When Allah The Almighty bestows upon a believing slave the blessing of calling him to perform the obligation of Hajj, this slave who loves Allah The Exalted feels an overwhelming happiness, combined with awe and humble submission. He is conscious of the great responsibility that he should assume and the trust that must be discharged. He prostrates in humble submission and loves to praise and thank Allah The Almighty for His great favor upon him, asking Allah The Almighty to accept his Hajj and to help him safeguard it.

Hajj is a great responsibility before Allah The Almighty; it requires sincerity, truthfulness in words and deeds, purity of the soul and inner peace.

Preparation for the journey of Hajj requires special behavior. The believing slave determines to travel to perform the obligation of Hajj being peaceful, chaste and pure with no impurity in his heart, overwhelmed by love for Allah The Almighty, hoping to attain His mercy and seeking His pleasure.

The sincere slave who loves Allah The Almighty starts his preparation for the Hajj journey with a peaceful mind; he purifies himself and elevates his heart, spirit and self to the highest levels of inner peace. He starts taking himself to account for his deeds, and to recall the incidents of his life, to take his actions towards himself and others into consideration. If he had ever abused or wronged someone, or was a reason for hurting someone, he should immediately seek the pardon of Allah The Almighty first, and then ask for forgiveness from the one whom he wronged or hurt.

Complete forgiveness and perfect repentance depends upon the issue of preserving the rights of slaves. Allah The Exalted quotes Nooh as saying to his people (what means): {Worship Allah, fear Him and obey me. Allah will forgive you of your sins….} [Quran 71:3-4]

Allah The Almighty does not Say "forgive all your sins", rather, He Says: {Forgive you of your sins}. That is to say that the forgiveness of some sins will remain suspended till the rights of slaves are fulfilled. Such sins are not pardoned by Allah The Almighty except after fulfilling the rights of His slaves, or if they pardon or waive them.

What is injustice? Many people mistakenly believe that a person may do whatever he wishes, then perform the obligation of Hajj and return as he was on the day he was delivered by his mother: without sin or error.

How can one allow himself to wrong others and become the cause of hurting or abusing them in any form whatsoever? Then, merely after performing the obligation of Hajj, he returns and feels as if he has not committed any mistakes. Where is the right of the people he wronged?

The Noble Quran denounced injustice in the strongest terms and threatened wrongdoers with painful torture. Moreover, just as it threatened wrongdoers, it promised those wronged, with victory and support.

In addition, it calmed them as it prohibited the public mention of evil, except by the one who has been wronged. Allah The Exalted granted the right of public mention of evil to those who have been wronged because He knows the extent of the anguish and troubled feelings within the wronged person.

A wrongdoer is someone whose heart is afflicted with the disease of pride. He is selfish, arrogant and domineering to an unhealthy extent. He does not see anyone other than himself and is concerned only with achieving his own interests, even if the price is to transgress on the interests and rights of others and to hurt their humanity, dignity and pride. He is someone who has forgotten Allah The Almighty, so Allah The Almighty made him forget himself.

There are three Types of injustice:

Injustice between man and Allah The Almighty: It is injustice pertaining to the right of Allah The Exalted. It is intended to mean disbelief, Shirk (polytheism) and hypocrisy with Allah The Almighty. This type of injustice is considered great for Allah The Exalted Says (what means): {….Indeed, association [with Him] is great injustice.} [Quran 31:13]

This type of injustice is not forgiven by Allah The Almighty, because Allah The Almighty forgives all the sins of whoever He wishes, except the sin of associating anything with Him.

Another type of injustice is between a man and himself: It is injustice towards the right of the human self, where the slave neglects and takes the obligations that Allah The Almighty ordered him to fulfill lightly, such as being lazy when performing acts of worship. This is how man wrongs himself. Allah The Exalted Says (what means): {….among them is he who wrongs himself.}[Quran 35:32]

Allah The Almighty forgives this kind of injustice to whom He wills.

Injustice between a man and people: it constitutes injustice towards the rights of others, such as unjustly consuming the rights of others, wronging them with a false testimony or wrongfully using power and authority to abuse and humiliate people.

To be continued …

Hajj and Inner Peace - II