NEWS FEATURE: The Hajj: A personal reflection

c. 1999 Religion News Service (Wahy Deen Shareef is imam, or Muslim prayer leader, of the WARIS Cultural Center, Irvington, N.J., and a special assistant in the Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed.) UNDATED _ Each year, more than 2 million Muslims from around the world make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Wahy Deen Shareef is imam, or Muslim prayer leader, of the WARIS Cultural Center, Irvington, N.J., and a special assistant in the Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed.)

UNDATED _ Each year, more than 2 million Muslims from around the world make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime journey required of all adult Muslims capable of doing so.


This extraordinary gathering, unique among the world’s great spiritual pilgrimages, begins in earnest March 25 after several days of preliminary activities.

I made the trip in 1987. It was an awe-inspiring experience that graced me with far more than the title of”hajji,”which identifies one as having completed the pilgrimage. Going to Mecca and seeing the Ka’bah, the house of prayer built by Abraham and his son Ishmael, according to Islamic teaching, was the fulfillment of a deeper search to know and connect with myself, my lord, my destiny.

As with all life, there were highs and lows associated with my journey.

I went with no preconceived notions about the trip other than a sense that it would not be easy. But I had no idea of how difficult it actually would get.

Our first stop was Medina,”the City of the Prophet”and birthplace of the first Muslim community. I spent several wonderful days there visiting the Prophet’s Mosque _ where the Prophet Muhammad is buried _ and places where his companions fought and died defending the early Muslim community.

The sites jumped from the pages of books into my heart, just as the lives and deaths of those early Muslims became as real as the tears that moistened my flowing, cotton robes.

Before leaving Medina, I shaved my body hair, as is traditional, and put on the”ihram,”_ two pieces of unsewed cotton worn around the waist and over the chest and shoulder _ that is traditionally worn by all male pilgrims as a symbolic negation of all status and hierarchy. As I boarded the bus for the ride to Mecca, my voice joined with others in chanting,”Here I am before you my lord, here I am, you have no partner, here I am.” In Mecca, I was greeted by the news that an Iranian delegation had attempted to conduct a political demonstration that resulted in several Muslims being killed or injured. How could such a thing happen in this most sacred of places? Then again, what better place for Satan to hide.

In stark contrast, the sublime essence of the Hajj was again made clear to me as I walked out of my hotel and glanced down the street. Before me was a sea of people all dressed in white and all moving toward the Grand Mosque, within which lies the Ka’bah, toward which all of Islam orients itself in prayer.


The sun glistening on so many faces gave the appearance of a mighty ocean moving toward the shore _ or should I say to the one reality that is sure. Entering the mosque, I passed several guards carrying assault rifles _ an image I struggled to put out of my head so as to focus solely on communion with God.

Absorbed in my inner world, I walked deeper and deeper into the mosque’s interior. Suddenly, as if doors had been flung open and bright lights turned on, the Ka’bah was before me.

Seeing the simple cubic structure draped in black, the spiritual center of Islam, I paused to take stock. As I did, I felt something reach inside of me and drop me to my knees. I began to cry like I had not cried since I was a small child. In that brief moment, I touched”home”_ the sense of reuniting with my essence.

Afterward, I joined the mass of humanity in the”tawaf,”the seven-fold circumambulation of the Ka’bah. I thought of the many people who had walked along the same path to which God had guided me. I spent several nights on the mosque roof watching the proceedings, expressing my gratitude to God, and thinking _ always thinking about this transforming experience and how I would maintain this consciousness after I returned home.

Each ritual act of the Hajj reminded me of life’s trials.

I thought of Hagar as I duplicated her act of running between the hills of Safa and Marwah searching for water to feed her thirsty son Ishmael. I thought of the Prophet Muhammad giving his last lecture to the believers as I stood on the mountain at Arafat and asked God to forgive me for the sins I’ve committed, and those I will commit.

I joined the assault on the stone pillar that represents Satan by tossing seven stones. I walked the bloody path to fulfill the ritual of animal sacrifice, doing it out of obedience to God and the desire to help feed the hungry.


When I returned to Mecca, my head was shaved and I was dusty and drained. I was also seriously sick but determined to fulfill the Hajj’s concluding rites. Something was breaking down in me _ was it a purging, a purification of my soul? I wondered and worried.

Increasingly ill, the journey home was long and agonizing. By the time I arrived at New York’s Kennedy Airport, my legs had cramped, my fever was sky high and I could barely navigate Customs. I stopped briefly at home before being rushed to a hospital emergency room.

Diagnosed with spinal meningitis, my wife was told I might not survive.

In my delirium, I struggled to make sense of what was happening to me. I remember thinking about the things I loved most, and realized they were my relationships with God, the prophet, family, friends and others.

I thought,”God, you did not permit me to complete the Hajj, to participate in this most extraordinary of spiritual journeys, just for me to return home and die. There must be more you want me to do.” What that is, I have come to see, is to live with a clearer vision of my destiny and a greater commitment to serve God and humanity. I now understand what the Muslim leader Imam W. Deen Mohammed means when he says”religion means alive.”

IR END SHAREEF

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