THE MESSAGE AND MEANING OF HAJJ

Hajj; he must stand by this declaration in practice in his personal life on his return from Hajj too. On reaching Makkah, the first thing that the pilgrim does is to circumambulate the Kabah. This is an important ritual of Hajj known as tawaf. The Kabah is a historical structure originally built by the Prophet Abraham in the centre of a large courtyard also called the House of God. In the courtyard, the pilgrims go around the Kabah seven times, symbolizing their willingness to have God as the centre of their lives. They affirm that they will consider God as the focus around which their lives will revolve. It is as if scattered bits of iron are being pulled towards a divine magnet. The tawaf is symbolic of making all of one’s efforts constrained to a single focus. This is akin to our solar system, where all the planets revolve around a single sun, the axis around which they whirl. In the same way, Hajj teaches us to lead God-centric lives, to make God the focus of every aspect of our lives and to spend our lives according to His will. This is the same with all the other rituals of Hajj. Thus, in different ways, all rituals of Hajj have the same symbolic significance of a Godconscious life. Believers all over the world turn towards the Kabah every day, offering their five daily prayers. Ordinarily, this is just a notion in the minds of people, but when they gather together during Hajj, it becomes an astounding reality. When believers from all over the world pray together facing the Kabah, they experience an amazing sense of unity when they realize that they are facing the same Kabah of the believers of the whole world. During the tawaf, the orderly circumambulation of the Kabah provides the pilgrims another invaluable lesson—of working together, of doing things together and in harmony. Here, differences between rulers and subjects are wiped off completely, as are ethnic differences. It is as if every single person has just one status: as a servant of the one God. At this time, they have no other status but this. After the tawaf, the pilgrim runs seven times between the hillocks of Safa and Marwah. This too, is a symbolic declaration—an expression of the pilgrim’s determination to devote all of himself to God’s path. This running between the two hillocks is not simply a mere physical act. Hajj teaches us to lead God-centric lives, to make God the focus of every aspect of our lives and to spend our lives according to His will.