Hajj beyond rituals

Crescent International

Dhu al-Qa'dah 12, 1416 1996-04-01

Features

by Crescent International (Features, Crescent International Vol. 25, No. 2, Dhu al-Qa'dah, 1416)

The enemies of Allah can kill at will but Muslim must not defend themselves. They must not talk about these issues even in the House of Allah! Has not Allah commanded the believers to fight if they are attacked? Far be it for the House of Saud and their paid agents and imams to talk about the real issues facing the Ummah. Tens of thousands of Muslim women have been raped in Bosnia and Kashmir, yet Muslims must not do anything to stop these crimes. A blind, diabetic scholar, Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman, is humiliated by stripping him naked in a US prison, yet Muslims must remain silent. If Muslims cannot talk about these issues at Hajj, where else can they do so?

Not only material but even the spiritual resources of the Ummah have been usurped by the declared enemies of Allah. In most Muslim countries, mosques are ‘nationalised’ and imams are handed down khutbahs prepared by the ministry of auqaf to deliver to the congregation. The minbar from where the noble messenger of Allah, upon whom be peace, used to address the believers, has today been reduced to a platform for extolling the non-existent virtues of tyrants.

Even so sacred an institution as the Hajj has been trivialised. Few realise today that it is the largest annual assembly of the Ummah where the problems confronting Muslims worldwide should be discussed. When the Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, upon them both be peace, built the Ka’ba, Allah accepted their prayer to make Makkah a city of peace and incline people’s hearts towards it (2:125-126). Since that day, people have performed pilgrimage to the House of Allah. The Prophet Ibrahim did not perform simple rituals or indulge in transcendental meditation. He was the first ‘rebel’ in the cause of Allah who challenged the tyrannical authority of Nimrod. Hajj is the Sunnah of such a Prophet, yet it would be difficult to find many Muslims today who view it in this light.

There has been a deliberate attempt to divest Hajj of its true meaning and significance as ordained by Allah in the Qur’an and exemplified by the noble messenger of Allah. The rituals of Hajj are so ingrained that Muslims have come to believe that that is all that is required of them. Each year, more than two million Muslims assemble in the plains of Arafat but in this sea of humanity everyone is only for himself/herself. There is hardly a thought spared for the suffering Muslims. Is this what the great assembly is all about? Are Muslims truly following the Sunnah of the noble messenger when they gather in Arafat’?

If past experience is any guide, this year’s khutbah at Masjid al-Nimra is also likely to deal with such nonsensical issues as ‘terrorism’, an obsession of the satanic powers to demonize Muslims. There will be the usual plea for Muslims to remain peaceful as if they are the world’s trouble-makers. It is highly unlikely that the imam will deal with such burning issues as the plight of Muslims in Chechenya, Bosnia, Kashmir, Palestine, Mindanao or Acheh-Sumatra. Muslims are being slaughtered like sheep but they must remain peaceful. More than a million people, the vast majority of them children, have died in Iraq over the last five years because of UN-imposed sanctions. What is their crime? The Russians are perpetrating genocide in Chechenya but it is the Chechens who are branded as bandits and terrorists. The zionists slaughter men, women and children yet the Muslim strugglers are called ‘terrorists’ and hunted down. And the House of Saud has joined this shrill propaganda campaign and does not even hesitate to use the most sacred places of Islam in the service of kufr.

The enemies of Allah can kill at will but Muslim must not defend themselves. They must not talk about these issues even in the House of Allah! Has not Allah commanded the believers to fight if they are attacked? Far be it for the House of Saud and their paid agents and imams to talk about the real issues facing the Ummah. Tens of thousands of Muslim women have been raped in Bosnia and Kashmir, yet Muslims must not do anything to stop these crimes . A blind, diabetic scholar, Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman, is humiliated by stripping him naked in a US prison, yet Muslims must remain silent. If Muslims cannot talk about these issues at Hajj, where else can they do so?

When performing Hajj, Muslims are the guests of Allah because they arrive in His House. Muslims are required to declare openly their dissociation from all the worldly powers as commanded by Allah in the Qur’an (9:1-3). This awareness would lead to certain consequences. Muslims would realize that the House of Saud itself is the greatest impediment in the struggle against kufr. Muslims perform the Rami (symbolic stoning of the devils) but fail to make the connection that the worldly satans - the rulers of America, Britain, France, Russia, Israel, and their agents including the House of Saud, Mubarak, Hasan, Husain et al are still safe.

Unless the Haramain are taken out of the control of the House of Saud, the sacred institution of Hajj will continue to be abused.

Muslimedia: April 1996-August 1996