By Ibrahim Naseem

 

At the center of Muslim life is the firm belief in God and the importance of preparing for our return to Him. However, we are confronted with the issue: How do we know what God wants of us? He is unseen in this world, which is the stage in which we must prove the depth of our belief and commitment.

 

Toward this end, God sent messengers and prophets, many with scriptures (the final one being Prophet Muhammad and the Quran) to let us know what is asked of us and what shall come in the Hereafter. We can read and listen, and, in the process, learn some facts about our journey to an Afterlife. But these facts are somewhat abstract, meaning, they are words without a reality that we can now see and feel.

 

The Pilgrimage to Makkah is one of the amazing graces because in a few days nearly three million people, of all races and status, will converge in a single setting that “enacts” the Day of Judgment. However dim this event is when compared to the ultimate reality, the Pilgrimage maps additional meaning to the words we read in the Quran. Human beings are creatures who live beyond instinct. We have rational capabilities, among them is the desire to have proof and some signs that help us keep our faith alive about events that will never show themselves in this life, but are assured of in the Quran. Among the many benefits of the Hajj, one is certainly this: help satisfy our desire to “see” (however imperfectly) what cannot be seen in this life but whose importance is without compare.

 

In Makkah itself, there are signs. In an era in which there is enormous pressure to love the material world, millions of people still drop everything in order to make the Pilgrimage. No one can celebrate such a commitment, save Muslims. For a few precious days, a pilgrim, by choice, is one face among millions. No longer is one an Arab, Indian, American, or Chicagoan. One’s name is not important; nor is one’s race or email password. A man is two sheets of white cloth. Not a hue of flesh is unrepresented. All are partners in a ritual that still matters. Makkah started out as a miracle and, God willing, shall always be so as long as night and day endure. Thousands of years ago, Allah commanded Ibrahim (Abraham): “And proclaim among the people the Pilgrimage. They shall come to you on foot and on every lean mount. They shall come from every deep ravine” (Quran, 22:27). And he obeyed, no matter how hopeless it may have seemed to call upon a scattering of desert clans. And, of course, they did eventually come, like they do now by the hundreds of thousands.

 

In a time of uncertainty, there is great solace to be found in Makkah, the Noble—always the beacon of hope, always number one: the very site where the first house of worship on the face of the earth was established. And five times a day, hundreds of millions turn their faces toward Makkah as they Pray to their unseen Lord, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, who is closer to us than our jugular veins.