Al-Hajj

This is a literal description of some of the horrors of Doomsday, a day which will throw people into such a state of sheer horror that the mother will forget the baby at her breast and the pregnant woman will miscarry. The earthquakes occurring in our present world give only a slight foretaste of the events of Doomsday. The onset of the great earthquake of Doomsday will make man forget everything he had considered important and due to which he had forgotten Doomsday—so much so that on that Day he will forget even his most cherished possessions and his near and dear ones.

Whatever the prophet says is based on knowledge and he establishes its veracity by sound arguments. But those who do not want to admit or recognise any Truth outside themselves, unnecessarily and falsely dispute the prophet’s statements in order to establish that they are on the right path. Such behaviour amounts to arrogance directed against God. Those who use the shield of such false arguments in order to reject the message of Truth have, in effect, made Satan their guide.They prove that they are devoid of the fear of God. Such a mentality deprives a man of the capacity to recognise Truth and accept it, and he easily becomes Satan’s tool. Such a person will wake up only on hearing the terrifying roar of Doomsday. But, the earthquake of Doomsday will come to such individuals to open the door of Hell for them and not to give them guidance at that stage.

Man is doubtful about the life hereafter for the simple reason that he is unable to understand how a human being who is dead and gone can come back to life. He wonders how a dead universe can become a live universe. The reply to this question can be found in the structure of our present world itself. What is the present world? It is nothing but a change from one condition to another. What we call a ‘live’ existence is in fact the result of a change, a metamorphosis of a non-living existence. An analysis of the human body shows that it is composed of iron, carbon, calcium, salts, water, gases, etc. These compounds which comprise the human body are all lifeless. But these inanimate soul-less things convert into animate objects having souls and start moving about in the shape of human beings. In the case of human beings, therefore, when non-living things have initially taken the shape of living things, the assertion that, once again, non-living things will change into living things, is not at all surprising. Similarly, if one looks at the green vegetation growing on the earth, it will be seen that it is formed from a number of constituents found in the soil. All these constituents are initially devoid of the qualities found in vegetation. Yet this type of transformation takes place every day before our eyes. Then why should we have doubts about the recurrence of such a feasible event? The fact is that the coming into existence of the first world in itself proves the feasibility of the coming into existence of the second world. After experiencing one world, the understanding of a second world, rationally and logically, is not at all difficult.

The Arabs had adopted polytheism in the erroneous belief that it was the Truth. When the Prophet’s call for belief in there being only the one God started shaking the faith of the idolators, those chiefs who had built their supremacy on the foundation of idolatory were perturbed, as they smelt danger. For the common man, the discarding of idolatory means only giving up the religion of his forefathers, while for a chief the destruction of idolatory amounts to the destruction of his supremacy. Therefore, in every age, the call for an uncorrupted faith is vehemently opposed by those who had built up and maintained their leadership on the strength of adulterated religion. Such people indulge in unnecessary arguments against the call to Truth and the giver of that call. They make all-out efforts to see that the people under their influence become suspicious of such a call, so that they will remain within the fold of their traditional religions as a matter of course. They thus oppose the Truth in order to maintain the false prestige and the supremacy which they had established on the basis of their self-made religion. They are more interested in themselves than in the Truth. Such people are the worst culprits in the eyes of God. On the Day of Judgement, nothing short of disgrace, humiliation and punishment will be their unmitigated fate.

One who discovers Faith as the whole Truth, finds his heart and mind fully enveloped by his faith. He then surrenders himself to faith without any mental reservation. In his eyes, all other things assume a secondary place. Such an individual is a true believer in the eyes of God. There are others whose acceptance of faith is purely on the surface. Such people are interested only in their own personal gain. Under some superficial influence, they may attach themselves to faith, but this attachment lasts only so long as they do not suffer any loss due to this attachment, and their interests are not affected. The moment they feel that their interests and the True Faith cannot go together, they revert to their personal interest and discard faith. People of this second type are known as hypocrites. A hypocrite fails to succeed in the Hereafter as well as in this world, the reason being that he lacks the whole-hearted devotion which is a prerequisite for success either in this world or the life Hereafter. While a hypocrite is always deprived of this quality of the heart because of his dual orientation, he neither concentrates fully on the Hereafter nor on this world. Thus he is unable to pay the necessary price for either of the two. Such people become symbols of deprivation, both in this world and the Hereafter.

Whenever a man, unmindful of God, strays from His right path or ignores it, the reason is that he has placed his entire reliance on something other than God. This could be either an idol or some other such object or being. But, in this world, there is nobody who has any powers except the one and only God. Therefore, if a man relies on something other than God, he in fact parts from a powerful Being to seek the support of some imaginary thing which has no reality as a power. What action can be more wrong than this? Moreover, one’s association with God is not a simple matter. It is in fact an acceptance of reality. It is a right of God over man. Therefore, when a man leaves God and diverts his attention towards imaginary things, he is to be harmed by his own action. As far as any benefit is concerned, it can never be received from any object other than the one true God. Those who seek the support of things other than God apparently consider those things to be on a higher plane than themselves, as they would not otherwise have had recourse to them. But the fact is that those whose support is sought and those who seek such support are equally helpless and powerless. In such a world, the pure in thought, treading the God-favoured path with eyes fixed on the Hereafter, can distinguish God from a host of false gods. They are the most precious souls on this earth. God will show His appreciation for them by settling them in the perfect world of paradise, where they will experience eternal bliss.

When the Prophet Muhammad called upon the people to the Truth, those who had built their castles on untruth became his enemies. Opposition went on growing until a stage was reached when it appeared that the flag-bearers of Untruth would overcome the flag-bearers of Truth. Under these critical circumstances, certain Muslims questioned why, if the truth were on their side, God was not helping them and why He remained neutral in the struggle between the Truth and Untruth. God says that He always supports the Truth. But it is not the way of God to intervene immediately. He waits until matters reach the stage when one side’s being on the right path and the other side’s being on the wrong path are clearly established. When this stage has been reached, God intervenes without further delay and settles the issue. This is the way of God. It is necessary for human beings to become reconciled to this, because no other course is possible in this universe. Any way other than this is the way of death and not of life.

In this verse six religious groups or communities have been mentioned— Muslims, Jews, Sabaeans, Christians, Zoroastrians and polytheists (pagans of Makkah). The Jews owed allegiance to Moses. Similarly, the Sabaeans owed allegiance to John (Yahya), the Christians to Jesus, the Zoroastrians to Zoroaster and the polytheists of Makkah to Abraham. All these communities were initially believers in and worshippers of the one God. But, later on, they distorted their religion. Now they continue to practice this distorted form. The Muslims are not immune to this. They could also in effect err in the same way. The Book of Muslims is unaltered and preserved in every detail, yet in this world of trial, Muslims’ hands are not tied: they are not precluded from putting their own self-made interpretations on the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. They can form a self-styled religion, then by adopting that religion, they presumed to be following God’s true religion. God’s original and true religion is only one, but on account of personal interpretations, it comes to have different versions. If people were to adhere to the original religion, unity and solidarity would flourish among them. But, with people following their self-made religion, religious differences crop up among them and these differences go on endlessly multiplying. But God is fully aware of everybody’s circumstances, and He will make it clear on Judgement Day as to who was on the right path and who was on the wrong one.

Just as there is a Law of God for human beings, so also is there a law for the rest of the universe. As far as the rest of the universe is concerned, it follows God’s law strictly and without any deviations. It follows divine laws unitedly and with perfect harmony. It is only man who creates differences; by adopting self-made interpretations of these laws, he deviates from the straight path. In the eyes of God, the worst culprits are those who create discord on the basis of religion; who want to live with conflicts in a universe which is free of conflicts. In a world where the lesson of harmony is being demonstrated everywhere on an extremely large scale, such people concern themselves with fomenting discord and disharmony. God’s universe is a demonstration of God’s will. Those who go against this practical example set by the universe created by God, prove themselves to be deserving of God’s punishment in this world itself. On the Day of Judgement the aforesaid verdict, which is being pronounced in practice at every moment against the culprits in this world of today, will require only verbal ratification.

Broadly speaking, all groups fall into only two categories, namely, the upholders of Truth and their opponents. In the present world, those who quarrel with the proponents of the Truth erroneously imagine that they have innumerable arguments in their favour. It is their lack of seriousness which makes them enter into meaningless discussions, as if they had convincing arguments. Since they do not want to admit the Truth, they pick false and senseless quarrels with it. In the Hereafter, such people will be punished severely for their rejection of the Truth; and from this punishment they will never have any respite.

In this world where the net of deceptive words is spread out everywhere and where people far away from Truth enjoy the position of dominance, it is undoubtedly the most difficult task to discover and recognise the truth of Faith; and it is even more difficult in practice to put oneself on the path of this faith. Those who have been endowed with the ability to recognise and sift the noblest of words from the medley of senseless sounds, are the ones who will seek out the right path from a labyrinth of different paths. Those who show such great ability in this world are the cream of humanity. They deserve to be given an abode in the eternal gardens of paradise.

One instance of the denial of Truth is illustrated by an incident which occurred in ancient Makkah. The people of Makkah, intolerant of even the most peaceful activities of the Prophet Muhammad, imposed many restrictions on him. He and his companions became the target for atrocities, and were even prevented from entering the Ka‘bah. Such behaviour on the part of the Makkans, on top of their denial of the Truth, amounted to adding insult to injury. Those who indulge in this kind of sinful behaviour deserve the severest punishment from God.

The history of Abraham dates back four thousand years. During the period in which he lived polytheism was prevalent throughout the known and inhabited world, and had thus come to be a permanent feature of life, continuing from one generation to the next, without any break. Ultimately, the stage was reached when no new born child could learn anything other than polytheism from its surroundings. Abraham was born in Iraq. God commanded him to leave the populated areas of Iraq, Syria and Egypt and go to the uninhabited area of Hijaz and settle his progeny in Arabia. The idea behind settling in a desert area was that here, in an isolated place, a new generation could be brought up, cut off from the influence of polytheism prevalent in the inhabited world of the time. In accordance with this plan of God, Abraham settled his progeny in a place known at present as Makkah, but which was totally unpopulated in those days. At that time, Abraham built a mosque (the Kabah) which was to be the centre of worship for the one God by the new generation, and finally by the whole world.

The initial purpose in the constructing of the Kabah was to provide a centre of worship for those who were at ‘walking’ distance from that place. But, ultimately, it was to become a centre of worship of the one God for the whole world. And this purpose was fully achieved. The rites and customs which a pilgrim is required to perform after reaching here have been briefly described in the Quran, while full details are given in the traditions (Hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad. ‘They may witness its benefits for them’ means that they may actually see here the benefits of belief in a practical sense which they had so far been aware of solely as matters of faith. Great historical importance is attached to the places a pilgrim visits during Hajj. Quite naturally, visiting these places and seeing them melts one’s heart. Muslims of the whole world gather there, making the great international stature of Islam a visible reality. The annual gathering of Hajj promotes collectivism on a universal scale in Islam, and even the journey entailed affords the pilgrim many worldly and religious experiences which are helpful in the formation of his future life.

What is permitted (halal) and what is prohibited (haram); what is sacred and what is not; which way of worship are proper and which improper—all these matters have been made absolutely clear by God through His prophets. Any changes in these matters are not permissible. Any change made in these things is highly wrong, in the eyes of God. Therefore, it is necessary for man to follow the Prophet’s instructions. He should in no case increase or decrease what is prescribed by the Prophet. These are matters the reality of which is known only to God. When a man on his own says something on this subject, he virtually claims, in effect, to have knowledge about things of which he has no knowledge. Obviously, what wrong can be greater than this.