Here I am at Your Service, O Allah (2/3)
Sheik Muhammad Mitwaly Ash-Sha‘rawy Ibrahim proclaims the Hajj
Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, asked the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham, peace be upon him) to proclaim the Hajj to mankind. The Almighty says (what means):
“And proclaim to mankind the Hajj (pilgrimage). They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, they will come from every deep and distant (wide) mountain highway (to perform Hajj).” (Surah Al-Hajj, 22: 27)
Ibrahim (peace be upon him) stood amidst this barren wasteland, wherein there is neither water nor plant, and none to hear him; nevertheless he proclaimed the Hajj in obedience to Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, Who said to him, ‘Your duty is the proclamation and Ours is the conveyance.’
By the Infinite Power of Allah this call reached the hearing of all those destined to perform that sublime duty, since the proclamation of Ibrahim till the Day of Resurrection arrives. They heard the call of our father Ibrahim (peace be upon him) while still in the loins of their forefathers and answered Him.
Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, chose His Sacred House to be the Qiblah [Direction faced in Prayers] of the believers, which they face five times daily in each offered prayer. Thus, Allah willed that the believer’s heart remains engaged with the Sacred House, though away from it, until he performs the enjoined duty of Hajj, whereby the blessing of having belief in Allah is perfected.
As though Allah psychologically prepares every Muslim to perform Hajj before doing it years ahead. Man may die without going on a pilgrimage but his heart keeps intimately attached to the Sacred House, turning to it five times a day.
Hajj is an enjoined duty whose fulfillment depends on many aspects of life; it demands effort, energy and Help from Allah by giving us power, ability and health. It also necessitates action, because man must work more to earn what exceeds his livelihood to be able to save the Hajj expenses. If he worked as hard as needed to suffice his daily living only he would save nothing for the Hajj. Therefore, the believer begs Allah for a working power that will suffice him and his family and cover his Hajj expenses as well.
All these arrangements related to health, work or energy, offer more than the actual need; all are certainly Blessings from Allah. When blessed by such grace, you should express gratitude to Allah by saying, ‘Here I am at your service, O Allah, here I am. Yours Alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Yours Alone is The Sovereignty. You have no partner’. All Praise is due to You forproviding me with the energy, the power and the means. Provided me with the money needed to cover my Hajj expenses and the maintenance of my family during my absence. All Praise is due to You for favoring me with all these blessings that I will never be fully able to pay You back for them in praises and thanks, no matter how endless thanks I give.
We have to carefully observe the accuracy of expression in the chant of Hajj, the pilgrim says, ‘Here I am at your service, O Allah, here I am. Yours Alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Yours Alone is The Sovereignty. You have no partner’. The context would have dictated saying, ‘Yours alone is All Bounty and All Praise’, for praises are only expressed for an offered bounty. But here the praise precedes the bounty, why? Because your thanksgiving is expressed for an already bestowed blessing, as Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, has graced you with all these blessings that enabled you to start your Hajj journey. So, you thank Allah for an already conferred blessing and for a coming one, that of belief, which made you fulfill that enjoined duty. Thus, blessings are continuously bestowed and gratitude is continuously expressed; we thank Allah for past and future blessings. Indeed, how endless and inexhaustible are the Blessings of Allah as substantiated by the noble Qur’anic verse saying (what means):
“Whatever is with you, will be exhausted, and whatever with Allah (of good deeds) will remain. And those who are patient, We will certainly pay them a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do.” (Surah An-Nahl, 16: 96)
When reciting ‘Talbiyah’, the pilgrim says, ‘Yours Alone is All Praise and All Bounty, and Yours Alone is The Sovereignty,’ and as long as the Dominion and Sovereignty belong only to Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, and will always be, man should fear nothing in this world.
Allah says in the Sanctified Hadith:
“O son of Adam! Fear not those vested with power as long as My Sovereignty and kingdom never ends. Fear not the expiration of provision as long as My treasures are full never to empty. I have created everything for you and I have created you for My Sake, so proceed in My Obedience to have everything submitting to you. You owe Me dutifulness in what I have enjoined upon you, and I owe you sustenance, but if you disobey me in what I have enjoined, I will not deny you your sustenance. If you are contended with what I have ordained for you, I will relieve your heart, but if you are discontented with what I have ordained for you, by My Might and Majesty, I will empower this world against you, wherein you will run as beasts in the wilderness and you will not have of it except what I have ordained for you and you will be disparaged in My Eyes.”
In Talbiyah, the words ‘You have no partner’ settle in the heart of the believer the relief of knowing that Allah is the One and Only God. Allah wants to relieve and assure us that He is the One God with no other partner to oppose Him in His Will. This Oneness is a great blessing indeed for which we should heartily thank Allah. Surely, had there been a partner with Him, the earth would have been full of mischief and people’s needs would have been wasted between a god that wants and another that denies.
The perfection of the Blessing of Allah
We have to observe that the Hajj is the only ritual that confers on the believer a special title. You neither call the one who observes Salah (offering Prayers) ‘The prayer,’ nor the one who pays the Zakah (obligatory charity), ‘The Zakah-giver,’ but we call the one who performed Hajj to the Sacred House of Allah, ‘The hajj.’
The Hajj is the declaration of the perfection of the Blessings bestowed by Allah on man. The perfection of Allah’s Blessings is in having the bestowments of Godship together with that of Lordship, because you did not perform the Hajj except by the power Allah has given you, through the blessings of Lordship. When people call out, ‘The hajji so and so,’ we learn that Allah has greatly graced him. The Almighty graced him with the blessing of belief in Him, which is the supreme blessing, and belief in the last of all the Prophets, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Since man decided to make a pilgrimage he must be observant of all the other duties enjoined on him: Salah (offering prayers), paying the Zakah (obligatory charity) and observing Saum (Fasting). By performing the Hajj he wishes to fulfill the Five Pillars of Islam, to be among those to whom Allah has addressed this noble Qur’anic verse, revealed in the Farewell Hajj [The first and the last Hajj performed by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace] saying (what means):
“This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” (Surah Al-Ma‘idah, 5: 3)
Meaning, I have perfected and fulfilled all the Pillars of Islam; fulfilled the Salah (offering Prayers) by visiting the Sacred House to perform prayers therein. Zakah, for Hajj includes it, being an act of worship relying on both financial means and physical ability, where you spend your money for the Sake of Allah. Saum (Fasting), for Hajj includes a sort of fasting because you forbear from bodily desires while assuming the state of Ihram. First and foremost, the Hajj embraces the Shahadah [The testimony of Faith: ‘Ashadu ana La ilah illa Allah wana Muhammad rasul Allah’ I testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah].
You come on a pilgrimage in servile compliance with the Command of Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, and out of showing obedience to Him, and you perform the Hajj rituals as the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) has taught us.
The worship of Allah dictates avoidance of assuming superiority over one another. Ongoing to the Masjid to offer prayers equality dictates that whoever arrives first sits first, regardless of his rank, wealth, poverty or his status in this world, as you may find the doorman in the first row and the building owner in the last row.
Such equality in worshipping Allah, The Most Exalted, purges the soul from superiority and causes it to humble itself. It makes us all feel that we are standing in front of God, Who neither looks at our shapes nor appearances, but at our hearts; the criterion between a human and another, whatever be our mentalities or living standards.
In each Congregational Prayer performed in one of the Masjids of Allah, equality, submission and humility shown to Allah is done in a limited medium. But Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, willed that such equality and submission be shown not only in a limited medium but in a global one; in a universal environment gathering all the races of the earth; the strong and weak nations, people of power and wealth together with those owning nothing. Each should humble himself as becomes the solemnity of the Hajj.
Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, wants to inculcate in us the rudiments of such a standing: that we all differ in our outfits, appearances and garments according to the living standards of each and our different tastes in choosing the fabrics we wear and their designs. In Hajj, Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, wants none to be distinguished, neither in appearance nor dress.
We may differ as we please in our own countries among our folk, but here and on arriving to the Sacred House of Allah we have to stand as equals before Him, as He created us, and as we shall stand before Him on the Day of Resurrection.
He wants us servants of His, wearing the same dress none differing from the other. To divest ourselves of worldly comforts and give up our posts the time we reach the borders of the Sacred House, where all privileges melt into thin air. The seamless Ihram garments are worn and all abide by the same dress and fabric. With such abidance imposed by Allah vanishes the first sign of distinction and superiority in worn clothes and assumed posts.
(Continued)