Salah Mahmoud – The objectives & secrets of Hajj
AI: Summary ©
The Muslims at the Al wonders House of Allah are performing the final pillar of their Islam, which is the holy day. They emphasize the importance of religion and achieving spiritual objectives, as well as the dangerous of asking too many questions without understanding their actions. The importance of acceptance and sub Police in achieving Islam's goals is also emphasized, along with the importance of learning from the teachings of the third pillar of Islam, including the realization of peace of peace and death.
AI: Summary ©
Allahu Akbarullahu
Akbarullahu Akbarullah
My dear brothers and sisters,
in a few hours
and a few days from now,
thousands of Muslims from all over the globe
are heading to the house of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala,
are heading to Makkah to perform
the last pillar.
Responding to the call of our father Ibrahim
alayhis salam, the father of the MBIA, Ibrahim
alayhis salam.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded him after
he finished
building Al Kaaba, the house of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala,
called people to come to the house, to
visit the house.
So Ibrahim alayhi salaam
didn't know what to do exactly. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala commanded him to stand somewhere
and call. Just say,
So Ibrahim alayhis salam
responded to the command of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala and he said that that the scholars
are seeing that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala made
every single human being on earth at that
time heard the proclaim and the call of
Raheem alayhi salaam, including the babies in their
mother's womb, Allahu Akbar.
Call Allahu subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He says, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and call people
for Hajj, they will come you from all
over the world, from everywhere.
Regel
and here doesn't mean men. Because the word
the regel in Arabic means men, right? But
here it means walking.
They will walk, they will crawl. Matter of
fact, some people until today, they walk from
Europe, from Asia, and we heard that and
we've seen that Allahu Akbar.
And
whoever been there,
subhanAllah, if you visit the house before, you
feel that there is something very special
that your heart is there, that the moment
you make tawafilwada'ah,
you want to come back. There is something.
We all felt it. SubhanAllah.
What is the secret brothers and sisters? This
is the call that Ibrahim alayhis salam made
in the beginning.
And this is the promise of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. You do your best, do your
part. And I will bring every single one
over there walking.
Brothers and sisters,
in every single act of worship in Islam,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us the secrets,
the wisdom,
the objectives.
Why are we praying?
Why are we fasting?
Why are we giving zakah? And it's very
obvious.
Why we give zakah? Why we pray? Why
we fast? The answer is easy. But subhanAllah,
one of the most controversial
pillar of Islam, I would say,
is Hajj. Why?
Because there are a lot of things that
you cannot really rationalize. You don't understand?
What do you mean? I leave everything and
go there and I make tawaf around the
Kaaba. Why the mikat? Why?
SubhanAllah.
That's why brothers and sisters, let's try to
answer this question. Very important. If you're going
for Hajj Insha'Allah,
please pay attention to this. Very important to
have this in your mind, in your heart
before going there. Otherwise you will go and
you'll come back and nothing is happening.
SubhanAllah.
Why are we making Hajj? What are the
objectives brothers and sisters? Number 1:
spiritual objectives. Always. As I talked in this
member
before doing Ramadan, I said what are the
objectives of the month of Ramadan fasting? The
very first one is the religion and and
spiritual
objective.
Of course.
Like wow. The very first thing when someone
asks you, why do you perform Hajj? When
your child comes to you with this question,
your answer should always be because it is
the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Don't try to pray with words.
Yes, we, of course, we need to, to,
you know, to make people understand.
But the very first thing and they will
respect that. You will appreciate that because
Allah commands us to go.
But
why?
It's a question. One brother yesterday, I was
having a, you know, long discussion with him.
He said, explain to me, why do we
have to shave our our hair? Why do
we have to cut our hair? What is
that? What is the reason behind that? It's
a question,
right? What is the reason behind that? I
told him brother,
you cannot rationalize
everything in Islam SubhanAllah. A big part of
Islam is submitting to the will of Allah
subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
A lot of times we worship Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala with condition.
If you tell me what is the reason
for me to do that, I will do
it. Otherwise, I will always always question that
in my heart. And this is very very
big problem.
You say, alive. I understand. Well, you've given
me this brain to think which is fine.
But there are a lot of things even
our daily lives we cannot really comprehend.
Explain to me what is love.
What is this emotion called love? What is
love?
What is hatred?
It's an emotion. Right? It's from the heart.
Explain that to me. How does it work?
What happens? What functions in your body in
order for you to reflect
and to react and to love somebody or
hate somebody? Explain that to me. But do
we believe in love and hatred? Yes, we
do.
Do we have an evidence? No, we don't.
Why when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us
go and do this and do that? We
ask and say, you Allah, unless you tell
me why I am doing this, I will
not go. This is very dangerous brothers and
sisters.
This is very dangerous.
Right? SubhanAllah, you go to a physician and
he prescribes medicine. Right? You don't really argue.
You didn't say, hey convince me that this
is going to cure me unless you are
another physician.
That makes sense then. But subhanAllah you go,
you take the prescription, take the medicine and
that's it.
Right? When Allah
already explained to you before why you pray,
why you fast, why you give Zakah and
it worked.
Right? Why when he tells you go make
tawafah on the Kaaba, you say why? Why
should I do that? Right? Which makes sense.
And a lot of our times we say,
you know, look at Buddhist, you know, what
they do, they worship Buddha or whatever. Worship
statues. Aren't we doing the same thing?
Isn't going around the Kaaba is an act
of, you know, like, idol worshipers?
Isn't it? It's not. Subhanallah, because when they
worship a statue, they actually do worship that,
but we do not worship Al Kaaba.
We don't go around the Kaaba because we
worship Al Kaaba. Subhanallah,
Omar Khattabadiallahu anhu when he talks about the
black stone
I know that you are just a stone,
that you cannot bring harm or benefit.
Had it was with the Prophet me seeing
the Prophet doing that, I would have never
done that. But we're not worshiping on Hajj
Al Aswad.
Everything
in Hajj is very symbolic.
It's very deep symbolic meaning, subhanAllah. Everything why
we're making tawaf.
There is one amazing book that I would
like to the brothers and sisters, especially if
you're going for Hajj, the book of Ahiya
Alomu, Alomu, Adi for Sheikh Ghazali,
the chapter about Hajj, he has something very
profound that says that that that talks about
the secrets of Hajj.
He's saying that when you go to Al
Mirqat and you take your clothes off and
you wear there is a ham, they represent
something,
and it means something. When you go around
Tawaf, you should have this in your heart.
Read this book, the secrets of Hajj. Hajj.
You will find this in Google. PDF for
imam Ghazali So
there are a lot of things we cannot
explain. However,
as we say, SubhanAllah
and that takes me to the second point
of the spiritual wisdoms of Al Hajj
SubhanAllah, which is what?
Thinking about death, about our final destination.
Well, I this is what came to my
mind when I went on my thoughts, and
I took the clothes of the regular clothes,
the regular duniya, And then you have your
Ihram on. What is happening? What are you
doing right now? SubhanAllah, this is the first
step. You left your home country, you left
your wife, you left your spouse, you left
your kids, you left your work and everything.
And as if you're departing the world.
You're taking everything that you love, your beautiful
outfit. You left all of that. There is
no perfume, there is nothing.
You are detaching yourself completely from the dunya.
If you want to understand the wisdom behind
Hajj, this is very much needed. When you
put
on, you remember that you when you die,
this is the same exact cloth that you're
going to be wrapped in, subhanallah. This is
the shroud brothers and sisters.
So Allah
wants you to realize and to feel and
to sense this before the death comes to
you.
Right? And then when you go, you pass
by Al Al Al Makat,
and you go and you're looking at Al
Kaaba, you're looking at the the house of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Al imamu Ghazali
says, when you see Al Kaaba, when you
see the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
remember
remember that you are very poor and you
are standing in the house in front of
the house of the Lord
of the universe, the creator. And you are
you don't know if He's going to open
it for you or not.
SubhanAllah. As if you're knocking the door of
1 of the kings. SubhanAllah.
And you're not sure if he's going to
accept you or not. Have this in your
heart while you're performing
Al Hajj or performing Al Umrah, and now
you're going to start to feel you start
feeling
what Al Umrah, what Al Hajj is all
about.
And then he says, when you go around
the Kaaba, when you go around the Kaaba,
remember that Al Baytul Mamur up there, right
in on top of the Kaaba, and the
angels, 70,000
angels every single day. They worship Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. You go around and
they leave. At the end of the day,
they never come back. Different angels, they come
back in the next day. Remember all of
these things. You're doing the same thing like
angels. SubhanAllah.
Remember this brothers and sisters that the prophet
did that. That
you are trying.
You're trying
sip 7 ashwat
7 times hoping that Allah accepts you. He
did not accept you this time. I will
try another time, another time, another time until
Allah
accepts
me. It is very small image from the
day of judgment.
SubhanAllah in the day of Arafah, when you
stand, you have millions of people are standing
over there. This is what's going to happen.
Small image of the day of judgment wearing
the same clothes.
Oh, everybody is worshiping 1 God. Everybody is
waiting, you know, for for his dua to
be accepted that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
them Jannah. Think about this. If you're going
for Hajj, when you are at the the
mount of Arafat, remember this, have this in
your heart. This is one of the secrets.
This is the message that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala wanted to teach
you. And when you go again,
same exact thing. One time, did Allah accept
me? Maybe not. Let me try one more
time. Back and forth 7 times until Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala eventually accepts you. You Allah,
I came all the way to you saying
I'm right here. I left everything. I am
so ready for death. I'm so ready to
leave this dunya. Accept me.
This is the symbolic meaning. This is the
meaning we need to understand when we perform
Hajj. When we look at people, brothers and
sisters,
of the spiritual benefits and objectives and wisdoms
of Al Hajj that
you seek the word from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
The prophet says,
in the day of Araf, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala praised his servants
in front of the angels.
They came to me. Look at my servants.
They came from everywhere.
Be my witness that I forgive the sins.
Allahu Akbar.
Allahu Akbar.
If you have not performed Hajj yet
and do you have
the means,
do so.
It's a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
If you have the means to perform Hajj
and you're still here
because Hajj does not make sense to you,
know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is not
welcoming you in his house.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
I repeat this again, if you have the
means to perform Hajj and you still did
not go because probably Hajj does not make
sense to you,
or because you're always saying later on, know
that it's not because of you do not
want to go to Hajj. It is Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says you're not welcome to
my house.
You're not welcome. You're out. Think about
it.
A lot of benefits that we can get
from Hajj,
and the first objective that we talked about
is the spiritual objectives, the taqwa of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Submission. Make
tawaf, we'll make tawaf. Ramiel Jamarat. Ramiel Jamarat.
We do all of these things, subhanAllah, without
even asking.
Without even asking.
You cannot rationalize everything in the religion. This
is part of the deen brothers and sisters.
You cannot rationalize everything in your dunya even,
as we talked about love and the hatred,
all of these emotions and feelings,
right? That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said
in the
beginning.
Those who believe in the unseen.
It's part of part of the deal, part
of the package. You believe in things that
I would explain to you, but then when
I tell you something you don't understand, don't
say, wait a minute. I need to understand
first.
That doesn't make sense. You contradict yourself. Take
the whole package,
the seen and the unseen, and their word
is going to be from
Allah.
Some of the objectives of Al Hajj, number
1, spiritual object objectives.
Submitting to the will of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, seeking their word from Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Remind yourself of the hereafter and of
death as well.
The second objective that we talk we can
talk about here,
second objective of Hajj
is social objective.
When he goes over there,
you see the unity of Muslims. SubhanAllah.
Couple million people,
2,000,000,
3,000,000, sometimes more,
they're standing together
wearing the same cloth,
facing the same qiblah,
worshiping the same lord,
doing the same thing. Have you ever seen
a Muslim over there saying, hey. You guys
go today for Arafat. I will I will
catch you tomorrow.
That's not possible.
That's not possible.
We all won.
The unity.
That's the beauty of this religion.
One of the, you know, the the most
beautiful thing in this religion is that we
are all united. Look at this blessed.
Look at this blessed because of our unity,
we're we're strong.
I mean, the Muslim community despite all, you
know, some negatives here and there, but we're
very strong. That's why we have a masjid
like this and it's growing and our communities
are growing because we're 1. And Hajj teach
that this
come all together
from everywhere. It does not matter. It takes
me to the second point, equality in Islam
There is no difference in Arab or non
haruk. There is no difference in black or
white,
or white over black.
Men or women, there is no difference. Everybody
is the same. I know the question that
you have in your mind right now. What
do you mean about equality? Some people, they
have 2 stars Hajj package.
Some people have 0 stars Hajj package and
some people have 7 stars Hajj package. So
where is equality in here?
Right? Some people,
they are right. Their tent is right by
Arafah.
The air conditioner and and everything. It's like
you cannot even get this kind of service
in the United States sometimes. Right? And some
people they are in the back.
And to answer this question, subhanAllah,
this has been always the case, it's not
going to change. At the time of the
prophet some people make Hajj, you know, while
riding camels, some people were walking.
These differences are always going to be there
but the act of worship itself, if you
are rich, does it mean that you're not
going to stand in Arafat?
No. You will stand in Arafat.
You will mix. If you are rich, are
you not going to go around the Kaaba
7 times or every 5 times because you
are privileged?
Right? So this is why we talk about
equality.
This is why we talk about equality. Everybody
is the same. That's why Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam when he stood, when he gave the
Khubbatul Wada,
he said,
The prophet declared that. Disclaimer. He said there
is no superiority for an Arab over non
Arab or a white over black or a
black over white except with what?
Taqwa,
the piety.
If you're a person who worships Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, who is aware of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, this is what makes the difference.
Not how much you have in your bank
account. This is Islam and this is what
I learned from Khaji Ikhwani.
Malcolm X,
very
very famous figure, of course, that we all
know him.
He performed Hajj,
and while he was there,
he wrote a letter
that I you know, I quoted some going
to quote some from him.
Let's hear what Matlou Ek said when he
was in Hajj, subhanAllah. He wrote this about
a Hajj.
He said,
during the past 11 days here in the
Muslim world,
I have eaten from the same plate,
drunk from the same glass, and slept in
the same bed or in the same rug
while praying to the same God with fellow
Muslims whose eyes were the bluest of blue,
whose hair was the blondest of blonde,
and whose skin was the whitest of white.
SubhanAllah.
And in the words and the actions and
the deeds of a white Muslim, I felt
the same sincerity
that I felt among the black African Muslims
of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.
We were truly all the same brothers because
their belief in one God,
because of their belief in one God had
removed the white from their minds, the white
from their behavior, and the white from their
attitude.
This is his message, Ahwani. This is what
he learned from Al Hajj. Didn't I tell
you that we have a lot of things
to learn from Al Hajj, but we're not
aware of that. SubhanAllah, we only focus is
like why would we are on the Kaaba?
Why 7 times? Why not 9 times? Why
Allah created
7 heavens and 7 layers? Why? Why number
7? Allahu Alam. It's not important. You're either
7 or or a 10. The most important
thing, what do you learn from this journey?
What do you learn from this? Brothers and
sisters, learn
the secrets and the objectives of a Hajj.
If you want to perform
good Hajj and if you actually want to
benefit from, from Al Hajj from the, 5th
pillar of Islam.
Some of the objectives that we learn from
Hajj as well,
a psychological
objective as well. Things psychologically speaking we can
learn.
Look how hard the journey is.
Right? You stay away from all norms. Your
clothes, your car, your everything. And you're just
going,
you know, walking amongst 1,000,000 of people around
you.
It's
hot. However you train
yourself, you train yourself and you have more
patience right now because you have a higher
goal,
higher aim, which is what? The pleasure of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
SubhanAllah,
look at the amount of patience that you
need to be there. People are coming from
different backgrounds.
They have different mentalities.
Right? And people some people pushing each other,
and you need to deal with them. So
what do you learn here? You're training yourself
that sometimes
I can bear hardships. Yes. Because I have
higher goal. As you said,
of the objectives of Hajji Ikhwani,
some very important objective as well as the
historical.
Historical. When you go there
after reading about the Seerah and all the
Seerah classes
and then subhanAllah,
you go there and you witness
and you you hear a lecture again on
the on the mount of Uhud Uhud and
the
and all of these things when you say
them firsthand,
SubhanAllah, you feel you feel more connected to
the sinner of Rasulullah SAW. How did you
feel for whoever went before? What was the
feeling when you were driving from Madinah to
Makkah? Remember or Makkah to Madinah remembering that
the prophet
walked from the same exact road.
Right? Look at the hardships, look at all
of these things SubhanAllah.
Allah
bless me.
Let's bring a break to go with our,
younger sister. Some
of them I see their faces here.
And, you know, from the way from Madinah
to Mecca, it was really hard to be
very honest. You know, for young American kids,
that's not easy to tolerate this, you know.
It's nighttime, you know. We didn't have enough
food at that time and all of these
things, desert, you know, mountains.
And subhanallah, this is what came to my
mind. I stood up and I held the
mic and I told them, listen, subhanallah,
remember the prophet
when he was running away escaping from Mecca
to Medina,
right, with Abu Bakr.
Remember what the prophet
was the most wanted man at that time.
Remember this. Have this in your mind. When
they were chasing him that Abu Bakr says,
If they look under their feet, they will
see us inside the cave.
How about 2 people that Allah will be
the 3rd?
So remember all of these things when you
go there, if you're not there,
where and how you're going to learn them?
Listen to lectures not enough, but when you
go and experience this
look at the imanwala that's going to have
to be in your heart, come to your
heart.
In the previous few minutes, we're talking about
some of the objectives of Al Hajj.
We said there are some spiritual objectives and
benefits
like submitting to the will of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
To attain the taka'ah of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. To seek the reward and the forgiveness
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
To get ready for death and the hereafter.
We also said that the day of judgment,
the Hajj is a small image of the
day of judgment.
The second objective of Al Hajj, the social
objective, is strengthening
the unity of Muslims.
They are wearing the same clothes, same color,
praying to the same Lord, doing the same
rituals,
right? Equality.
There is no difference between Arabs over the
Arabs or anybody. Everybody the same out there.
And then the 3rd objective is the historical
objective
where you can actually connect when you go
there and see these things firsthand.
You can connect and you know what the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam has been through
and the companions of Rasulullah alaihi wa sallam.
I'll repeat this again for the last time.
If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give you the
means to perform Hajj,
do not postpone that
because that doesn't mean that you're you don't
wanna go because you don't wanna go because
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is not welcoming welcoming you in your house
in his house.
SubhanAllah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us understanding
in Tawfiq. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
us understanding in Tawfiq. May
Fill up the gaps in your lines.