THE MUSLIM HAJJ

The Hajj by numbers

"Each year, during the last month of the Islamic calendar, millions of Muslims converge
on Mecca, near the west coast of Saudi Arabia."

This week from the Life of Meaning we look at the Muslim pilgrimage of the Hajj.
That journey that all Muslims (who are healthy and can afford to) are to make at
 least once in their lifetime. Abdul Alim Mubarak, the name our guide took on his
conversion to Islam, is the one whom we witness his personal experience of the Hajj.
He describes his pilgrimage to the Kaaba, the Mina, Mt. Arafat and the after effect of
his return to the U.S. Above is a graphic of the pilgrimage by the numbers. Below are
Mubarak's comments on the journey.

Hajj is sacrifice, a personal sacrifice and it is not something to be taken lightly. 
Thus, we resign our will to the will of God

First Ihram, a spiritual state of purity, is required. Repentance, contemplation. 
Stoning the Satan.

Worship with passion, rationality and reason. Allah will reward you for it. 
You know, Allah knows best.

Those who lose their lives, Allah grants instant paradise. 
Men buried their daughters alive.

Hajj broadens humanity. Now has less patience with how little we as 
Americans know about other cultures.

Walter Morton for Terra Incognita