Good Hajj Essay Example

Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca which is compulsory for every Muslim who is physically and financially able. It is one of the five pillars of Islam and it is a journey to the heart of Islam and house of Allah. The Kaaba is the place where Muslims face to five times every day and “the first house established of worship for mankind was that at Mecca” (the Quran 9/96).
Pilgrimage to Mecca totally changed Malcolm X’s life principals, he who spent his life to protect afro Americans rights against white people, understood that all people regardless their color, status, origin are equal. All Muslims in hajj have the same clothes, white towels. He met different people all over the world and all of them respected each other and called each other brothers, gave equal honor to each other. Even he convert Islam long before his pilgrimage he felt how really it to be a Muslim here in Mecca, how to behave as a true Muslim, he regretted that he didn’t know praying. Islam changed his political opinion and he started to look at people with sight of true brotherhood instead of separating people based on their color or race. In his letter from Mecca he wrote that “America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem” (Grove, p. 501). He accepted the words “the Black Muslims have the wrong Islam” and answered that he came here to Mecca to understand true Islam and he did it (Grove, p. 501).
Reshma Memon Yaqub’s journey story is more religious than Malcolm X’s story. She prepared for her journey of lifetime much time before it reading books and making savings. She described all religious rituals during hajj. The white cloths were a symbol of equalization of people. Mecca is the place where all people remember that everyone is equal for Allah. She mentioned that the words Labbayk Allahumma Labbayk were heard as another person was saying them when she herself repeated them. Visiting the Kaaba is very excited for her as for every Muslim. All rituals have their own history even stoning of the Jamarats (Wilson, p. 30). At the end of her journey after ritual processes she was tired and wished to become at home in America. She learned to be stay difficulties of different type, saw people who are less wealthy than her family and desired to help them.
Hajj is the best destination for Muslims over the world. There people drink water of the Zam-Zam, become closer to Allah, be closer to Muhammad (saa), certainly their eyes fill tears, remember the last hour, prepare for another true world, ask forgiveness for their sins and be as pure as newly born child. It is the place where angels come to make pilgrimage too.

Reference

Wilson (2003). Introduction to Islam and its Practices. Ed: The Muslim World. Article by Reshma Memon Yaqub from The Seattle Times. Hajj: the Journey of a Lifetime.
Grove, Pr (1997). Malcolm X. United States 1964. One Thousand Roads to Mecca. The Muslim World.