Pilgrimage (Hajj

The Four Pillars But for the unbelievers He has prepared a grievous chastisement.” (33:7-8) The last Prophet was ordained for this very purpose in fulfilment of Abraham’s prayer (2:129). He was given the Arabic Quran and was entrusted with the task of conveying the message of God to the Makkans and to the inhabitants of other Arab lands surrounding Makkah: Thus We have revealed to you an Arabic Quran, that you may warn the Mother City and those who dwell all around it; that you may forewarn them of the Day of Gathering which is sure to come: when some will be in Paradise, and some in Hell (42:7-8). The people of Arabia were directly given the Quran in their own language and other people who joined them in faith were indirect recipients. The Quran says: It is He who has raised among the unlettered people a messenger from among themselves who recites His revelations to them, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and wisdom, for they had formerly been clearly misguided—and to others also, from among them, who have not yet joined them. He is the Mighty, the Wise One. That is God’s grace; He bestows it on whom He pleases; for God is limitless in His grace. (62:2-4). A part of the prayer of Abraham, which he made at the time of the Kabah’s construction was “to make this place the centre of the worshippers” (14:37). During Abraham’s own time, therefore, it had been decreed as a matter of Divine Will that Makkah should be the centre of annual worship (22:27). Ibn-e-Kathir writes in his commentary on this verse of the Quran that when the House of God was constructed, God asked Abraham to announce to the people that God had appointed a centre for them to which they should flock. The aim of gathering at this centre was the same as that of every prophet, and it is this same aim which is the very raison d’etre of the Ummah of Muhammad, that is, taking God’s message to the people of the world: “The first House ever to be built (as sanctuary) for men was that at Bakkah (Makkah), a blessed place, a beacon for the nations” (3:96).