Pilgrimage (Hajj

every circumstance, God accorded to him a position that in His Omniscience He had pre-ordained: “When Abraham was tried by His Lord with certain commands, which he fulfilled, He said: ‘I will make thee an Imam (leader in religion) to the people’” (2:124). The conferring of this imamat upon Abraham was not to invest in him political power but rather to place him in a position which would enable him to continue to pass on the message of God to the people. At one place, referring to Abraham, Lot, Isaac, and Jacob (peace be upon them), the Quran says: We ordained them leaders to guide at Our behest, and We inspired in them the doing of good deeds (21:73). This religious leadership, that is, prophethood, was thenceforward continued through Abraham’s descendants. In the beginning, the prophets came from among the offspring of Isaac to inform people of God’s will. The last prophet of this line was Jesus. After that Muhammad (570-632), from the family of Ismael, son of Abraham, was ordained Prophet. This chain of prophethood ended with him, and the faith, in a fully preserved form, was entrusted to the followers of Muhammad. Thus the Ummah of Muhammad was made responsible for continuing to inform people of God’s will till the Last Day (22:78). The gist of the divine scriptures given to Abraham was that no soul shall bear another’s burden and that each man shall be judged by his own labours; that his labours shall be scrutinized and that he shall be justly requited for them; that all things shall in the end return to Allah (53:38-42). In the eyes of God this is the greatest concern of mankind. All the prophets were, therefore, obliged to take a pledge that they would inform man of this Truth at all costs: “And remember We made a covenant with you as We did with the other prophets; with Noah and Abraham, with Moses and Jesus, the son of Mary. A solemn covenant We made with them, so that Allah might question the truthful about their truthfulness.