Pilgrimage to the city is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and is required of all able adult Muslims at least once in their lifetimes. The pilgrimage (hajj in Arabic) is the defining factor in the growth and life of the city. The influx of close to 2 million pilgrims each year during the last month of the Islamic calendar is a grand human spectacle as well as one of the largest logistical and administrative undertakings in the world

a Located in an arid valley surrounded by rocky hills, Mecca has had religious and commercial significance for centuries. Muslims believe that one of the city’s sacred sites, the Kaaba, was built by the Old Testament patriarch Abraham and his son, Ishmael (to whom Arab people trace their descent), and that a nearby well, Zamzam, was used by Ishmael’s mother, Hagar. The city stood at the crossroads of two major trade routes: one connecting southern Arabia (present-day Yemen and Oman) with the lands of Egypt and Syria, and the other linking the Red Sea with the Persian Gulf coast and Mesopotamia (roughly present-day Iraq). By the time Muhammad was born in about 570, Mecca had become an important trading center; Muhammad himself came from a merchant family. After the spread of Islam and the growth of the Muslim community, the fortunes of Mecca rose and fell with the yearly ebb and flow of pilgrims. To this day, the economy of the city depends to a great extent on accommodating, feeding, transporting, and otherwise caring for large numbers of pilgrims.

Mecca was led by local sharifs, rulers who claimed descent from Muhammad, from 966 until the 20th century. In 1517, however, the sharifs of Mecca came under the authority of the expanding Ottoman Empire. During World War I (1914-1918), Sharif Husein ibn Ali, with British support, declared an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, expelling them from the city in 1916. In 1924 central Arabian ruler Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, defeated Husein’s forces and added Mecca and the Al Ḩijāz region to his domain. Population (1995 estimate) 770,000.

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Summry

There they perform a number of spiritual rituals, including circling seven times the small sanctuary known as the Kaaba, or House of God. Only Muslims are permitted access to the holy sites of the pilgrimage, which every healthy and financially able adult male and female Muslim must perform at least once in a lifetime 1978 National Geographic article, Muhammad Abdul-Rauf recounts a pilgrimag. In this November e he and his family made to Mecca.

July 5, 2007

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