Hajj

Three months after Ramadan comes the season of the great pilgrimage to Makkah(Hajj), the birth place of islam , where an ever-increasing number of men and women converge each year, from every possible corner of the earth. The origin of the Hajj, the fifth pillar of islam, dates to the prophet Ibrahim(AS) and brings together Muslims of all races and tongues to don two simple white cloths is an impressive display of Islam’s disregard for racial or national divisions. Each year nearly several million people make the pilgrimage, making it the largest temporary gathering on the globe. It is an act of recollection and worship, but also a symbolic act representing the spirits return to its homeland, one of the central elements of the Muslim’s life. Haj is an imperative duty (farz) for all Muslims physically and financially able to perform it. “In it are signs manifest; (for example), the station of Abraham; whoever enters it attains security; pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to Allah,-those who can afford the journey; but if any deny faith, Allah stands not in need of any of his creatures.