Hajj

Last week I saw an ad in the local paper for a lecture on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) at the Islamic Cultural Centre. I remember some of my Qatari colleagues telling me about all the little rituals and things you had to do during Hajj so I figured I'd go to the lecture to hear about all the details. The city of Mecca is closed to non-Muslims so going to a lecture about the Hajj is probably the closest thing I'm going to get since there is no way I will be able to actually witness it.

The Islamic Cultural Centre actually has a really nice lecture hall capable of holding at least 300 or 400 people at the ground level, with an upper tier that can probably hold another 100 to 150. Men sat on the ground level while women sat in the upper tier. I guess at least a hundred men or more showed up for the lecture, a number of women were there as well but I'm not sure how many. The lecturer was Dr. Bilal Phillips, a Canadian who converted to Islam in the early 1970s and became an Islamic scholar.

It turns out the lecture was part of a series that was being held throughout the week to prepare pilgrims for the Hajj, which is in early December. Unfortunately this lecture was about the historical/religious underpinnings for why the Hajj takes place. Dr. Phillips was very specific in the Q&A that people not ask about specific details as that would be covered in two other lectures later that week. Thus the talk didn't have the kind of stuff I was hoping to hear discussed but it still was pretty good. The first part of it was more like a sermon, discussing the story of the prophet Abraham and his second wife Hagar. There were a few stabs at Christianity and the Bible, discussing how some of the biblical accounts had to be wrong since prophets such as Abraham and Soloman would never act in a manner depicted in the Bible. There were also attacks against the Catholic rites of confession, with Dr Phillips pointing out that only Allah (God) can forgive sins, a man (i.e. a priest) cannot grant forgiveness for sins.

I was not fussed by the criticisms of Christianity. The Qur'an states that the Bible cannot be relied upon because priests have modified the text over the centuries, thus the actual message of God has been lost (according to the Qur'an this was why God chose to reveal His word to the prophet Muhammed because the Bible does not truly reflect His word). So it came as no surprise to me that an Islamic scholar would say that biblical accounts are incorrect, it is a core belief of the religion. The stuff about Catholicism was unexpected for a lecture about the Hajj but again I wouldn't expect an Islamic scholar to be overly positive about catholic rituals -- heck most other denominations of Christianity are not positive on them either.

For me the most interesting part was the question and answer as it revealed a few details I was not aware of about the Hajj, or the views of other Islamic societies towards it.

-- you can do the Hajj on behalf of someone else, even a deceased person, but then it does not count as your Hajj
-- you can do the Hajj multiple times for yourself if you have the opportunity, but it is the first one that counts the most
-- it is a requirement in the Qur'an that any Muslim who has the opportunity to do so (and can afford it) must perform it at least once in their life. Therefore if someone offers to pay for your Hajj you should not instead use the money for other expenses like food for your family etc. as you are now being given the opportunity to perform the Hajj.
-- similarly, you should not hold off performing the Hajj until you have finished things like marrying off your daughters. If you have the means and the opportunity to perform Hajj then you should do so and it should take precedence above other matters.
-- an Umrah is a similar ritual to the Hajj, but performed on different days than the Hajj is supposed to (i.e. going to Mecca and performing the pilgrimage at a different time of the year). If one has the means and opportunity to perform Umrah, but not Hajj, then by all means perform Umrah, then start saving for Hajj. Dr Phillips noted that you if you don't you have no idea what is going to happen in the future, you might die suddenly, at which point you performed neither the Umrah nor the Hajj.
-- an Umrah does not take the place of a Hajj, but is still a valuable ritual
-- part of the ritual requires drinking water from some sacred source in ?Mecca? called "Zamzam". Dr Phillips was against Muslims doing things like bathing themselves in it, bottling some for later, or washing a shroud in it so that when you die you can be buried in a "blessed" shroud. None of these things are mentioned in the ancient Islamic teachings. Also, the water is unlikely to heal people so should not be seen as some healing fountain or Fountain of Youth. Dr Phillips noted that while some people have had medical problems that they claimed were cured by drinking Zamzam many people have not been cured, ancient Islamic accounts do not mention miraculous cures from the water, and similar claims of miraculous healings have occurred at non-Islamic places (for example Lourdes).
-- it is okay to be assisted during the Hajj if for medical reasons or age you are unable to do all the walking on your own. In ancient times you could perform the Hajj riding a camel, but nowadays you can't because there are too many pilgrims.
-- if you mess up one of the rituals there are apparently various atonements that you can do afterwards to make up for the error.

While I am intrigued about what other details there are to the Hajj I am not sure if I will attend the other lectures. It seemed to me from listening to Dr Phillips that the subsequent lectures really are meant for Muslims about to go on the pilgrimage, so I am hesitant to intrude. I will talk to my Qatari colleagues and see what they have to say.