PILGRIMAGE to the Sacred House of Allah (SWT) is highly challenging. Tasks that are involved are considered Herculean. It is therefore an important pillar which should not be trivialised by the Muslims once they are counted worthy of making the journey.
To avoid making efforts that may eventually end up in futility, pilgrims are encouraged to ask themselves certain questions which border on Iman (faith, belief) in monotheism. So many things may nullify the Iman of a Muslim and render all of his acts of worship a nullity, even when he does not realise it.
The first of such is associating partners with Allah (SWT). This act is the bedrock of shirk, polytheism. Allah (SWT) says in the Glorious Qur’an: “Truly, whoever associates partner with Allah, Allah will forbid him the Garden, and his abode will be the Fire, and the wrongdoers will have no helpers.” For instance, invoking the dead, calling for their help or offering vows and sacrifices to them are forms of shirk. Setting up intermediaries between oneself and Allah, making supplication to the dead, asking for their intercession and placing one’s trust in them is an act of kufr (disbelief). Anyone who does not consider polytheists, the mushrikeen to be unbelievers, or who has doubts concerning their unbelief, or considers their ways to be correct, is himself a kafir, an unbeliever.
Again, anyone who believes that some guidance other than the Prophet’s guidance is more perfect, or a judgment other than the Prophet’s judgment is better has become an unbeliever. For example, the belief that systems and laws which are manmade are better than the Islamic law that govern aspects of day-to-day life for Muslims, in addition to religious rituals, that provide a set of principles and guidelines to help them make important decisions in their lives, such as finances and investments.
This law is known as the Shari’ah in Islam. It is an evil thinking for the pilgrims to contemplate that the Islamic system is not suitable for application in the 21st century, or to contemplate that the Islamic system is the cause of backwardness for the Muslims, and that Islam should have been just a relationship between a man and his Creator, and should not have anything to do with other aspects of life.
In addition, anyone who hates anything that the Prophet (SAW) has declared lawful (halal) has nullified his/her Islam. Allah (SWT) remarks that “this is because they disliked what Allah has revealed, so their deeds are brought to nothing.” Anyone who mocks Allah, or His Book, or His Messenger (SAW), or any other aspect of Allah’s religion has indeed become an unbeliever. Allah (SWT) declares, “Say: Is it Allah, His Signs and His Messenger that you are mocking? Make no excuse: you have disbelieved after your (profession of) faith.”
Other acts of shirk include the practice of magic. Anyone who engages in such an act or is pleased with it is outside the circle of Islam. Allah (SWT) mentions in the Glorious Qur’an: “The two angels (Harut and Marut) did not teach anyone (magic) without warning them: indeed, we are a trial, therefore, do not disbelieve.” Supporting and aiding the polytheists against the Muslims in all affairs and circumstances constitutes act of shirk. In the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) warns: “He among you who supports them becomes one of them. Truly, Allah does not guide the people who do wrong.” Anyone who believes that some people are permitted to deviate from the Sunnah (the legitimate ways, orders, acts of worship and utterances of the Prophet (SAW) which have become models to be followed by the Muslims) is a non-believer on the basis of what Allah (SWT) says in the Glorious Qur’an that “anyone who seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter, he will be among the losers.” Of equal judgment as the previously discussed acts of Shirk is for anyone to turn away from the religion of Allah, neither learning its precepts nor acting upon it. Allah (SWT) does not mince Words in the Glorious Qur’an: “Who does greater wrong than the one who is reminded of the revelations of his Lord, and then turns away from them?” Truly, We shall recompense the guilty ones”. Allah (SWT) goes on to say, “But those who disbelieve turn away from that of which they are warned.”
Therefore, brothers and sisters on pilgrimage to the Sacred House of Allah must be made aware that it makes no difference whether such violations are committed jokingly or intentionally, except when they are compelled. We seek refuge in Allah (SWT) from those deeds that attract the wrath and punishment of Allah (SWT).
Tags: Hajj