Lovers hajj

Lovers hajj

Holy Qur'aan in the 3^rd Sura, al-i-Imraan: Verse31

Tell them My Beloved! If you do love Allah, imitate me (love me and build up your moral and spiritual life on my model): Allah will love you and forgive your sins: For Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful

The Proof Of Loving Allah Is Only One; That You Are Imitating Allah’s Beloved With Love.  

In Islam the proof of the claim to love Allah is to make (it’teba) or imitate the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him, his family and his companions) with love. We will not accept any other proof that one provides. A question arises in my mind. If somebody claims that they love Allah what right do we have to reject their claim whether they provide proper proof or not. ? Love (muhabba) is the name of a condition: the name of the inclination of the heart and mind. So what rights have we to say to Christians and Jews that they don’t love Allah? What right has Islam got to refute their claim? Love is connected to passion. So what rights have we to deny their fervor?  They can furnish proof by saying, ‘If we did not love God then why would we look for a way to attain His proximity? A worshipper of stars, idols, sun or the moon, can reply that, ‘if we did not love Allah then why we would worship fervently. What right have you got to deny that we love God? Let me explain something about fervor to you. The fervor to perform pilgrimage (hajj) is in the heart of every Muslim. Two people leave their village with the intention of going for hajj by ship. Both have the fervor but one of them ponders whether to go by ship or by other means. Then he thinks if the ship goes to the other shore, and Jeddah is there, then I can swim to the other side so what need is there for me to board the ship. So you can safely conclude that the one who boards the ship will in all probability reach but the other person is deluded, although he possesses the proper fervor, he will never reach. We cannot deny the passion for hajj but he took the wrong way so he will not reach. So we can safely say to the Christians and Jews, ‘you definitely love Allah, but the path that you have chosen to reach Him is the wrong path. This we can say but we cannot deny their passion. Think! What right do we have to deny someone’s love? But, my friends look at the beauty of Islam, it does not deny love but it asks the claimant of love, ‘Why do you love Allah Y ? What is your purpose? Each one will give an answer according to his or her level of intelligence. Some will say we want salvation; we want the life of the hereafter; we want paradise or salvation from hell. All have some purpose for loving. The Holy Qur'aan replies to them, ‘listen! If you love Allah for these reasons then you will get nothing for the achievement of love is not that the servant loves his Lord but the achievement is that the Lord should love his servant. O naïve ones! One-sided love will not attain its purpose. The object will be attained if you love God and God loves you. You are satisfied with God and God is satisfied with you. You are pleased with God and God is pleased with you. This is the attainment of servitude (bandagi), that the master should be pleased. The servant is always pleased: this is no achievement. The achievement is the master’s pleasure.

So if you want Allah to be pleased with you and love you then listen to the prescription of the Holy Qur'aan in the 3^rd Sura, al-i-Imraan: Verse31

 

Tell them My Beloved! If you do love Allah, imitate me (love me and build up your moral and spiritual life on my model): Allah will love you and forgive your sins: For Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful

Pilgrimage

Allah has sent out a call to all nations to come for pilgrimage. On reaching the boundaries of the Sacred Land we are asked to remove our clothing. Every male has to wear two pieces of unstitched cloth and every female is to adopt simplicity in dress. We ask Allah as to why we cannot come for pilgrimage in our other attire and He answers, ‘Adopt the dress code of My Beloved!’ Wrap yourself in these clothes, similar to what he wore so that he may wrap you in his garment on the Day Of Reckoning. On reaching the Sacred Mosque one is asked to Circle (tawaaf) The House OF Allah (Kaaba). On enquiry whether God lives in the house, the answer received is, No! So why do we call it the House Of God? Allah says that, ‘My Beloveds built it for My Pleasure; therefore I call it My House.’ Every action of Hajj on enquiry as to whether Allah performs all these rites is, No! So we ask as to why we call the entire pilgrimage (Hajj) farz if every action performed is a sunnat of the Holy Prophet? Allah says, ‘I have called it farz so that it may be performed in My Court, but every action must be a reminder of My Beloveds action.’ The entire Hajj ritual in Makkah the Ennobled ushers in the State Of A Mad Lover or Diwaanagi. For the Pilgrims are performing acts like Mad Lover’s. Dressed in rags; circling the house of the Beloved, crying, shouting, embracing, kissing; running in between two mountains; sleeping on one piece of land at night and standing in the sun on the other; hair is unkempt, nails long; drinking water standing and throwing stones sometimes here and sometimes there. Every action of A Crazed Lover (diwaana) is adopted in the Hajj. But then Allah says, ‘Hey Crazed Lover (diwaana) ! Stop!  Remove your clothing and dress up properly. Cut your nails. I am now going to present you to the One I Love. Here you behaved as a Madman but where you are going to be in your full senses. In My Court if you falter he will intercede for you but in his court if you falter I will never forgive you.

Ba Khuda diwaana Bashi, Ba Muhammad ushayaar

Approach Allah as a crazy person. But be on your guard when approaching His Beloved.

When going to Madinah the Illuminated we are warned to be careful of our conduct, by Allah, in the Holy Qur'aan in the 49^th Sura, al-Hujeraat: Verse,  2:

 

O Believers do not raise your voices above the pitch of the voice of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him, his family and his companions) and do not talk with him in the fashion, which you speak amongst yourselves. If you make even this slight unconscious mistake, remember all your prayers, fasting, Hajj, Zakaat, and every act of virtue will be annulled totally and you will not even be made aware of the annulment

Approach Allah as a crazy person but be on your guard when approaching His Beloved. Tell me O Pilgrims!  Why did you circle the Kaaba? Why did you kiss the Black Stone? Why did you journey between Mounts Safa and Marwa?  Your answer will be that the Holy Prophet Muhammad e had done all this therefore you did it. But, what was your intention for kissing the Black Stone? You will answer, because the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him, his family and his companions) kissed it. So, what was the Prophet’s intention?  Our intention or niyyat is different from the Holy Prophet’s (Peace be upon him, his family and his companions) in every rite of Hajj so how do we perform itteba? So even in Hajj we are not like the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him, his family and his companions) since our intentions are different from his. A point to ponder upon here is that the kissing of the black stone was it worship? Remember even the Kaaba and The Black Stone is ‘other than Allah’ to worship them also is shirk. So if we associate kissing with worshipping, then all Pilgrims are mushriks. So we come to learn that kissing is a different act from worshipping. That act which is shirk, is shirk in all circumstances. To ‘worship anything or being other than Allah’ is shirk. If the ‘act of kissing’ is also shirk then kissing the hands of the righteous out of reverence and the face of children out of love will also render the performer of these acts to be a mushrik. If a stone has a link with Allah and we kiss it the act is termed as worship (ibaadat)[1], so if we kiss a place (dar) that has a link with Allah, then even this act is termed as worship (ibaadat).   This teaches us that kissing is done out of love and reverence and not with the intention of worshipping. 

 

[1] Ibada: Worship and service of Allah with absolute obedience and love. Man was created in order to "know" Allah. Therefore the essential meaning of (ibada) is Knowledge of Allah. Allah says in al-Qur’aan, ‘I created jinn and men only to worship (know) Me’ (51:56). The Holy Prophet Muhammad said, "Perfection (ihsaan) is to worship (know) Allah like you see Him.’(Ibada) should penetrate every aspect of a man's existence. The rites and rituals of Islam are the outer forms containing the inner meanings, which will enable the worshipper to become a knower.