My Hajj Sojourn

Sohail, thanks for sharing your soul uplifting experience. It was a pleasure to read. I wish to be there one of these days, Insha`Allah.

Sohail Moghal,

Good that you made the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam.

If that would make you commit to the other four, all the more power to you! Even if not, you have at least had a wonderful experience.

#5 jayjay:

If you have the same attitude, then you can ask every writer on the chowk to stop parading their political views in public, stop telling kid stories, stop telling me about market and sports and blah blah blah. If you are not interested in this topic, no need to go through it, let others read.

This is a deep spritual article reflecting the inner emotional religious healing of the writer which may not happen to everyone but the people who search the true objectives of performing one of the pillars of islam, the state of mind of a person going to Hajj with a guilt of spended life is very different than a person reading it afterwards on the web, so it needs a liitle more than a thinking to understand the true meaning and feeling of the writer, i think is a job well done.

Sohail

Why are you so keen on parading your spirituality in public? Please keep it wrapped in your Ahraam. What is the use of step-by-step narration of these pagan tribal rituals (proudly displayed by the conquered civilizations as their religious inheritance) in today`s world.

``why did the Prophet (saw) replace those 360 idols with one large one?``(TEMPORAL)

keya patey ki baat kahee hai aapne -- do bund ghazal ke....

kul tawafe kaaba meiN poocha ye DIL se ZUHN ne
buut gaye iss ghar se buutkhana prastee ruh gaiee

one of my friends went -- came back breathless -- said two words define Hajj -- pure paganism -- said this was not the Islam he knew.... have to experience it personally ```

have you?

Sohail:

Some 54 people before me, out there in cyber-space must`ve really felt at one with this article. I am one of the unlucky ones who have been to Makkah and returned empty-handed with an empty-heart, time and again. So, can`t really say that I could relate to the feelings you described.

I agree with temporal, and did so earlier as well when ``The Bombing`` appeared on Chowk.

As for now, my parents, relatives and friends hate me for being a non-practicing muslim. Hope other people have better luck with lying to themselves in fulfilling the daily rituals. And wish that I see the light someday.

May the force be with you.

Beautiful!! Very good naration of the spiritual feelings. While reading through the article, I was wondering if at the end Sohail describe it as a dream, it would be the best description of the experience and thats just what he did! Very well done Mr. Moghul!

sohail:

...congratulations!...and may the Force and impact of the mandatory pilgrimage be with you for the rest of your life...

rgds,

t

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digressions on Haj

..why did the Prophet (saw) replace those 360 idols with one large one?…or so it seems…yes the Haj is obligatory on all sane/able bodied muslims once in their lifetime…but for what end?…why would the world-wide muslim ummah contribute even a penny to the Saudi coffers?…

…more importantly…what is Haj and its impact on our lives?…have we not lowered it to the status of a ritual?…does it leave any lasting impact on our lives?…and of those around us?…are we less corrupt, less interfering, less greedy after Haj?…what is the sense of carrying on unchanged?…

…the noble aims have been washed away by the centuries and reduced its impact…mahmud and ayaz shoulder to shoulder?…oh spare me the hurt…it is time to renew the original intent…I speculated on it once…(for new comers) here is that url…
http://63.194.130.82/cgi-bin/show_article.cgi?aid=00000730&channel=leafyglade%20inn&start=0&end=9&page=1&chapter=1