HAJJ

The Hajj (Arabic: حج‎, transliteration: Ḥaǧǧ) is a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world. It is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so. It is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God (Arabic:Allah). The pilgrimage occurs from the 10th to the 15th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, the event cannot be exactly matched to the Gregorian calendar, whose (solar) year is eleven days longer. In 2007, the Hajj took place from December 17 to December 21. The next one will begin in the first week of December 2008.

The Hajj is associated with the life of Muhammad, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca predates Islam, and is considered by Muslims to stretch back to the time of Abraham andIshmael. Pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Hajj, and perform a series of rituals. As part of the Hajj, each person walks counter-clockwise seven times about the Kaaba, the cubical building which acts as the Muslim direction of prayer (qibla); runs back and forth between the hills ofAl-Safa and Al-Marwah; drinks from the Zamzam Well; goes to the plains of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil; and throws stones in a ritualStoning of the Devil. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform an animal sacrifice, and celebrate the four day global festival of Eid al-Adha.

As of 2007, an estimated two million pilgrims participated in this annual pilgrimage.Crowd-control techniques have become critical, and because of the large numbers of people, many of the rituals have become more stylized. It is not necessary to kiss the Black Stone, but merely to point at it on each circuit around the Kaaba. Throwing pebbles was done at large pillars, which for safety reasons were in 2004 changed to long walls with catch basins below to catch the stones. The slaughter of an animal can be done either personally, or by appointing someone else to do it, and so forth.But even with the crowd control techniques, there are still many incidents during the Hajj, as pilgrims are trampled in a crush, or ramps collapse under the weight of the many visitors, causing hundreds of deaths. 

Pilgrims can also go to Mecca to perform the rituals at other times of the year. This is sometimes called the "lesser pilgrimage", or Umrah. However, even if they perform the Umrah, they are still obligated to perform the Hajj at some other point in their lifetimes.

HISTORY

The Hajj is based on a pilgrimage that was ancient even in the time of Muhammad in the 7th Century. According to Hadith (supplemental writings to the Koran), elements of the Hajj trace back to the time ofAbraham, around 2000 BC. The belief is that the Prophet Abraham was ordered by God (Allah) to leave his concubine Hagar and his infant son Ismael alone in the desert. While he was gone, the child became thirsty, Hagar ran back and forth seven times searching for water for her son. The baby cried hit the ground with his foot (some versions of the story say that an angel scraped his foot or the tip of his wing along the ground), and water miraculously sprang forth. This source of water is today called the Well of Zamzam.

Each year tribes from all around the Arabian peninsula would converge on Mecca, as part of the pilgrimage. The exact faith of the tribes was not important at that time, and Christian Arabs were as likely to make the pilgrimage as the pagans.Muslim historians refer to the time before Muhammad as al-Jahiliyah, the "Days of Ignorance", during which the Kaaba contained hundreds of idols representing totems of each of the tribes of the Arabian peninsula. The idols represented multiple faiths, from pagan gods like Hubal, al-Lat, Uzza andManat, to symbols of Jesus and Mary.

Muhammad was known to regularly perform the Umrah, even before he began receiving revelations.Historically, Muslims would gather at various meeting points in other great cities, and then proceed en masse towards Mecca, in groups that could comprise tens of thousands of pilgrims. Two of the most famous meeting points were in Cairo and Damascus. In Cairo, the Sultan would stand atop a platform of the famous gate Bab Zuwayla, to officially watch the beginning of the annual pilgrimage.

In 632 AD, when Muhammad led his followers from Medina to Mecca, it was the first Hajj to be performed by Muslims alone, and the only Hajj ever performed by Muhammad. He cleansed the idols from the Kaaba, and re-ordained it as the house of God. It was from this point that the Hajj became one of the Five Pillars of Islam.