The Hajj

On the Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Inner Pilgrimage to the Essence of the Heart

Pilgramage according to religious precepts is the visitation of the Kaaba in the city of Mecca. There are certain requirements connected with this Pilgrimage: to wear the pilgrim's garb - two wrappers of seamless white cloth which represent the leaving behind of all worldly ties; to arrive in Mecca in a state of ablution; to perform seven circumambulations around the Kaaba - a sign of complete surrender; to run seven times between Safa and Marwa; to go to the plain of Arafat and stand waiting until sunset; to spend the night in muzdalifa; to make a sacrifice at Mina; to make another seven circumambulations around the Kaaba; to drink from the well of Zamzam; and to make two cycles of prayer near the place where the prophet Abraham stood near the Kaaba. When these are done, the Pilgrimage is complete and its reward granted, and if anything is lacking in this ritual its reward is cancelled. Allah Most High says: And complete the pilgrimage and the visitation for Allah. (Sura Baqara, 196) When all this is complete, many connections with the world that were unlawful during the ritual become lawful again. In one's normal state one makes a last circumambulation, and returns to daily life.

The reward of the pilgrimage is announced by Allah:

And whoever enters it is safe, and the Pilgrimage to the House is a duty that men owe to Allah, whoever can find a way to it. (Qur'an 3:96)

Whoever can perform the Pilgrimage will find safety from hellfire. That is his reward.

The inner Pilgrimage necessitates a great deal of preparation and gathering of provisions prior to undertaking the voyage. The first thing is to find a guide, a teacher, whom one loves and respects, on whom one depends and whom one obeys. It is he who will furnish the pilgrim with the provisions he needs.

Then one must prepare one's heart. To wake it up one recites the sacred phrase La ilaha illla Llah —'there is no god but Allah'— and remembers Allah in contemplating the meaning of that phrase. With this the heart awakens, becomes alive. It also remembers Allah, and keeps remembering Allah until the whole inner being is purified and cleansed of all else but Him.

After the inner purification, one must recite the Names of the attributes of Allah, which will kindle the light of Allah's beauty and grace. It is in that light that one hopes to see the Kaaba of the secret essence. Allah ordered His prophets Abraham and Ishmael to this purification in saying:

Associate not anything with Me, and purify My House for those who circumambulate it. (Qur'an 22:26)

Indeed the material Kaaba in the city of Mecca is kept clean for the pilgrims. How much cleaner should one keep the inner Kaaba upon which Truth will gaze!

After these preparations the inner pilgrim wraps himself in the light of the holy spirit, transforming his material shape into the inner essence, and circumambulates the Kaaba of the heart, inwardly reciting the second divine Name—Allah, the proper name of God. He moves in circles because the path of the essence is not straight but circular. Its end is its beginning.

Then he goes to the 'Arafat of the heart, that inner place of supplication, that place where one hopes to know the secret of 'There is no god but He, Who is One and Who has no partners'. There he stands reciting the third Name, Hu—not alone, but with Him, for Allah says:

And He is with you wherever you are. (Qur'an 57:4)

Then he recites the fourth Name—Haqq, the Truth, the name of the light of Allah's Essence—and then the fifth Name, Hayy—the divine life, eternal, from which all temporal life derives. Then he joins the divine Name of the Ever living with the sixth Name—Qayyum, the Self-existing One upon whom all existence depends. This brings him to the Muzdalifa (one of the stages of Hajj) of the center of the heart.

Then he is brought to the Mina (one of the stages of Hajj) of the sacred secret, the essence, where he recites the seventh Name—Qahhar, He Who overwhelms all, the All-compeller. With the power of that Name the self and selfishness are sacrificed. The veils of disbelief are blown away and the gates of the void fly open.

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