From there…and in the shade of the first House of worship established for mankind – blessed and a guidance for the worlds, pure and fresh fragrance brightens the heart of the believer and his soul recalls memories that symbolize light in the extreme darkness of the night.
From there, from the submissive hearts, the flowing tears and the humbly raised hands.
From there, where burdens are dropped and sins are wiped out by sincere repentance, the believer is being called by his faith, his heartbeats shout at him, so he awakes from heedlessness and resumes the path of life that starts with compliance with the orders of Allah and ends with Paradise, as wide as the heavens and the earth.
When we say this, we do not want this believer in our scale to be an individual who is ousted from the group. He who does not care about the affairs of the Muslim community does not belong to it. Rather, we want him to be a righteous unit in building the structure of the group. The individual whose heart is cut out from being connected to Allah, the Exalted, who is separated from Him by barriers and restraints and who is enveloped by roughness and disaffection, is an individual who does not benefit the interest of the group or the nation, neither in the present nor in the future.
The great afflictions that have struck our lands charged this generation with more responsibilities and duties. If that is so, then there is no space in this field, which awaits real men, for playful people and slaves of lusts.
When we mention the Sacred House, Hajj, its rituals and every land where the talbiyah (formula that is pronounced by the pilgrim when going for Hajj) is pronounced, we take into account that all these are good issues that are to be added to the scale of values and light on the sides of the road for both the individual and the group.
Those who think that worship in Islam is merely a private affair between the creature and the Creator according to the concept of the church are fabricating a lie from which Islam is totally innocent.
Worship in Islam, including Hajj, which is one pillar of Islam, has everything to do with the benefit of the group. Worship, which is legislated and addressed by Allah to His slaves, provides the individual with the correct preparation and gives him comprehensive training to bear the burden that he was charged with as a Muslim whose religion is established upon the noblest values of humanity, truth, and goodness.
The believer finds this in the Quran when referring to the pillars of Islam among acts of worship.
Concerning prayer, Allah Almighty says (what means): {...and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing.} [Quran 29:45]
In addition, Allah, the Exalted, considered fasting a blessed means to righteousness, as He says (what means): {O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.} [Quran 2:183]
Moreover, Allah Almighty stated that zakah entails purification and sanctification taking the broadness of these two terms into consideration as He says (what means): {Take [O Muhammad] from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and sanctify them.} [Quran 9:103]
Furthermore, in the verse of prescribing Hajj, Allah, the Exalted, gave precedence to talking about the Sacred House as it is blessed as well as a source of guidance and security. Allah Almighty says (what means): {Indeed, the first House [of worship] established for mankind was that at Mecca—blessed and a guidance for the worlds. In it are clear signs [such as] the standing place of Abraham. And whoever enters it shall be safe. And [due] to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House—for whoever is able to find thereto a way.} [Quran 3:96 -97] To confirm the great value of this obligation and its impact on the life of the individual and the group, He says (what means): {But whoever disbelieves—then indeed, Allah is free from need of the worlds.} [Quran 3:97]
In another verse about Ibrahim's proclamation of Hajj, the Noble Quran referred to some results of this act of worship. Allah Almighty says (what means): {That they may witness benefits for themselves.} [Quran 22:28]
While discussing Hajj, we should stop at these last words as there is no doubt that the concept of benefits is broader than being limited by narrow confines.
The benefits of leaving your home to perform this obligation are crystal clear for every person to whom Allah granted insight.
Rather, everyone who tasted the sweetness of faith has realized these precious benefits: to perform these noble rituals; assuming ihram (state of ritual consecration), performing tawaf (circumambulation) and sa‘y (going back and forth between Mount Safa and Marwah), standing at ‘Arafah, staying at Muzdalifah, throwing the pebbles and such other kinds of good deeds inside and around Mecca, and then, rejoicing in visiting the Prophet and greeting him and his two Companions.
All this entails benefits and more. Rather, one may say that this is the original purpose of the fact that Allah ordered the foundations of a House that He attributed to Himself to be raised and made it the place for which the hearts of the believers long. Is it not a favor to be taken to the beloved to perform tawaf around His House; the Creator and the Wise; vision perceives Him not, but He perceives all vision. Indeed, Allah is different from all that comes to your mind. What a great benefit it is to wash the burdens of the acts of disobedience with your tears, open the doors to mercy and forgiveness with your talbiyah and have your supplications answered. Thus, you are blessed with the pleasure of Allah and return to your family after being enveloped with care and after winning acceptance.
This is only to name but a few benefits to mention when we read the verse in which Allah, the Exalted, says (what means): {That they may witness benefits for themselves.} [Quran 22:28]
However, while calamities strike us from everywhere and the stressful hours in our days accumulate like layer upon layer of darkness, it is a duty upon us to witness other benefits in this noble divine conference. In addition to what we have mentioned, which is, no doubt, true, we should seek the pleasure of Allah by making the season of Hajj a new starting point that leads us to wipe out the shame and set the truth right. This is, by Allah, a benefit prescribed by the creed and required by the dignity of the nation and history.
Those who come to the House of Allah are responsible, each according to his means, for a serious fruitful work that promotes unity, paves the road to power, and removes debris from the way.
Let us remember that the sands of the Peninsula that witnessed the launch of our nation to free humanity from its restraints and witnessed the last Jew leave its land during the caliphate of ‘Umar is the same sand that is now witnessing our situations that would make a solid rock burst into tears.
What is really strange is that we lack real interaction with the rituals of this religion, to the extent that they are more associated to time and place than to us.
The land where the Prophet received revelation for twenty-three years and added volumes of greatness and goodness to the history of humanity is able today, in the shade of the blessed rituals, to provide Muslims with what they need, to remove the dust of suffering from their shoulders, and to move their hearts with the motives of faith and determination.
If they were guided to this, they would be able – along with serious and strict preparation – to make a conscious classification of their problems with their enemies through which they could see the causes that led to these effects, give precedence to the more important over the less important matters, and highlight the centre of the disease that has started to cripple the body of the nation.
The classification we are referring to guides to the reality that we have to assimilate in spite of its bitterness; that the enemies, before they stole our lands, were skillful thieves in stealing our hearts and minds; and before they attacked our sanctities and lands, they attempted to make us doubt the principles through which those sanctities were held as sanctities in the first place and through which the land deserved to be preserved and appreciated. They did so by attacking our language and the principles of Islam and through spreading intellectual nonsense that reverses the realities of conquests and the values of jihad in order for the hearts of the generations to become empty, their lives futile, and their thought a combination of disbelief in the past and ambition to what is in the enemies’ hands.
It is the will of Allah that causes are associated with effects and that we reap the bitter fruit of what we and some generations in the past committed. Nonetheless, the mercy and care of Allah are very close to us if we resume the road and sincerely try to benefit from everything for the sake of our major causes in this age – whose main characteristic seems to be the utilization of science for the sake of racism and assaulting the dignity of man, let alone cooperation and conspiracy to attack the Muslims.
Who knows, perhaps a moment of truth for a slave clinging to the curtains of the Ka‘bah or performing sa‘y between As-Safa and Al-Marwah, weeping and feeling sorrow, and his heart grieving over Bayt Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) with the beats of repentance and private supplication and praise of Allah; perhaps this moment of truth may be accepted by Allah. Who knows, perhaps an hour of the generosity and care of Allah that may encompass all those who came to His House devoting themselves to His worship may have a great impact.
The most important thing is to have the determination of the hearts, the sincerity of the intentions, and the feeling with which we can realize the meaning of the disaster and its position on the way of our nation’s affairs and problems in order for souls to be united upon holding firm to the rope of Allah and in order for all powers to be utilized, in compliance with the order of Allah, to prepare ourselves in terms of faith, thought, organization and persistence.
Our duty has become too confirmed to be met with coolness and disinterest. Let the playful remember that nothing can be hidden from Allah, whether in the heavens or on earth.
O you who are visiting the Sacred House of Allah, remember Al-Aqsa, the Sacred Mosque.
O you who are travelling to the Mosque of the Prophet remember Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Remember it when you supplicate the Lord of the Ka‘bah, which Allah made a place of return for the people and a place of security.
Remember it when you cry at every valley and mountain, saying, "O Allah, I respond to You in obedience."
Remember it on every land where tears are shed,
Every place where hearts shake,
Every position where hands are raised in humble supplication.
Remember, during your talbiyah, tawaf, humble submission, sa‘y and standing at ‘Arafah; the land of forgiveness and mercy, remember that in the near past, we used to perform tawaf when Al-Aqsa belonged to us and was within our hands. However, today, hundreds of thousands of Muslims perform tawaf while Bayt Al-Maqdis is under the authority of the Jews.
We stand at ‘Arafah while the place where the Messenger of Allah led the Prophets in prayer is under the control of those who are humiliated and despised.
Which level of humiliation and degradation did this nation reach that makes those people, who, if ugliness was to be embodied as a creature would not exceed them, wander freely in and around Jerusalem!
Indeed, the promise of Allah never fails! His established ways in the universe are never changed or altered.
Indeed, His promise of victory, empowerment, and succession in ruling to the truthful and oppressed believers will continue to be in force as long as the heavens and the earth exist, provided that they abide by the method designed for them and the way He clarified.
Perhaps we may prove, through the rape; the assault; the darkness of tragedies and setbacks; the dust of abuse and torture; and the severity of the calamity of reversing truths, harming, displacing people, and stealing thought before stealing land…Perhaps we may prove through all this, starting from the spirit of Hajj, the conference of truth and enslavement to Allah, that we still deserve that Allah fulfills once more for us the verse (which means): {Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that—then those are the defiantly disobedient.} [Quran 24:55]