HISTORY OF HAJJ
Witnessing God’s Plan
ACCORDING to the Bible, the Prophet Abraham was born ten generations after the Prophet Noah. God caused a tradition of guidance to ensue from him and chose him for raising a new nation. This nation, it was planned, would be imbued with a spirit of righteousness, and it would assist the Final Prophet in the accomplishment of his mission: When his Lord tested Abraham with certain commands and he fulfilled them, He said, ‘I will make you a leader of men.’ (2: 124)
The mission of other prophets involved no more than full conveyance of the message entrusted to them. The Prophet with whom the chain of prophethood was to end, however, had to fulfill one more duty: that of establishing the ideological dominance of the true religion on earth: He is the One who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the true religion, so that He may have it prevail over all [other] religions. (48: 28) Only then could the preservation of the last divine Scripture to be revealed to human beings be ensured. The possibility of its being destroyed would be eliminated for all time (48: 28). Other prophets were sent to preach the true religion, but the Final Prophet was enjoined to establish its ideological supremacy as well.
For this purpose, a group of companions was required consisting of people endowed with the highest human qualities, fit to assist the Prophet in implementing the divine scheme. Abraham, in bringing his wife Hagar and son Ishmael to the uncultivated desert town of ancient Makkah and settling there, was laying the foundations for such a community. There, far from civilization, in simple, natural surroundings, a people would emerge from Abraham’s progeny who would be imbued with the highest human qualities; who would view things with clear and objective vision; whose actions would conform to their words; who would be ready to lay down their lives and properties for something they knew to be true. A people as firm as the mountains which surrounded them, as boundless as the vast desert in which they roamed. When this “finest community” had been raised from the barrenness of the desert, God sent the Messenger among them for whom Abraham had prayed at the time of the construction of the Kabah.
God had willed the birth of a prophet to Abraham’s wife Sarah. This prophet-son was born during Abraham’s lifetime and was called Isaac. It took two thousand years to realize the prayer of Abraham that a prophet be sent among Ishmael's progeny. Both prophets were destined to fulfill very different historical functions, hence the difference in the timing of their appearance on earth.
The Final Prophet needed an alert, vital community, fit to play the part allotted to them by God. The formation of this community took over two thousand years. When his people were ready to receive him, the Prophet Muhammad was born amongst them in accordance with the divine scheme. However, the prophetic mission had to continue during this long lapse in time. So, it was arranged that prophets be sent continuously in the house of Jacob. Successive prophets continued to spread the Word of God among human beings until the time of the coming of the Final Prophet approached.
According to this scheme, Abraham left his homeland, Iraq. He settled one wife, Sarah, in Palestine, where she gave birth to Isaac. His second wife, Hagar, and his son Ishmael remained in Makkah where they assisted in the construction of the Kabah. The divine scheme for universal guidance was thus divided into two stages: an initial one in Palestine and a final one in Hijaz.
After Abraham, Palestine became the first centre of divine guidance. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, John, Jesus and many other prophets were born in its vicinity. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, was also known as Israel, and his progeny were known as the Israelites.
Finally, rot set in amongst the Israelites and they failed to mend their ways in spite of repeated solicitations by God’s Messengers. Then God deposed them from their position as bearers of divine guidance and the sacred office was transferred to the other branch of the house of Abraham, the Ishmaelites. The decline of the Israelites coincided exactly with the full development, after a process of two thousand years of the Ishmaelites as a people of sufficient energy and dynamism to take on the responsibilities of being God’s standard-bearers on earth. As an outward sign of this transference of responsibility, the direction of worship was altered. All prophets after Abraham had prayed towards Jerusalem. Now the Muslims were commanded to face Makkah instead.
Now, the centre of the call of monotheism is Makkah. Prophet Abraham, his wife Hagar and son Ishmael were made to pass many tests here. This place bears testimony to the divine scheme of God that came to pass in the old days. Believers were then commanded in the Quran to visit this place at least once in their lifetime so that they can enact, experience what the Prophet Abraham and his progeny experienced in carrying out the plan of God. ‘Perform the Hajj and the minor pilgrimage (umrah) for the sake of God. (2: 196) This is known as Hajj or Pilgrimage.
