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From Issue: 707 [Read full issue]
The Journey Motif
Islam is a religion that is built upon the notion of journeying, making one's way through this world and back "home" to God. The journey motif touches almost every aspect of the Muslim's life. One example is the Islamic code of ideal living, the shariah. The word comes from and old desert word that describes the trampled path that leads to an oasis or water hole. By extension, then, the shariah is the way that leads to water, to life, and to the refreshment of the whole person. It is the way walked by others before and the way that others will walk after us.
According to the specificities of the Islamic shariah, this path or way of life includes a command to make a journey to God's "house" in Mecca, where Abraham and his son Ishmael erected the first temple or "house" for the worshiping of one God. And so, to celebrate the pilgrimage is to commemorate Abraham's journey from his home in Mesopotamia to the west, where he made his home and fathered two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. To celebrate the pilgrimage is to commemorate the journey of Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, in the desert wilderness where they miraculously found water in the form of a well/spring that gushed out of the arid, rocky ground when Hagar had given up all hope of life.
As a practical act and pillar of Islam, the pilgrimage is full of ancient and often perplexing actions, some of which may strike us as curious and others as bewildering. It is important to stress, however, that the experience of the pilgrimage is itself a journey, and no pilgrim's experience of the rites is ever separate from the journey.
In Arabic, the word for pilgrimage (hajj) is related to the word for "proof" (hujjah). Contemplating this connection, Muslim masters speak of the life-change that comes when one completes the journey. Pilgrims are meant to return reborn, with a certitude and commitment that they did not know before. We witness this in the conversations we have with those who have gone, in the testimonials we read from those who have made the journey and completed the ancient rites. They may put on their old clothes when they have finished, but many claim that these clothes belonged to someone else, to someone they used to be prior to the experience. While the rituals themselves are integral part of the hajj, often the journey itself proves to be the most transformative aspect of this fifth and final "pillar" of the faith.
Compiled From:
"In the Light of a Blessed Tree" - Timothy J. Gianotti, pp. 58-62