One of 'Five Pillars of Islam'
Haj literally means "to set out for a place". In Islam, it refers to the annual pilgrimage that Muslims make to Mecca to perform certain religious rites in accordance with the method prescribed by the Prophet Muhammad.
Haj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime.
According to the doctrine of Islam, haj and its rites were first ordained by Allah in the time of the Prophet lbrahim and he was the one who was entrusted by Allah to build the Kaaba the House of Allah in Mecca.
After building the Kaaba, Ibrahim went to Mecca to perform the haj every year. However, after his death, both the form and the goal of the haj rites began to change.
After more than 2,000 years, Muhammad reinstated all the rites of haj. In AD 632, shortly before his death, Muhammad led some 100,000 Muslims from Medina to perform the haj in Mecca, where he gave his last speech.
During haj, male pilgrims are required to dress only in an ihram, a garment consisting of two pieces of seamless white cloth, which is intended to show the equality of all pilgrims in the eyes of Allah.
Haj consists of a series of ritual acts. Pilgrims begin with a tawaf, or walking around the Kaaba in Mecca seven times; and the sa'y, or walking seven times back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah.
These rituals comprise the Umrah or the Lesser Haj. When the haj begins on the eighth day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, pilgrims leave Mecca for the nearby town of Mina, where they spend the rest of the day.
The next morning, they leave Mina for the plain of Arafat, where they spend the afternoon praying, talking to God, and thinking about the course of their lives. After sunset they leave for Muzdalifah, where pebbles are gathered for the "Stoning the Devil" rite.
On the 10th of the month, the day of Eid ul-Adha, pilgrims begin to throw stones at the jamarat wall symbolic of evil. This ritual lasts three days. After the first day's stoning, animals are sacrificed.
Then pilgrims have their heads shaved and change out of the ihram. The head shaving symbolises rebirth, to indicate that the pilgrim's sins have been cleansed by completion of the haj.
On this or the following day, the pilgrims visit the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca for a tawaf.
Pilgrims must leave Mina for Mecca before sunset on the 12th. Finally, before leaving Mecca, pilgrims perform a farewell tawaf.
China Daily
(China Daily 01/04/2007 page20)
