HAJJ AS WORSHIP

HAJJ AS WORSHIP

Hajj is to of leave one's relatives, wealth, and all the secular comforts. It is to enduring difficulties and hardships for Allah’s sake.

"And proclaim among people the pilgrimage; they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every remote path.”
Holy Qur'an (22:27)
Hajj is a form of worship, where physical and spiritual factors intertwine.   

It is, therefore, a physical form of worship in which the worshipper gives of himself physically and goes through hardships in the way of Allah, Showing his complete servitude to Allah and his independence from any power other than Him. This neat target of Hajj is the goal of any worship in Islam as a whole and it has to be for the sake of Allah uniquely. It is the absolute purpose of man's worship. Man's conscience completely awakens and man is rendered, purified and cleansed of all evil and vice, provided sincerity of intention is involved.

For this target, Hajj has been determined as one of the five Islamic pillars and the Holy Our'an regards it as Allah's right over His servants:

“…it is the duly of mankind towards Allah to make the pilgrimage to the House, whoever can afford the way there;...”

Holy Qur'an (3:97)

Hajj is a basic pillar of religion, and a backbone of faith. Traditions and texts reported from the Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his pure ancestry have all pointed  to the importance of Hajj.

It is reported that Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

"Prayer was not ordained, Hajj and Tawaf were not made incumbent on the faithful, and rites were not conveyed to man, but to remember Allah.”
And he (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said:

" Those who perform Hajj and Umrah are the guests of Allah. Allah grants them whatever what they ask Him, accepts their prayers, and compensates them for their expenditures and good deeds.”

Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq is reported to have said:

"So long as the Ka’ ba is secure, so is the religion”

And he also said:

"If one should leave off Hajj, when he is capable of performing it, with no legitimate excuse, then he has neglected an Islamic rite.”

Islam gives Hajj a primordial consideration. It even offers Islamic states the ability to send a number of Muslims to Mecca, even forcibly. The main purpose is to ensure the freshness as well as dynamism of the Islamic rites. When the pilgrims cannot attend the journey, the Islamic state is responsible for paying the traveling expenses to Mecca to allow them perform their rites.

Imam Ja'far bin Muhammad al-Sadiq is reported to have said:

"Should all the people abandon Hajj, the governor can oblige them to perform it. Should they stop performing hajj to the tomb of the Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ,the governor is authorized to order them to do so, if they are penniless, he should pay them from the treasury.”
It was reported from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq

"If anyone of you had amounts of gold as huge as Abu-Qubais (a mountain in Arabia) and spent it in the way of Allah, its reward would never be equal to the reward of Hajj (from Allah), A dirham disbursed by the hajj is worth 2000 dirhams in the way of Allah.”

He is also reported to have said:

"Hajj is the jihad (holy struggle for the sake of Allah) of the weak.”

Moreover, He said:"He who is not prevented from the Hajj by an obvious necessity, a tyrannical ruler or a disease which confines him (or her) at home and dies without having performed the Hajj, might as well die a Jew or a Christian.”

Source: go-makkah.com